X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1500" "Fri" "13" "November" "1998" "12:38:49" "+0100" "Hans Aberg" "haberg@MATEMATIK.SU.SE" nil "25" "Re: What is \"base\" LaTeX" "^Date:" nil nil "11" nil "What is \"base\" LaTeX" nil nil nil] nil) Received: from listserv.gmd.de (listserv.gmd.de [192.88.97.1]) by mail.Uni-Mainz.DE (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA18055; Fri, 13 Nov 1998 12:41:48 +0100 (MET) Received: from lsv1.listserv.gmd.de (192.88.97.2) by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <15.70D87CDA@listserv.gmd.de>; Fri, 13 Nov 1998 12:41:47 +0100 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 408517 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Fri, 13 Nov 1998 12:41:42 +0100 Received: from mail0.nada.kth.se (mail0.nada.kth.se [130.237.222.70]) by relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA15770 for ; Fri, 13 Nov 1998 12:41:40 +0100 (MET) Received: from [130.237.37.135] (sl109.modempool.kth.se [130.237.37.135]) by mail0.nada.kth.se (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id MAA24536 for ; Fri, 13 Nov 1998 12:40:46 +0100 (MET) X-Sender: su95-hab@mail.nada.kth.se References: (message from Robin Fairbairns on Fri, 13 Nov 1998 09:07:47 +0000) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-ID: Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project In-Reply-To: <199811131002.KAA27264@nag.co.uk> Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 12:38:49 +0100 From: Hans Aberg Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: Re: What is "base" LaTeX Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 2882 The "core" should be the core which other packages are designed around. The "supported" features are those that are guaranteed to work with the current (latest) version. The "contrib" is then becomes the other packages. One may discuss ways to let the user to know that a package is up to date: Apart from indicating which LaTeX version the package was developed for, one could indicate which version is verified working with. For example, if the package was developed for the LaTeX version with date X, it may work for an earlier LaTeX package of date Y, and when the new LaTeX version of date Z arrives, the package may be verified by the package writer that it works. Then the package could be updated to have all the variables X, Y, Z. If the date Z does not change anymore, it can be a sign of that the package is not updated anymore. The idea above is loosely based on my experience with MacOS software over one and a half decade: The software tells which OS version it was developed for. It may then still work with older OS's, but one could not count on it. So sometimes, the developer have checked this, indicating "requires OS version or later". However, some software is not updated anymore. One can get an indication of it when the developing date becomes to old. Hans Aberg * Email: Hans Aberg * Home Page: * AMS member listing: