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Message-ID:  <4D738FA8.8050509@morningstar2.co.uk>
Date:         Sun, 6 Mar 2011 13:44:08 +0000
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From: Joseph Wright <joseph.wright@MORNINGSTAR2.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: format?
To: LATEX-L@listserv.uni-heidelberg.de
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Status: R

On 06/03/2011 13:35, Arno Trautmann wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I guess this question is raised from time to time – now I am asking ;)
> As far as I understand, there is still no own LaTeX3 format because the
> code just is not ready. But expl3 is more or less stable and some
> important packages (e.g. fontspec) make heavy use of it causing many
> people to load expl3 at the beginning of their document. As this is
> somewhat time-consuming, Philipp Stephani suggested about a month ago on
> the lualatex-dev list the introduction of a "LaTeX 2.2" format with
> expl3 and xpackages (and fontspec) preloaded.
> 
> So what is the "official" meaning of the LaTeX3 team? Are there any
> plans for a test format? Or is it not intended/possible/ ?
> Such a format could be a very good test for stability and useability,
> would show progress to the users and could be distributed via TLcontrib
> so the normal user would not be confused by this, but the experienced
> user could easily test and try LaTeX3.

Hello Arno,

LaTeX3 as a 'native' format will not be LaTeX2e + packages, but will be
rather different. It is possible to build a native format without any
LaTeX2e code loaded, but it's rather limited at present! Basically, with
some hacks you can at least typeset something, but it's not really usable.

On the other hand, it certainly is possible to build the LaTeX2e kernel
with expl3, etc., built in. The question is 'why?'. At this stage, I
don't see much gain over simply loading the package-mode material.
-- 
Joseph Wright