Major changes in LaTeX2e/LaTeX3 kernel

Question

Just out of curiosity.

If it would be possible to summarize the major changes/improvements in LaTeX2e/LaTeX3 kernel during the last decade, which they would be?

New hook system, introduction of \expanded should be on the list. — Steven B. Segletes, Jun 23 '21 at 09:40
That's what LaTeX News is for: I'm not sure we can reasonably summarise 10 years of material in a post here — Joseph Wright, Jun 23 '21 at 09:41
More specifically, the combined PDF at https://www.latex-project.org/news/latex2e-news/ltnews.pdf covers everything since 2e was released — Joseph Wright, Jun 23 '21 at 09:42
@JosephWright thanks for the link. It covers my needs/curiocity — Yorgos, Jun 23 '21 at 09:53
@StevenB.Segletes but \expanded wasn't a latex addtion (or at least Joseph wasn't wearing a LaTeX hat at the time) — David Carlisle, Jun 23 '21 at 09:55
@DavidCarlisle OK, but TeX improvements spill over into LaTeX. — Steven B. Segletes, Jun 23 '21 at 10:06
Where can one find documentation about \expanded? (I know, I know, don't read docs... ;-) — Rmano, Jun 23 '21 at 10:11

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 23 '21 at 10:14

10

There is too much over the past decade to summarise reasonably in a post here. However, the LaTeX Team provide a combined news post that includes all of the major changes in LaTeX2e since it's release.

answered Jun 23 '21 at 10:14

Joseph Wright

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score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 09 '21 at 19:26

As Joseph said the collection of LaTeX Newsletters in ltnews.pdf gives a fairly detailed picture of the work that went into LaTeX2e since its original release in 1994. However, it doesn't really say what the highlights are.

My personal and biased selection is given in two talks which got taped:

2008 TUG Conference: Windows of Opportunities: A personal history of two decades of LaTeX development
2020 TUG Conference: Quo Vadis LaTeX(3) — A look at the upcoming years

The first is a review at a time I was thinking to step down from work on LaTeX and was summarizing what I think we achieved and what not.

The second starts with a brief summary of all of the LaTeX Project Teams work and gives the high points of what was done in the last decade (first 15 minutes or so, with a few nice pictures :-) and afterwards focuses on the even more exciting stuff we are now working on, of which the mentioned hook system is just a first result. There is also a brief TUGboat article sumarizing the talk but with a less information on the history.

Major changes in LaTeX2e/LaTeX3 kernel

2 Answers2