trunk/doc/ltnews12.tex

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  29 % Filename: ltnews12.tex
  30 %
  31 % This is issue 12 of LaTeX News.
  32
  33 \documentclass
  34 %    [lw35fonts]     % uncomment this line to get Times
  35    {ltnews}[1999/12/01]
  36
  37 % \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  38
  39 \publicationmonth{December}
  40 \publicationyear{1999}
  41 \publicationissue{12}
  42
  43 % Should go to .cls:
  44 \newcommand{\acro}[1]{\textsc{\MakeLowercase{#1}}}
  45
  46 \begin{document}
  47
  48 \maketitle
  49
  50 \section{LPPL update}
  51
  52 Since the release of the \LaTeX{} Project Public Licence version~1.1,
  53 we have received a small number of queries which resulted in some
  54 minor changes to improve the wording or explain the intentions better.
  55 As a consequence this release now contains LPPL~1.2 in the file
  56 \file{lppl.txt} and the previous versions as \file{lppl-1-0.txt} and
  57 \file{lppl-1-1.txt}.
  58
  59 \section{fixltx2e package}
  60
  61     This package provides fixes to \LaTeXe{} which are desirable but
  62     cannot be integrated into the \LaTeXe{} kernel directly as they
  63     would produce a version incompatible to earlier releases (either
  64     in formatting or functionality).
  65
  66     By having these fixes in the form of a package, users can benefit
  67     from them without the danger that their documents will fail, or
  68     produce unexpected results, at other sites; this works because a
  69     document will contain a clear indication (the \verb=\usepackage=
  70     line, preferably with a required date) that at least some of these
  71     fixes are required to format it.
  72
  73 \section{Outcome of TUG '99 (Vancouver)}
  74
  75 The slides from the \acro{TUG}'99 presentation we gave on \emph{a
  76 new interface for \LaTeX\ class designers} are available from the
  77 \LaTeX\ Project website; look for the file \verb|tug99.pdf| at:
  78 \begin{quote}
  79    \url{http://www.latex-project.org/talks/}
  80 \end{quote}
  81
  82 Please note that this document was intended only to be informal
  83 ``speaker's notes'' for our own use. We decided to make them available (the
  84 speaker's notes as well as the slides that were presented) because several
  85 people requested copies after the talk. However, they are \emph{not} in
  86 a polished copy-edited form and are not intended for publication.
  87
  88 Prototype implementations of parts of this interface are now available from:
  89 \begin{quote}
  90    \url{http://www.latex-project.org/code/experimental/}
  91 \end{quote}
  92
  93 We are continuing to add new material at this location so as to
  94 stimulate further discussion of the underlying concepts. As of
  95 December 1, 1999
  96 the following parts can be downloaded.
  97 \begin{description}
  98
  99  \item[xparse] Prototype implementation of the interface for declaring
 100   document command syntax. See the \texttt{.dtx} files for
 101   documentation.
 102
 103  \item[template] Prototype implementation of the template interface
 104   (needs parts of \texttt{xparse}).
 105
 106   The file \texttt{template.dtx} in that directory has a large section
 107   of documentation at the front describing the commands in the
 108   interface and giving a `worked example' building up some templates
 109   for caption formatting.
 110
 111  \item[xcontents] Interface description for table of contents data (no
 112   code yet).  Coding examples have been thoroughly discussed on the
 113   \texttt{latex-l} list.
 114
 115  \item[xfootnote] Working examples for generating footnotes,
 116   etc. Needs \texttt{xparse} and \texttt{template}.
 117
 118  \end{description}
 119 All examples are organised in subdirectories and additionally
 120  available as \texttt{gzip} \texttt{tar} files.
 121
 122  Please remember
 123 that this material is intended only for experimentation and comments;
 124 thus any aspect of it, e.g., the user interface or the functionality,
 125 may change and, in fact, is very likely to change.
 126 For this reason it is explicitly forbidden to place this material on
 127 \acro{CD-ROM} distributions or public servers.
 128
 129 These concepts, as well as their implementation, are under discussion
 130 on the list \texttt{LATEX-L}. You can join this list, which is
 131 intended solely for discussing ideas and concepts for future versions
 132 of \LaTeX, by sending mail to
 133 %\begin{quote}
 134   \email{listserv@URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE}
 135 %\end{quote}
 136 containing the line
 137   \begin{quote}
 138     \texttt{SUBSCRIBE LATEX-L} \textit{Your Name}
 139   \end{quote}
 140
 141 This list is archived and, after subscription, you can retrieve older
 142 posts to it by sending mail to the above address, containing a command
 143 such as:
 144 \begin{quote}
 145 \texttt{GET LATEX-L LOGyymm}
 146 \end{quote}
 147 where \texttt{yy}=Year and \texttt{mm}=Month, e.g.
 148 \begin{quote}
 149 \texttt{GET LATEX-L LOG9910}
 150 \end{quote}
 151 for all messages sent in October 1999.
 152
 153
 154 \end{document}