trunk/doc/ltnews11.tex

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  29 % Filename: ltnews11.tex 01/06/1999
  30 % This is issue 11 of LaTeX News.
  31
  32 \documentclass
  33 %    [lw35fonts]     % uncomment this line to get Times
  34    {ltnews}
  35
  36 % \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  37
  38 \publicationmonth{June}
  39 \publicationyear{1999}
  40 \publicationissue{11}
  41
  42 \begin{document}
  43
  44 \maketitle
  45
  46 \section{Back in sync}
  47
  48 The last release of \LaTeX{} was delayed even longer than you have
  49 come to expect.  We hope that it proved worth waiting for.  It
  50 required a major integration of the code from several people and,
  51 independently, the introduction of the LPPL (see \LaTeX{} News~10) plus
  52 several related changes to our internal systems.  It therefore seemed
  53 sensible to wait until everything was complete rather than do things
  54 in too much hurry.
  55
  56 This seem to have been a successful strategy as
  57 the recent patch release was related to an isolated change that was
  58 done many months previously.  If this release does not appear a lot
  59 closer to its nominal date then \ldots~well, you will not be reading
  60 this sentence!
  61
  62 \section{Yearly release cycles}
  63
  64 With the year 2000 rapidly approaching, we intend to switch to a
  65 release frequency of just one per year (with patches if necessary) for
  66 the core of \LaTeXe{}. These days the system is sufficiently stable
  67 that the original update policy is costing everybody more time than is
  68 now warranted.
  69
  70 \section{LPPL update}
  71
  72 Thanks to extensive and valuable input from Matt Swift
  73 (\email{swift@alum.mit.edu}) we now have a clearer and more detailed
  74 form of the \LaTeX{} Project Public Licence.  This release contains
  75 both the original version (in \file{lppl-1-0.txt}) and the updated
  76 version, LPPL~1.1.
  77
  78 \section{The future of Sli\TeX{}}
  79
  80 We still get a very small trickle of reports about this part of the
  81 system (if you are no longer able to recall \LaTeX~2.09 then you will
  82 know it as the \class{slides} class).  We have not classified them (in
  83 our minds at least) as bugs since we have always known that there are
  84 many problems with this class.  It is clear to us that the only
  85 sensible action would be to redesign the system completely; in
  86 particular, to remove much of its complexity whose purpose is to
  87 support 10-year-old overlay technology.  However, this would take a
  88 lot too much time and would be completely out of proportion to its
  89 current usage.
  90
  91 We are therefore planning to make the \class{slides} class
  92 unsupported in the sense that any problem related to the use of
  93 invisible fonts is considered to be a feature (The \LaTeXe{} manual by
  94 Leslie Lamport doesn't even describe this part of the class any more).
  95 Of course, if it still has its enthusiasts then we are happy to cede
  96 it to their loving care (somewhat like a preserved steam locomotive,
  97 in some parts of the world).
  98
  99 \section{Fontenc package peculiarities}
 100
 101 The \verb=\usepackage= interface normally ensures that a package is
 102 loaded only once.  The \pkg{fontenc} package has become an
 103 exception to this rule: it can be loaded several times using different
 104 options, e.g., allowing the user to add a font encoding in the
 105 preamble. This comes at a price for package writers: the low-level
 106 commands (see \file{ltclass.dtx}) used to check if a package was
 107 loaded, and with which options, do not work for the \pkg{fontenc}
 108 package.
 109
 110 \section{New math font encodings}
 111
 112 As we announced in \LaTeX{} News~9, a joint working group of the
 113 \TeX{} Users Group and the \LaTeX3 Project has developed a new
 114 \mbox{8-bit} math font encoding for \TeX{}.
 115 The reason why this work is not yet released is because of other
 116 exciting developments in the world of math fonts and math characters.
 117 It is obviously wise to ensure that the encoding work is fully
 118 integrated with the available fonts.
 119
 120 Those interested are reminded that further information about the Math
 121 Font Group may be found on the World Wide Web at:\\
 122 \url{http://www.tug.org/twg/mfg/}.
 123
 124 \section{Tools distribution}
 125
 126 The \pkg{multicol} package has now got a small but useful extension
 127 which allows you to force a column break where this is really
 128 necessary.  This is done with the command \verb=\columnbreak=, which
 129 can be used like \verb=\pagebreak= (e.g.,~within paragraphs) except
 130 that it cannot have an optional argument and thus it always forces a
 131 new column.
 132
 133 \section{Coming soon}
 134
 135 Major work on a new class file structure to support flexible
 136 designs is well under way; some of this work will be presented at the
 137 TUG'99 conference in Vancouver, Canada.  With a bit of luck much of
 138 this work could be ready for integration into the next release---so
 139 watch this space!
 140
 141 \end{document}