trunk/doc/ltnews17.tex

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  29 % Filename: ltnews17.tex
  30 %
  31 % This is issue 17 of LaTeX News.
  32
  33 \documentclass
  34 %    [lw35fonts]    % uncomment this line to get Palatino
  35      {ltnews}[2004/02/28]
  36
  37 % \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  38
  39
  40 \publicationmonth{December}
  41 \publicationyear{2005}
  42 \publicationissue{17}
  43
  44 \begin{document}
  45
  46 \maketitle
  47
  48 % \raisefirstsection
  49
  50 \section{Project licence news}
  51
  52 The \LaTeX{} Project Public License has been updated slightly so that
  53 it is now version 1.3c.  In the warranty section the
  54 phrase ``unless required by applicable law'' has been reinstated,
  55 having got lost at some point.  Also,
  56 it now contains three clarifications: of the difference between
  57 ``maintained'' and ``author-maintained''; of the
  58 term ``Base Interpreter''; and when clause 6b and 6d shall not apply.
  59
  60 Following requests, we now also provide the text of the licence as a
  61 \LaTeX{} document (in the file \texttt{lppl.tex}). This file can be
  62 processed either as a stand-alone document or it can be included
  63 (without any modification) into another \LaTeX{} document, e.g., as an
  64 appendix, using \verb|\input| or \verb|\include|.
  65
  66
  67 \section{New guide on font encodings}
  68
  69 Way back in 1995 work was started on a guide to document the
  70 officially allocated \LaTeX{} font encoding names. However, for one
  71 reason or another this guide (named \textit{\LaTeX{} font encodings})
  72 was, until now, not added to the distribution.  It describes the major
  73 7-bit and 8-bit font encodings used in the \LaTeX{} world and explains
  74 the restrictions required of conforming text font encodings.  It also
  75 lists all the `encoding specific commands' (the LICR or \LaTeX{}
  76 Internal Character Representation) for characters supported by the
  77 encodings \texttt{OT1} and \texttt{T1}.
  78
  79 When the file \texttt{encguide.tex} is processed by \LaTeX{}, it will
  80 attempt to typeset an encoding table for each encoding it describes.
  81 For this to be possible, \LaTeX{} must be able to find \texttt{.tfm}
  82 files for a representative example font for each encoding.  If
  83 \LaTeX{} cannot find such a file then a warning is issued and the
  84 corresponding table is omitted.
  85
  86
  87 \section{Robust commands in math}
  88
  89 The font changing commands in text-mode have been robust commands for years,
  90 but the same has not been true for the math versions such as
  91 \verb|\mathbf|.  While the math-mode commands worked correctly in
  92 section heads, they could cause problems in other places such as index
  93 entries.  With this release, these math-mode commands are now robust in
  94 the same way as their text-mode counterparts.
  95
  96 %%
  97 \pagebreak
  98 %%
  99
 100
 101 \section{Updates of required packages}
 102
 103 Several of the packages in the \package{tools} bundle have been updated
 104 for this release.
 105
 106 The \package{xspace} package has some new features.  One is an
 107 interface for adding and removing the exceptions it knows about and
 108 another is that it works with active characters. These remove problems
 109 of incompatibility with the \package{babel} system.
 110
 111 In \textit{\LaTeX\ News~16} we announced that some packages might
 112 begin to take advantage of \eTeX{} extensions on systems where these
 113 are available: and the latest version of \package{xspace} does just
 114 that.  Note also that \package{fixltx2e} will make use of the
 115 facilities in \eTeX{} whenever these are present (see below).
 116
 117 The \package{calc} package has also been given an update with a few
 118 extra commands.
 119 The commands \verb|\maxof| and \verb|\minof|, each with two
 120 brace-delimited arguments, provide the usual numeric $\max$ and $\min$
 121 operations. The commands \verb|\settototalheight| and
 122 \verb|\totalheightof| work like \verb|\settoheight| and
 123 \verb|\heightof|.  There are also some internal improvements to make
 124 \package{calc} work with some more primitive \TeX\ constructs, such as
 125 \verb|\ifcase|.
 126
 127 The \package{varioref} package has acquired a few more default
 128 strings but there are still a number of languages for
 129 which good strings are still missing.
 130
 131 The \package{showkeys} package has also been updated slightly to work
 132 with more recent developments in \package{varioref}. Also, it now
 133 provides an easy way to define the look of the printed labels with
 134 the command \verb|\showkeyslabelformat|.
 135
 136 \section{Work on \LaTeX{} fixes}
 137
 138 The package known as \package{fixltx2e} has three new additions. A new
 139 command \verb|\textsubscript| has been added as a complement to the
 140 command \verb|\textsuperscript| in the kernel.  Secondly, a new form of
 141 \verb|\DeclareMathSizes| that allows all of its arguments to have a
 142 dimension suffix.  This means you can now use expressions such as
 143 \verb|\DeclareMathSizes{9.5dd}{9.5dd}{7.4dd}{6.6dd}|.
 144
 145 The third new
 146 addition is the robust command \verb|\TextOrMath| which takes two
 147 arguments and executes one of them when typesetting in text or math
 148 mode respectively. This command also takes advantage of \eTeX{}
 149 extensions if available; more specifically,
 150 %%
 151 %%\pagebreak
 152 %%
 153 when the \eTeX{} extensions are available, it does not
 154 destroy kerning between previous letters and the text to be typeset.
 155 The command is also used
 156 internally in \package{fixltx2e} to resolve a problem with
 157 \verb|\fnsymbol|.
 158
 159 Also, further work has been done on reimplementing
 160 the command \verb|\addpenalty|, which is used internally in several
 161 places: we hope it is an improvement!
 162
 163 \section{The graphics bundle}
 164
 165 The \package{graphics} bundle now supports the
 166 \package{dvipdfmx} post-processor and Jonathan Kew's XE\TeX\
 167 program. By support we mean that the graphics packages recognize the
 168 new options \texttt{xetex} and \texttt{dvipdfmx} but we do not
 169 distribute the respective driver files.
 170
 171 This leads elegantly to a description of the
 172 new policy concerning such driver files in the \package{graphics} bundle.
 173 Most driver files for our graphics packages are maintained by the
 174 developers of the associated post-processor or \TeX\ programs.
 175 The teams developing these packages are working very hard: their rapid
 176 development offers a stark contrast to the current schedule of \LaTeX\
 177 releases.  It is therefore no longer practical
 178 for the \LaTeX\ Team to be responsible for distributing the
 179 latest versions of these driver files.
 180
 181 Therefore the installation files for \package{graphics} have been
 182 split: there is now \file{graphics.ins} to install the package files and
 183 \file{graphics-drivers.ins} for the driver files (located in
 184 \file{drivers.dtx}).
 185 There is no need
 186 to install all those provided in the file \file{drivers.dtx}.
 187
 188 Please also note that, as requested by the maintainers of
 189 \package{PStricks}, we have removed the package \package{pstcol} as
 190 current versions of \package{PSTricks} make it obsolete.
 191
 192 %%
 193 \newpage
 194 %%
 195
 196
 197 \section{Future development}
 198
 199 The title of this section is a little misleading as it actually
 200 describes \emph{current} development. In 1998 the \package{expl3}
 201 bundle of packages was put on \ctan\ to demonstrate a possible \LaTeX3
 202 programming environment. These packages have been lying dormant for some
 203 time while the \LaTeX\ Project Team were preoccupied by other things
 204 such as developing the experimental packages \package{xor},
 205 \package{template}, etc., (and also writing that indispensable
 206 and encyclopaedic volume,\\
 207 The \LaTeX{} Companion -- 2nd edition).
 208
 209 In October 2004 work on this code base was resumed with the goal of
 210 some day turning it into a kernel for \LaTeX3.  This work can now
 211 also make full use of the widely accepted \eTeX\ extensions. Currently
 212 two areas are central to this work.
 213
 214 \begin{itemize}
 215 \item Extending the
 216   kernel code of \LaTeX3.
 217 \item Converting the experimental packages
 218   such as \package{xor}, \package{template} to use the new
 219   syntax internally.
 220 \end{itemize}
 221
 222 Beware! Development of
 223 \package{expl3} is happening so fast that the descriptions above might
 224 be out of date when you read this! If you wish to see what's going on
 225 then go to
 226 \url{http://www.latex-project.org/code.html} where you can download
 227  fully working code (we hope!).
 228
 229 \end{document}
 230