CTAN update: expl3

[CTAN Announcements]

the daemon cryeth:

> ======================================================================
> 
> The following information was provided by the package's contributor.
> 
> Name of contribution: expl3
> Author's name: The LaTeX Project
> Author's email: latex-team at latex-project.org
> Location on CTAN: /macros/latex/contrib/expl3/
> Summary description: Low-level LaTeX3 programming conventions
> License type: lppl
> 
> Announcement text given by the package's contributor:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> This release (SVN 2047)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> This release addresses a number of specific issues with the 
> expl3 system. Some of these are not back-compatible, but are
> needed to improve the overall structure and reliability of 
> expl3.
> 
> When used with LuaTeX, expl3 includes support for category 
> code tables. This support was used experimentally in setting
> \ExplSyntaxOn and \ExplSyntaxOff, but this leads to unexpected
> issues. This decision has therefore been reversed: category
> code setting by expl3 itself is the same with all engines.
> 
> The choice of quarks as delimiters has been tidied up. These 
> changes are internal, but may show up with existing code that 
> uses internal functions. A particular case is \tl_head:w and 
> \tl_tail:w, which are now delimited by \q_stop (and not 
> \q_nil as earlier).
> 
> Prompted by the LuaTeX-specific issue mentioned above, the
> team has revised the use of other primitives inside expl3.
> Variation in behaviour between different engines is not
> desirable for the successful application of expl3. As a result,
> the team have decided to require the functionality of the 
> \pdfstrcmp primitive. This means that the minimum engine
> requirements for expl3 are now:
>  - pdfTeX 1.30 or later
>  - XeTeX 0.9994 or later
>  - LuaTeX 0.40 or later (0.60 or later strongly recommended)
>  
> The \tl_if_eq:nn(TF) family of comparisons have been heavily 
> revised. There are now two distinct families:
>  - \tl_if_eq:nn(TF), a set of non-expandable functions which
>    compare the two input token lists on a token basis.
> - \str_if_eq:nn(TF), a set of expandable functions which
>   compare the two inputs on string (category-code independent)
>   basis.
> Variants of these functions have also been revised: programmers
> will need to check their code with the new implementation.
> 
> Looking ahead, there may be more revisions of specific points
> as the code is more widely used as as particular issues are
> addressed. An effort to formalise the documentation will begin
> shortly, and so another update is likely to take place before
> November.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

thanks for the upload; i have installed the replacement files, and
updated the catalogue repository.

> Users may view the package catalogue entry at
>   http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/expl3.html
> or they may browse the package directory at
>   http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/expl3/

the catalogue entry on the web will change a bit overnight tonight.

Robin Fairbairns

For the CTAN team