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Date:         Sun, 17 Mar 2013 11:28:22 +0000
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From: Joseph Wright <joseph.wright@MORNINGSTAR2.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: Prefix database
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Status: R

On 16/03/2013 12:13, dongen wrote:
> There may be a better way.
> 
> Why don't the latex3 team provide a kernel method that people can use to
> register their prefixes? The idea is that this method takes the prefixes
> as input and writes them to some auxiliary file. When a package is uploaded
> to CTAN, all the CTAN team have to do is use the package once and add the
> output of the auxiliary file to the prefix database.

I've thought about something similar, but as Frank outlines there is
then the question of collecting up the data. In my mind, I'd wondered
about an extension of \ProvidesPackage or something akin

  \RegisterModule{foo}
    [
      author = A. N. Other,
      prefix = foo,
      ...
    ]

At the moment, I'm simply aiming to make a start on the concept of
'managing the namespace'. That's done in other languages: the Perl
people have a lot of advice on that for picking names, for example. (One
thing we have that's different from say Perl is that CTAN is run by a
very small team and isn't set up to take an 'enforcement' line, whereas
CPAN does seem to have an element of that.)

The idea of a simple database is that we can start now and then look to
improve things. At least at the moment, adding things is manageable for me.
-- 
Joseph Wright