Release 2018-10-17
The l3experimental packages are a collection of experimental implementations
for aspects of the LaTeX3 kernel, dealing with higher-level ideas such as the
Designer Interface. Some of them work as stand alone packages, providing new
functionality, and can be used on top of LaTeX2e with no changes to the
existing kernel. Others go further, and redefine LaTeX2e internals to provide
better methods for managing certain constructs. The packages in the collection
are under active development and the interfaces may change.
All of the material in the collection requires the LaTeX3 base layer package
l3kernel. The two packages must be installed
in matching versions: if you update l3experimental, make sure that l3kernel is
updated at the same time.
Currently included in the CTAN release of l3experimental are the following bundles:
l3colorl3drawl3strl3sys-shellxcoffinsxgalleyxmarks
This module provides support for setting colors using a range of color models. It also allows the construction of 'color expressions', in which multiple colors are mixed together at the macro level. There is also support for spot colors: the latter is highly experimental.
This module provides a code-level interface for constructing drawings. The
interfaces are heavily inspired by the pgf layer of the widely-used
TikZ system.
A 'string' in TeX terms is a token list in which all of the tokens have
category code 12 ('other'), with the exception of spaces which have the
category code 10 ('space'). The l3str bundle consists of two parts. The
first is l3str itself. This is a collection of functions to act on strings,
including for manipulations such as UTF8 mappings in pdfTeX.
This module provides abstractions for common shell functions, e.g. file deletion and copying.
A coffin is a 'box with handles': a data structure which comprises
both a TeX box and associated information to allow controlled typesetting.
The xcoffins package provides a high-level interface for manipulating
coffins. This is supported by the lower-level l3coffins package, which
provides the data structure.
In LaTeX3 terminology a galley is a rectangular area which receives text and other material filling it from top. The vertically extend of a galley is normally not restricted: instead certain chunks are taken off the top of an already partially filled galley to form columns or similar areas on a page. This process is typically asynchronous but there are ways to control or change its behaviour. The xgalley module provides a mechanism for filling galleys and controlling the spacing, hyphenation and justification within them.
Discussion concerning the approach, suggestions for improvements, changes, additions, etc. should be addressed to the list LaTeX-L.
You can subscribe to this list by sending mail to
listserv@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
with the body containing
subscribe LATEX-L <Your-First-Name> <Your-Second-Name>
The issue tracker for LaTeX3 is currently located on GitHub.
Please report specific issues with LaTeX3 code there; more general discussion should be directed to the LaTeX-L list.
Development of LaTeX3 is carried out by The LaTeX3 Project. Currently, the team members are
- Johannes Braams
- David Carlisle
- Robin Fairbairns
- Morten Høgholm
- Bruno Le Floch
- Thomas Lotze
- Frank Mittelbach
- Will Robertson
- Chris Rowley
- Rainer Schöpf
- Joseph Wright
Former members of The LaTeX3 Project team were
- Michael Downes
- Denys Duchier
- Alan Jeffrey
- Martin Schröder
The development team can be contacted by e-mail: latex-team@latex-project.org; for general LaTeX3 discussion the LaTeX-L list should be used.
Copyright (C) 1998-2011,2015-2018 The LaTeX3 Project
http://latex-project.org/
All rights reserved.