What’s new in babel 24.1

2024-01-07

A new version numbering scheme is adopted, better suited to the rapid release cycle of babel (every few weeks). The first release in year 2024 is 24.1 (there is no zeroth release 🙂).

More ‘interchar’

There is a new key in \babelprovide for ‘interchar’ declarations, predefined in the corresponding babel-<locale.name>.tex file (as set in the ini file with the key require.babel).

There can be several ‘interchar’ labels in interchar, separated with spaces.

A new macro filters in the tex file which ones are set up, namely \IfBabelIntercharT{<list-of-interchar>}{<code>} — if any of the values in the \babelprovide are listed, then the <code> is executed.

See the following section for an example.

Spacing in French

Firstly, remember ini files are not necessarily a replacement for ldf' files. For a complete localization for French, prefer default the style by Daniel Flipo. The ini` locale is mainly intended for French as a secondary language (although it can also be used as the primary language, if you like).

A set of rules dfor proper spacing in French are now predefined when the ini locale files are loaded. The are activaded as follows. With xetex:

\babelprovide[interchar=puntuation.space, import, main]{french}

And with luatex:

\babelprovide[transforms=puntuation.space, import, main]{french}

(Incidentally, a couple of wrong names in the French locale tex files has been fixed.)

Improved Gujarati

Thanks to Kuldip Pipaliya (@kuldipem).