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% Filename: ltnews01.tex
 
% This is issue 1 of LaTeX News.
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}[1995/12/01]

\documentclass{ltnews}
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\topmargin -1.1in                   % Make Top Margin 0.5 in.
\textheight 10in                   % Bottom Margin 0.5 in..


\publicationmonth{June}
\publicationyear{1994}
\publicationissue{1}
 
\begin{document}
 
\maketitle
 
\section\-{Welcome to \LaTeXNews}
 
An issue of \emph{\LaTeXNews} will accompany every future release of 
\LaTeX.  It will tell you about important events, such as major bug 
fixes, newly available packages, or any other \LaTeX{} news.
 
\section\-{The new \LaTeXe release} 
 
The most important news is the release of \LaTeXe, the new version of
the \LaTeX{} software.  This version has better support for fonts,
graphics and colour, and will be actively maintained by the \LaTeX3
project team.  Upgrades will be issued every six months, in June and 
December.
 
\section\-{Why a new \LaTeX?}
 
Over the years many extensions have been developed for \LaTeX. This
is, of course, a sure sign of its continuing popularity but it has had
one unfortunate result: incompatible \LaTeX{} formats came into use at
different sites. Thus, to process documents from various places, a
site maintainer was forced to keep \LaTeX{} (with and without \NFSS),
\SLiTeX, \AmSLaTeX, and so on.  In addition, when looking at a source
file it was not always clear for which format the document was written.
 
To put an end to this unsatisfactory
situation a new release of \LaTeX{} was produced.
It brings all such extensions back under a single format and thus
prevents the proliferation of mutually incompatible dialects of
\LaTeX~2.09. The new release was available for several months as a
test version, and the final release of 1~June officially
replaces the old version.
 
\section\-{Processing documents with \LaTeXe}
 
Documents written for \LaTeX~2.09 will
still be read by \LaTeXe.  Any such document is run in
\emph{\LaTeX~2.09 compatibility mode}.
 
Unfortunately, compatibility mode comes with a price: it can run 
up to 50\% slower than \LaTeX~2.09 did.  If you want to run your document 
in the faster \emph{native mode}, you should try replacing the line:
\begin{verbatim}
   \documentstyle[<options>,<packages>]{<class>}
\end{verbatim}
with:
\begin{verbatim}
   \documentclass[<options>]{<class>}
   \usepackage{latexsym,<packages>}
\end{verbatim}
Unfortunately, this will not always work, because some \LaTeX~2.09 
packages will only work in \LaTeXe{} compatibility mode.  You should find 
out if there is a \LaTeXe{} version of the package available.
 
\LaTeXe{} native mode also gives access to the new features of \LaTeXe, 
described in \emph{\LaTeXe{} for authors}.
 
\section\-{New packages}
 
\LaTeXe{} has much better support for graphics, colour, fonts, and 
multi-lingual typesetting.  The following software should be available 
from the distributor who brought you \LaTeXe:

\begin{citations}
\item[babel] for typesetting in many languages.
\item[color] for colour support.
\item[graphics] for including images.
\item[mfnfss] for using bitmap fonts.
\item[psnfss] for using Type~1 fonts.
\item[tools]  other packages by the \LaTeX3 team.
\end{citations}
The packages come with full documentation, and are also described in 
\emph{\LaTeX: A Document Processing System} or 
\emph{The \LaTeX{} Companion}.
 
\section\-{Further information}
 
More information about \LaTeXe{} is to be found in:

\begin{citations}
\item[\LaTeX: A Document Preparation System]
   Leslie Lamport, \AW, 2nd ed, 1994.
\item[The \LaTeX{} Companion]
   Goossens, Mittelbach and Samarin, \AW, 1994.
\end{citations}
The \LaTeX{} distribution comes with documentation on the new features of 
\LaTeX:

\begin{citations}
\item[\LaTeXe{} for authors] 
   describes the new features of \LaTeX{} documents,
   in the file \verb|usrguide.tex|.
\item[\LaTeXe{} for class and package writers]
   describes the new features of \LaTeX{} classes and packages,
   in the file \verb|clsguide.tex|.
\item[\LaTeXe{} font selection]
   describes the new features of \LaTeX{} fonts for
   class and package writers,
   in the file \verb|fntguide.tex|.
\end{citations}
For more information on \TeX{} and \LaTeX, get in touch with your local 
\TeX{} Users Group, or the international \TeX{} Users Group, 
P.~O.~Box~869, Santa~Barbara, CA~93102-0869, USA, Fax:~+1~805~963~8358, 
EMail:~tug@tug.org.

\publicationmonth{December}
\publicationyear{1994}
\publicationissue{2}
\maketitle
\section\-{Welcome to \LaTeXNews~2}

An issue of \emph{\LaTeXNews} will accompany every future release of
\LaTeX.  It will tell you about important events, such as major bug
fixes, newly available packages, or any other \LaTeX{} news.

\section\-{December 1994 release of \LaTeX}

December 1994 sees the second release of \LaTeXe.  We are on schedule
to deliver a release of \LaTeX{} every six months, in December and
June.

This release has seen quite a lot of activity, which is not too
surprising as it's only been a year since the first test release of
\LaTeXe.  We don't expect so much activity in the next six months.

Many of the changes are minor improvements and bug-fixes---see
\emph{\LaTeXe{} for authors} (\verb|usrguide.tex|), \emph{\LaTeXe{}
font selection} (\verb|fntguide.tex|) and our change log
(\verb|changes.txt|) for more details.

However, there are two important new packages available for \LaTeX:
\texttt{inputenc} and AMS-\LaTeX.

\section\-{Accented input}

One of the problems with writing non-English documents in \LaTeX{} is
the accent commands.  Reading documents containing text like
\verb|na\"\i ve| is frustrating, especially if your keyboard allows
you to type \texttt{na\"\i ve}.

In the past, \LaTeX{} has not supported input containing accented
characters such as \texttt{\"\i}, because Windows, Macintosh and Unix
all have different ways of dealing with accented input, called
\emph{input encodings}.

However, the \verb|inputenc| package allows you to specify which input
encoding your document is written with, for example to use the ISO
Latin-1 encoding, you type:
\begin{verbatim}
   \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\end{verbatim}
At the moment, \verb|inputenc| supports the \verb|ascii| and
\verb|latin1| input encodings, but more will be added with future
releases.

The \verb|inputenc| package is
currently a test release.  The user interface for the full release will
be upwardly compatible with the test version.

\section\-{AMS-\LaTeX{}}

 AMS-\LaTeX{} is a set of miscellaneous extensions for \LaTeX{}
 distributed by the American Mathematical Society. They provide superior
 information structure and superior printed output for mathematical
 documents.

 There are far too many features of AMS-\LaTeX{} to list here.  
 AMS-\LaTeX{} is described in the accompanying documentation,
 and in \emph{The \LaTeX{} Companion}.

 Version 1.2beta of AMS-\LaTeX{} was released for testing by intrepid
 users in October 1994.  The full release of AMS-\LaTeX{}~1.2 is expected 
 in early January 1995.
 
 It will be divided into two bundles:
 \begin{itemize}
 
 \item the \verb|amsfonts| packages, which give access to
    hundreds of new mathematical symbols, and new math fonts
    such as blackboard bold and fraktur.
    
 \item the \verb|amsmath| packages, which provide finer control over 
    mathematical typesetting, such as multi-line subscripts,
    enhanced theorem and proof environments, 
    and improved displayed equations, 
 
 \end{itemize}
 For compatibility with older documents, an \verb|amstex| package will be 
 provided.

\section\-{\LaTeX{} on the internet}

\LaTeX{} has its own home page on the World Wide Web, with the URL:
\begin{verbatim}
   http://www.tex.ac.uk/CTAN/latex/
\end{verbatim}
This page describes \LaTeX{} and the \LaTeX3 project, and contains
pointers to other \LaTeX{} resources, such as the user guides, the
\TeX{} Frequently Asked Questions, and the \LaTeX{} bugs database.

The electronic home of anything \TeX-related is the Comprehensive
\TeX{} Archive Network (CTAN).  This is a network of cooperating ftp
sites, with over a gigabyte of \TeX{} material:
\begin{verbatim}
   ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/
   ftp://ftp.shsu.edu/tex-archive/
   ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/
\end{verbatim}
For more information, see the \LaTeX{} home page.

\section\-{Further information}

For more information on \TeX{} and \LaTeX, get in touch with your local
\TeX{} Users Group, or the international \TeX{} Users Group,
P.~O.~Box~869, Santa~Barbara, CA~93102-0869, USA, Fax:~+1~805~963~8358,
EMail:~tug@tug.org.

\publicationmonth{June}
\publicationyear{1995}
\publicationissue{3}
\maketitle


\section\-{Welcome to \LaTeXNews~3} 

An issue of \emph{\LaTeXNews} will accompany every future release of
\LaTeX.  It will tell you about important events, such as major bug
fixes, newly available packages, or any other \LaTeX{} news.

\section\-{June 1995 release of \LaTeX}

June 1995 sees the third release of \LaTeXe.  We are on schedule
to deliver a release of \LaTeX{} every six months, in December and
June.

In the last \emph{\LaTeXNews}, we said ``we don't expect so much
activity in the next six months,'' which has turned out not to be
true! 

\section\-{Additional input encodings}

In the last release of \LaTeX{} we distributed a test version of the
\texttt{inputenc} package which allows the use of input characters
other than just a--z and A--Z.  The package has proved to be robust,
so we are now distributing an expanded version.
The new release comes with a number of input encodings:

\begin{itemize}
\item \texttt{ascii} the standard encoding,
\item \texttt{latin1} the ISO Western European alphabet,
\item \texttt{latin2} the ISO Eastern European alphabet,
\item \texttt{cp437} the IBM codepage 437,
\item \texttt{cp850} the IBM codepage 850, and
\item \texttt{applemac} the Apple Macintosh encoding.
\end{itemize}
These can be used by specifying an option to the \texttt{inputenc}
package, for example:
\begin{verbatim}
   \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\end{verbatim}
The new input encodings are currently being tested, but we don't
expect any major changes.

\section\-{\LaTeX\ getting smaller}

In the past releases of \LaTeXe, the amount of memory \LaTeX{}
requires has increased, but we are pleased to say that this trend has
been reversed.  We hope that future releases of \LaTeX{} will continue
to get smaller.

For example, on this document, the December 1994 release used 52,622
words of memory, and the June 1995 release uses 51,216 words of
memory, which is a 2.7\% reduction.

We are currently experimenting with other ways of reducing the size of
\LaTeX.  For example, we are experimenting with an option to remove
the \texttt{picture} and \texttt{tabbing} environments from the
\LaTeX{} kernel, and to load them from a file the first time they are
used.  This should help \LaTeX{} to run on machines with limited
memory.  See \texttt{autoload.txt} for details.

\section\-{Distribution and modification}

One topic of discussion that has kept us busy is the distribution and
modification conditions of \LaTeX.  We are committed to keeping
\LaTeX{} as free reliable software, and ensuring that (as far as
possible) \LaTeX{} documents will produce the same results on all
systems. 

The modification conditions are currently under discussion, and we
would like to hear from anyone interested.  Please read
\texttt{modguide.tex} for more information.

\section\-{AMS-\LaTeX\ full release}

The AMS-\LaTeX\ packages were still in beta test in the December 1994
release of \LaTeX, and the full release came out in January 1995.

AMS-\LaTeX\ is described in the \emph{User's Guide}
(\texttt{amsldoc.tex}) and in \emph{The \LaTeX{} Companion}.

\section\-{PostScript fonts}

There is a new test release of the PSNFSS packages for accessing
PostScript fonts in \LaTeXe.  This includes an update to all of the
fonts, to remove many of the underfull and overfull \verb|\hbox|
warnings, and improve the setting of non-English languages.

The new release of \LaTeX{} removes all of the `hidden' uses of
Computer Modern mathematics.  For example, the footnote markers used
to use math mode, so always used Computer Modern digits rather than
ones from the current text font.  This has now been fixed.

\section\-{Further information}

For more information on \TeX{} and \LaTeX, get in touch with your local
\TeX{} Users Group, or the international \TeX{} Users Group,
P.~O.~Box~869, Santa~Barbara, CA~93102-0869, USA, Fax:~+1~805~963~8358,
EMail:~tug@tug.org.

The \LaTeX{} home page is \verb|http://www.tex.ac.uk/ctan/latex/|
and contains links to other WWW resources for \LaTeX.

\publicationmonth{December}
\publicationyear{1995}
\publicationissue{4}

\maketitle

\section\-{Welcome to \LaTeXNews~4}

An issue of \emph{\LaTeXNews} will accompany every future release of
\LaTeX.  It will tell you about important events, such as major bug
fixes, newly available packages, or any other \LaTeX{} news.
This issue accompanies the fourth release of \LaTeXe.


\section\-{\LaTeX\ getting smaller}

The last release in June started a trend of \LaTeX\ becoming
smaller, we are pleased to announce that this has continued with this
release. In particular the experimental `autoload' version described in
\texttt{autoload.txt} is much smaller as more parts of \LaTeX\ are
autoloaded.

\section\-{New `concurrent' docstrip}

The time taken to `unpack' this release from the documented sources
should be much reduced (roughly half the time, depending on
installation conditions). This is due to an improved version of the
docstrip program that has been contributed by Marcin Woli\'nski.
This can write up to 16 files at once. The
previous version could only write one file at a time which meant that
it was very slow when producing many small files from the same source
file as the source needed to be re-read for each file written.

\section\-{New T1 encoded fonts}

This year J\"org Knappen has completed a new release of the `Cork'
(T1) encoded Computer Modern fonts: the dc fonts release 1.2.

This release of the dc fonts fixes many bugs (including the missing
\verb|?`| (?`) and \verb|!`| (!`) ligatures) and improves the fonts in
many other ways. It is strongly recommended that you upgrade as soon as
possible if currently you are using the old dc fonts, release 1.1 or
earlier. The new fonts are available from the CTAN archives, in
\texttt{tex-archive/fonts/dc}. 

The names of the font files are \emph{different}. This does not affect
\LaTeX\ documents but \emph{does} affect the installation procedure as
it assumes that you have the \emph{new} fonts, and will write suitable
`fd' files for those fonts. If you have not yet upgraded your dc fonts
then, after unpacking the distribution, you \emph{must}
\verb|latex olddc.ins| to produce `fd' files for the old dc fonts.
This must be done \emph{before} the format is made. Running the test
document at \texttt{ltxcheck.tex} the end of the installation will
inform you if the wrong set of `fd' files has been installed.

Note that this change does not affect the standard `OT1' Computer
Modern fonts that \LaTeX\ uses by default.

\section\-{More robust commands}

The commands \verb|\cite| and \verb|\sqrt| are now robust.

Although most commands with optional arguments are fragile, as
documented, such commands defined using the second optional argument
of \verb|\newcommand| and its derivatives are now \emph{robust}.

\section\-{New Interface to building `extension' classes}

The mechanism provided by \verb|\DeclareOption|, \verb|\ProcessOptions|
and \verb|\LoadClass| has proved to be a powerful and expressive means
of defining one class in terms of another `base' class. However there
have been some requests to simplify the declaration of the common case
where you want the `base' class to be called with \emph{all} the
options that were specified to the extension class.  This is now
provided by the new command \verb|\LoadClassWithOptions|. A similar
command \verb|\RequirePackageWithOptions| is provided for package use.
More details of this feature are provided in \texttt{clsguide.tex} and
\texttt{ltclass.dtx}.

\section\-{More Input Encodings}

The experimental \texttt{inputenc} package allows a more natural style
of input of accented and other characters.

Three new input encodings are now supported.
\begin{itemize}
\item \texttt{ansinew} the Windows ansi encoding, 
                       as used in Microsoft Windows 3.x.
\item \texttt{cp437de} a variant of \texttt{cp437}, which uses \ss\
  rather than $\beta$  in the appropriate slot.
\item \texttt{next} the encoding used on Next computers. 
\end{itemize}

\section\-{Further information}

For more information on \TeX{} and \LaTeX, get in touch with your local
\TeX{} Users Group, or the international \TeX{} Users Group,
1850 Union Street, \#1637, San Francisco, CA~94123, USA, 
Fax:~+1~415~982~8559,
EMail:~tug@tug.org.
The \LaTeX{} home page is \verb|http://www.tex.ac.uk/ctan/latex/|
and contains links to other WWW resources for \LaTeX.

\publicationmonth{June}
\publicationyear{1996}
\publicationissue{5}

\maketitle

\section\-{Welcome to \LaTeXNews~5}
This issue of \emph{\LaTeXNews} accompanies the fifth release of the
new standard \LaTeX{}, \LaTeXe.

\section\-{Extra possibilities for section headings}
Most \LaTeX\ sectioning commands are defined using
\verb|\@startsection|.
For example, the \textsf{article} class defines:
\begin{small}
\begin{verbatim}
\newcommand\section\-{\@startsection 
 {section}{1}{0pt}{-3.5ex plus-1ex minus-.2ex}%
 {2.3ex plus.2ex}{\normalfont\Large\bfseries}}
\end{verbatim}
\end{small}
The last argument specifies the style in which the section heading is
to be typeset.

The new feature added at this release is that at the \emph{end} of
this argument you may specify a command that \emph{takes an argument}.
This command will be applied to the section number and heading.
For example, one could use the \verb|\MakeUppercase| command to
produce uppercase headings. A package or class file could contain:
\begin{small}
\begin{verbatim}
\renewcommand\section\-{\@startsection 
 {section}{1}{0pt}{-3.5ex plus-1ex minus-.2ex}%
 {2.3ex plus.2ex}{\normalfont\Large\MakeUppercase}}
\end{verbatim}
\end{small}
to produce section headings using uppercase medium weight text, rather
than the bold text used by \textsf{article}. Note that, like the font
choice, the uppercasing applies only to the actual heading (including
any automatically generated section number), not to the text as it may
appear in the running head or table of contents.

\section\-{The `openany' option in the `book' class}
The \textsf{openany} option allows chapter and similar openings to
occur on left hand pages. Previously this option only affected
\verb|\chapter| and \verb|\backmatter|. It now also affects
\verb|\part|, \verb|\frontmatter| and \verb|\mainmatter|.

\section\-{More font (output) encodings}
The font encoding name \texttt{T3} has been allocated to the encoding
used in the new 256-character \textsc{IPA} fonts (for the phonetic
alphabet) produced by Rei Fukui. His package, \textsf{tipa},
gives access to these fonts and should soon be available.  (The
encoding named \texttt{OT3} is the 128-character encoding used in the
\textsc{IPA} fonts produced by Washington State University.)



\section\-{More input encodings supported}
The \textsf{inputenc} package now supports the IBM codepage~852 used
in Eastern Europe, with the option~\texttt{[cp852]} contributed by
Petr~Sojka.

Also, the \textsf{inputenc} package now activates most `control codes'
with \textsc{ascii} values below 32.
Currently none of the encodings in the standard distribution makes use
of these positions.

\section\-{Fixes and improvements}
The \LaTeX\ kernel has only had minor changes, apart from
\verb|\@startsection| mentioned above.
However, some small fixes have been incorporated removing the
following problems:

\begin{itemize}
\item
  In tabular and array, previous versions of \LaTeX\ `lost' the
  inter-column space from an `\texttt{l}'-column, when that column
  was completely empty.

\item
  Previously, the use of the \verb|\nofiles| command could change
  the \emph{vertical spacing} in a document.\\ A side effect of fixing
  this is that when \verb|\nofiles| is used, \verb|\label| puts a
  blank line in the log file.

\item
  \LaTeX~often loads fonts `on demand'. Previously, this could
  happen inside the argument of an accent command and this would
  cause the accent to appear in the wrong place.

\end{itemize}

\section\-{Changes to the `tools' packages}

\begin{itemize}
\item
  The \textsf{longtable} package now uses a modified algorithm,
  contributed by David Kastrup, to align the `chunks' of a table.
  It is now unnecessary to edit the document to add
  \verb|\setlongtables| before the final run of \LaTeX.
  In certain cases of overlapping \verb|\multicolumn| entries, the new
  algorithm will produce better column widths than the old (at the
  price of extra passes through \LaTeX).

\item
  The \textsf{dcolumn} package now has the extra possibility of
  specifying the number of digits both \emph{before} and after the
  `decimal point'. This makes it easy to centre the column of numbers
  under a wide heading.
\end{itemize}

\section\-{New copy of the \LaTeX\ bug database}
\verb|http://www.tex.ac.uk/ctan/latex/bugs.html| will soon have links
to a copy of the searchable \LaTeX\ bugs database at Mainz (Germany)
as well as the original copy at Sussex (England).

\publicationmonth{December}
\publicationyear{1996}
\publicationissue{6}

\maketitle

\section\-{Welcome to \LaTeXNews~6}
This issue of \emph{\LaTeXNews} accompanies the sixth release of the
new standard \LaTeX{}, \LaTeXe.

\section\-{Mono-case file names}
Previously \LaTeX\ has used some files with `mixed-case' file names
such as \texttt{T1cmr.fd} and \texttt{T1enc.def}.

These file names cause problems on some systems (in particular they
are illegal on the ISO 9660 CDROM format) and so in this release
all file names have been made lowercase (for example 
\texttt{t1cmr.fd} and \texttt{t1enc.def}).

This change should \emph{not} affect any document. Within \LaTeX,
encodings still have the usual uppercase names in uses such as
\verb|\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}| and \verb|\fontencoding{T1}|.
\LaTeX\ will automatically convert to the lowercase form while
constructing the file name.
\LaTeX\ will input the `fd' file under the old name if it fails to
find the file with the new name, so existing collections of fd files
should still work with this new release.

The change \emph{does} affect the configuration files that may be used
to make the \LaTeX\ format with initex. For example, the file
\texttt{fonttext.ltx} previously specified \verb|\input{T1cmr.fd}|.
It now has \verb|\input{t1cmr.fd}|. 
If you use a local file \texttt{fonttext.cfg}
you will need to make similar changes, as \verb|\input{T1cmr.fd}|
will not work as \texttt{T1cmr.fd} is no longer in the distribution.

The files affected by this change all have names of the form
\verb|*.fd| or \verb|*enc.def|.

\section\-{Another input encoding}
Thanks to work by S\o ren Sandmann, the \textsf{inputenc} package now
supports the IBM codepage~865 used in Scandinavia.

\section\-{Better user-defined math display environments}
Suppose that you want to define an environment for displaying text
that is numbered as an equation.  A straightforward way to do this is
as follows:
\begin{verbatim}
  \newenvironment{texteqn}
    {\begin{equation}
       \begin{minipage}{0.9\linewidth}}
      {\end{minipage}
     \end{equation}}
\end{verbatim}
However, if you have tried this then you will probably have noticed
that it does not work perfectly when used in the middle of a paragraph
because an inter-word space appears at the beginning of the first
line after the environment.

There is now an extra command (with a very long name) available that
you can use to avoid this problem; it should be inserted as shown here:
\begin{verbatim}
  \newenvironment{texteqn}
    {\begin{equation}
       \begin{minipage}{0.9\linewidth}}
      {\end{minipage}
     \end{equation}
     \ignorespacesafterend}
\end{verbatim}

\section\-{Docstrip improvements}
The \textsf{docstrip} program that is used to unpack the \LaTeX\ 
sources has undergone further development. The new version should be
able to process all old `batchfiles' but it allows a simpler syntax in
new `batchfiles' (no need to define \verb|\def\batchfile{|\ldots).

It also allows `target' directories to be specified when writing
files.  This directory support is disabled by default unless activated
in a local \texttt{docstrip.cfg} configuration file.
See \texttt{docstrip.dtx} for details.

\section\-{AMS \LaTeX\ update}
Since the last \LaTeX\ release in June, the American Mathematical
Society have re-issued the `AMS\LaTeX' classes and packages, fixing
several reported problems.

\section\-{Graphics package update}
The \LaTeX\ color and graphics packages have been updated slightly,
principally to support more dvi drivers, see the readme file in the
\textsf{graphics} distribution.

\section\-{EC Fonts released}
The first release of the Extended Computer Modern fonts has just been
made. (In January 1997.)

This release of \LaTeX\ does \emph{not} default to these `ec' fonts
as its T1 encoded fonts. By default it will
use the `dc' fonts if the T1 encoding is requested.

As noted in \texttt{install.txt} you may run \TeX\ on the install file
\texttt{ec.ins} \emph{after} unpacking the base distribution but
\emph{before} making the \LaTeX\ format. This will produce
suitable `fd' files making \LaTeX\ (including, for the first time, the
\textsf{slides} class) use the `ec' fonts as the default T1 encoded
font set.

\publicationmonth{June}
\publicationyear{1997}
\publicationissue{7}

\maketitle

\section\-{T1 encoded Computer Modern fonts}
As in the last release the base \LaTeX\ distribution contains
three different sets of `fd' files for T1 encoded fonts.

In this release the default installation uses \texttt{ec.ins}
and so installs files suitable for the current `EC fonts'
distribution. If you have still not updated to the EC fonts and
are using the earlier test versions, known as DC then you should
unpack \texttt{newdc.ins} (for DC release 1.2 or later) or
\texttt{olddc.ins} (for the original releases of the DC fonts).
This should be done after unpacking \texttt{unpack.ins} but
before making the format by running ini\TeX{} on \texttt{latex.ltx}.
There are further details in \texttt{install.txt}.


\section\-{T1 encoded Concrete fonts}
The Metafont sources for T1 encoded `Concrete' fonts have been
removed from the \textsf{mfnss} distribution as they were based
on the now obsolete DC fonts release 1.1. Similarly the
\textsf{cmextra.ins} install file in the \textsf{base} distribution no
longer generates fd files for the `Concrete' fonts.
To use these fonts in either T1 or OT1 encoding it is
recommended that you obtain Walter Schmidt's \textsf{ccfonts} package
and fonts from CTAN \texttt{macros/latex/contrib/supported/ccfonts}.


\section\-{Further input encodings}
Two more \textsf{inputenc} packages have been added: for latin5,
thanks to H. Turgut Uyar; and for latin3, thanks to J\"org Knappen.


\section\-{Normalising spacing after punctuation}
The command \verb|\normalsfcodes| was introduced at the last patch
release. This is normally given the correct definition automatically
and so need not be explicitly set. It is used to correct a problem,
reported by Donald Arseneau, that punctuation in page headers has
always (in all known \TeX\ formats) been potentially incorrect if the
page break happens while a local setting of the space codes (for
instance by the command \verb|\frenchspacing|) is in effect. A common
example of this happening in \LaTeX\ is in the \textsf{verbatim}
environment.


\section\-{Accessing Bold Math Symbols}
The \textsf{tools} distribution contains a new package, \textsf{bm},
which defines a command \verb|\bm| that allows individual bold symbols
to be accessed within a math expression (in contrast to
\verb|\boldmath| which makes whole math expressions default to bold
fonts). It is more general than the existing \textsf{amsbsy} package;
however, to ease the translation of documents between these two
packages, \textsf{bm} makes \verb|\boldsymbol| an alias for
\verb|\bm|.

This package was previously made available from the `contrib' area of
the CTAN archives, and as part of Y\&Y's \LaTeX\ support for the
MathTime fonts.


\section\-{Policy on standard classes}

Many of the problem reports we receive concerning the standard classes
are not concerned with bugs but are suggesting, more or less politely,
that the design decisions embodied in them are `not optimal' and
asking us to modify them.

There are several reasons why we have decided not to make such changes
to these files.
\begin{itemize}
\item
  However misguided, the current behaviour is clearly what was
  intended when these classes were designed.
\item
  It is not good practice to change such aspects of `standard classes'
  because many people will be relying on them.
\end{itemize}

We have therefore decided not to even consider making such
modifications, nor to spend time justifying that decision.  This does
not mean that we do not agree that there are many deficiencies in the
design of these classes, but we have many tasks with higher priority
than continually explaining why the standard classes for \LaTeX{}
cannot be changed.

We would, of course, welcome the production of better classes, or of
packages that can be used to enhance these classes.


\section\-{New addresses for TUG}
For information about joining the \TeX{} Users Group, and about lots
of other \LaTeX-related matters, please contact
them at their new address:
\begin{quote}\small
   \TeX{} Users Group, P.O. Box 1239,\\
   Three Rivers, CA~93271-1239, USA\\
   Fax:~+1~209~561~4584\\
   E-mail: \texttt{tug@mail.tug.org}\\
   URL: \texttt{http://www.tug.org/}
\end{quote}

\publicationmonth{December}
\publicationyear{1997}
\publicationissue{8}

\maketitle

\section\-{New supported font encodings}

Two new font encodings are supported as options to the \textsf{fontenc}
package:
\begin{description}
\item [OT4]
This is a seven-bit encoding designed for Polish. The \LaTeX\ support
was developed by Mariusz Olko.
\item [TS1] This is the `Text Companion Encoding'; it contains symbols
designed to be used in text, as opposed to mathematical formulas, and
some accents designed for uppercase letters.  It is currently
supported by the `tc' fonts, which match the T1 encoded `ec' text
fonts.  A subset of the glyphs in this encoding is supported by
virtual fonts distributed with the PostScript font metrics on the
\textsc{ctan} archives. (This is the `8c' encoding in Karl Berry's
fontname scheme.)  The \textsf{textcomp} package provides access to
this encoding but here is a warning to current users of that package:
some of the internal names for the characters have changed.
\end{description}


\section\-{New input encodings}

These additions to the \textsf{inputenc} package are
\texttt{decmulti} (the DEC Multinational
Character Set,  contributed by M.~Y.~Chartoire) 
and \texttt{cp1250} (an MS-Windows encoding for Central and Eastern
Europe, contributed by Marcin Woli\'nski).  There is also a
\texttt{cp1252} encoding that is identical to \texttt{ansinew}.


\section\-{Tools}

The \textsf{calc} package (used in many examples in \emph{The \LaTeX\
Companion}) has been contributed to this distribution by Kresten Krab
Thorup and Frank Jensen. This is essentially the same as the version
that has been available from the \textsc{ctan} archives for some time,
with one minor change: to use \LaTeX-style error messages.  It enables
the use of arithmetic expressions within arguments to standard
\LaTeX{} commands where a length or a counter value is required.  For
example:
\begin{verbatim}
  \setcounter {page} { \value{page} * 2 + 1 }
  \parbox { 3in - ( 2mm + \textwidth / 9 ) }
\end{verbatim}

There have also been some improvements to several other packages in
this collection.  In particular, \textsf{bm} now works correctly with
constructions such as \verb|\bm{f'}| involving \texttt{'} or other
characters which use \TeX's special ``\verb|\mathcode"8000|''
feature.  Also, \textsf{multicol} sets the length \verb|\columnwidth|
to an appropriate value; this enables it to work with classes that
support two-column setting, e.g.,~the AMS classes.


\section\-{Graphics}

The special \verb|oztex.def| driver file has been removed, and Oz\TeX\
support has been merged with dvips, following advice from
Andrew Trevorrow about Oz\TeX~3.x.

The \textsf{keyval} package has had some internal improvements: to
use \LaTeX\ format error messages; and to avoid `\verb|#| doubling'.
This latter change means that the \verb|command| key for the
\textsf{graphicx} version of \verb|\includegraphics| should now be used
with one \verb|#| rather than two. For example, \verb|command = `gunzip #1|.
Fortunately this key is almost never used in practice, so few if any
documents should be affected by this change.


\section\-{\LaTeX3 experimental programming conventions}

As announced at the \TeX\ Users Group meeting  (Summer 1997), a group of
highly experimental packages will soon be released to allow experienced\\
\TeX\ programmers to experiment with, and comment on, a proposed set
of syntax conventions and basic data-types that might form
the basis for programming large scale projects in \TeX.
They will be located in\\
this CTAN directory:
\begin{verbatim}  
  CTAN:macros/latex/packages/expl3
\end{verbatim}
The documentation of this material is as follows: individual package
files provide outline, draft documentation; there is an article that
gives an overview of the syntax and related concepts; there is a
\texttt{readme.txt} file containing a brief description of the
collection.

All aspects of these packages are liable, indeed likely, to change.
They should not be used at this stage for anything
that requires a stable system.  However, we do encourage people to
experiment with these packages, and to send comments on them to the
\texttt{LaTeX-L} mailing list.
To subscribe to this list, mail to:
\begin{verbatim}
  listserv@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
\end{verbatim}
the following one line message:
\begin{verbatim}
  subscribe LATEX-L <<first-name>> <<second-name>>
\end{verbatim}

% Revert to this if gets too full.
% See \texttt{modguide.tex} for
% information on how to subscribe to \texttt{LaTeX-L}.

\publicationmonth{June}
\publicationyear{1998}
\publicationissue{9}

\maketitle


\section\-{New math font encodings}

A joint working group of the \TeX{} Users Group and the \LaTeX3
Project is developing a new 8-bit math font encoding for \TeX{}.  
It is designed to overcome several limitations and implementation
problems of the old math font encodings and to simplify switching
between different sets of math fonts, much as the \LaTeX{} font
selection interface has simplified switching between text fonts.

Since the work on this project relies entirely on volunteer work, we
cannot give a specific release date yet.  However, a prototype
implementation already exists.  This contains several sets of virtual
fonts, some \LaTeX{} packages and a kernel module; we hope to
integrate it into the main \LaTeX{} distribution for the next
release.

Documents using only standard \LaTeX{} commands for math symbols
should not be affected by switching to the new math font encodings  
However, documents, classes or packages making specific assumptions
about the encoding of math symbol fonts are likely to break.

Further information about the Math Font Group may be found on
the World Wide Web at \texttt{http://www.tug.org/twg/mfg/}.


\section\-{A new math accent}

A new math accent, \verb|\mathring|, has been added. This is a math mode
version of the ring accent (\r{}) which is available in text 
mode with the command \verb|\r|.

\section\-{Extended \cs{DeclareMathDelimiter}}

The command \verb|\DeclareMathDelimiter| has been extended.
Normally this command takes six arguments. Previously, when being used
to declare a character (such as \texttt{[}) as a delimiter, a variant
form was used with only five arguments. The argument specifying the
default `math class' was omitted. Now the full six-argument form may be
used in this case. The extra information is used to implicitly declare
the character via \verb|\DeclareMathSymbol| for use when the symbol is
not used with \verb|\left| or \verb|\right|.

The old five-argument form is detected and will work as before.

\newpage

\section\-{Tools distribution}

The \texttt{multicol} package now supports the production of multiple
columns without balancing the last page. To get this effect use the
\texttt{multicols*} environment.

The \texttt{layout} package was partly recoded by Hideo Umeki to
display page layout effects in a better way.

As suggested by Donald Arseneau, the \texttt{calc} package was extended
to support the new commands \verb|\widthof{<text>}|,
\verb|\heightof{<text>}|, and \verb|\depthof{<text>}| within a
\texttt{calc}-expression.  At the same time we modified a few kernel
commands so that \texttt{calc}-expressions can now be used in various
useful places such as the dimension arguments to the \texttt{tabular}
environment and the \verb|\rule| command. For many other standard
\LaTeX{} commands this was already possible.


\section\-{Support for Cyrillic encodings}
 
We are very pleased that, after a lengthy period of development, a set
of fonts, encodings and support files for using \LaTeX\ with Cyrillic
characters will soon be available.
 
Test versions of the `LH' fonts for these Cyrillic encodings, based on
the Computer Modern design, are available from CTAN archives in the
directory \texttt{fonts/cyrillic/lh-test}.  The \LaTeX\ support files
(by Werner Lemberg and Vladimir Volovich) are also available from CTAN
archives in\\
 \texttt{macros/latex/contrib/supported/t2}
 
 
\section\-{Default docstrip header}

Many \LaTeX\ users now distribute packages in documented source form
using the \textsf{docstrip} system. Docstrip allows a header to be
placed on generated package files, suitable for giving copyright
information, or distribution conditions.

We have changed the default version of this header so that it allows
stripped files to be distributed in ready-to-run installations such as
the \TeX{}Live CD\@.  If you use the default header for distributing
your files you should check that the new copyright text is acceptable
to you.  The file \texttt{docstrip.dtx} explains how to produce your own
header if you wish to do so.

\publicationmonth{December}
\publicationyear{1998}
\publicationissue{10}

\maketitle


\section\-{Five years of \LaTeXe}

Since this is the 10th edition of \LaTeX{} News, the (no longer) New
Standard \LaTeX{} must have hit the streets almost this long ago.  In
fact it was only the beta-version that some people got just in time for
Christmas~1993, and since then there has been a lot of tidying-up and
smoothing of rough edges (not to mention a few bug fixes!).

Maybe it is time for something more radically different to emerge and
be hungrily adopted by the world; but don't panic, we shall be
maintaining what you have now for a long time yet.  Amongst the more
polite things that have been written about our efforts, we found that this
quote (somewhat censored to protect the guilty) well reflects some of
our feelings about working on \LaTeX{} over the years: \textit{the mere
existence of \LaTeXe{} is a great miracle}.

  
  \section\-{Restructuring the \LaTeX{} distribution}
  
  Since the (once) `new' standard \LaTeX{} has reached such a venerable
  age, we are reviewing the way in which the system is presented to the
  world.
  
  An early intention is to define, given the wide variety of good
  packages now available, what now constitutes a useful installation of
  \LaTeX{}. We also hope that such a definition will help document
  portability if it leads to a future in which a \LaTeX{} class
  designer can reasonably assume that a known list of
  facilities will be there for all users (so that each class
  need not supply them).
  
  As a first small step towards this definition, we shall replace the
  \texttt{latex/packages} subdirectory on \ctan{}.
  This directory was a curious mixture of the important, such as the
  \LaTeX{} \texttt{tools}, that any self-respecting \LaTeX{}
  installation ought to have, and the esoteric or experimental.

  The esoterica from \texttt{packages} will be moved to 
  new locations, as follows:
  \begin{quote}
    \texttt{expl3}  to \texttt{latex/exptl/project}\\
    \texttt{mfnfss} to \texttt{latex/contrib/supported/mfnfss}
  \end{quote}

  The subdirectory that replaces \texttt{packages} will be called
  \texttt{latex/required}; all the other sub-directories of
  \texttt{packages} will be moved there.

\vspace{17pt}
\pagebreak

 \section\-{\LaTeX\ Project on the Internet}
A new \texttt{latex-project.org} domain has been registered.
The web site is not yet fully functional but the old \LaTeX\ pages from 
\ctan\ are available at \texttt{http://www.latex-project.org/} and the
\LaTeX\ bug reporting address has been changed to
\texttt{latex-bugs@latex-project.org}.

  \section\-{Restructuring the \LaTeX{} package licenses}

Several people have requested an easy mechanism for the distribution
of \LaTeX\ packages and other software ``under the same conditions as
\LaTeX''.  The old \texttt{legal.txt} file was unsuitable as a general
licence as it referred to specific \LaTeX\ authors, and to specific
files.

Therefore, in this release \texttt{legal.txt} contains just the
copyright notice and a reference to the new \emph{\LaTeX\ Project
Public License} (LPPL) for the distribution and modification
conditions. The \texttt{tools}, \texttt{graphics}, and \texttt{mfnfss}
packages also now refer to this license in their distribution notices.

  \section\-{Support for Cyrillic encodings}

Basic Cyrillic support, as announced in \LaTeX{} News~9, is now
finally an official part of \LaTeX{}.  It includes support for the
following standard Cyrillic font encodings (this list may
grow):~\mbox{\texttt{T2A T2B T2C X2}}.

It also includes various Cyrillic input encodings (20~in total,
including commonly used variants and Mongolian Cyrillic
encodings). This provides platform independent and
sophisticated basic support for high-quality typesetting in various
Cyrillic-based languages.
 
For further information see the file \texttt{cyrguide.tex}.

\section\-{Tools distribution}

The \texttt{varioref} package has been extended to support textual
page references to a range of objects: e.g.,~if \texttt{eq-first}
and \texttt{eq-last} are the label names for the first and last
equation in a sequence, then you can now write
\begin{verbatim}
  see~\vrefrange{eq-first}{eq-last}
\end{verbatim}
This results in different text depending on whether both
labels fall on the same page.

Some additional user commands, as well as building-blocks for writing
private extensions, are described in the accompanying documentation.

\publicationmonth{June}
\publicationyear{1999}
\publicationissue{11}

\maketitle

\section\-{Back in sync}

The last release of \LaTeX{} was delayed even longer than you have
come to expect.  We hope that it proved worth waiting for.  It
required a major integration of the code from several people and,
independently, the introduction of the LPPL (see \LaTeX{} News~10) plus
several related changes to our internal systems.  It therefore seemed
sensible to wait until everything was complete rather than do things
in too much hurry.

This seem to have been a successful strategy as
the recent patch release was related to an isolated change that was
done many months previously.  If this release does not appear a lot
closer to its nominal date then \ldots~well, you will not be reading
this sentence!

\section\-{Yearly release cycles}

With the year 2000 rapidly approaching, we intend to switch to a
release frequency of just one per year (with patches if necessary) for
the core of \LaTeXe{}. These days the system is sufficiently stable
that the original update policy is costing everybody more time than is
now warranted.

\section\-{LPPL update}

Thanks to extensive and valuable input from Matt Swift
(\email{swift@alum.mit.edu}) we now have a clearer and more detailed
form of the \LaTeX{} Project Public Licence.  This release contains
both the original version (in \file{lppl-1-0.txt}) and the updated
version, LPPL~1.1.

\section\-{The future of Sli\TeX{}}

We still get a very small trickle of reports about this part of the
system (if you are no longer able to recall \LaTeX~2.09 then you will
know it as the \class{slides} class).  We have not classified them (in
our minds at least) as bugs since we have always known that there are
many problems with this class.  It is clear to us that the only
sensible action would be to redesign the system completely; in
particular, to remove much of its complexity whose purpose is to
support 10-year-old overlay technology.  However, this would take a
lot too much time and would be completely out of proportion to its
current usage.

We are therefore planning to make the \class{slides} class
unsupported in the sense that any problem related to the use of
invisible fonts is considered to be a feature (The \LaTeXe{} manual by
Leslie Lamport doesn't even describe this part of the class any more).
Of course, if it still has its enthusiasts then we are happy to cede
it to their loving care (somewhat like a preserved steam locomotive,
in some parts of the world).

\section\-{Fontenc package peculiarities}

The \verb=\usepackage= interface normally ensures that a package is
loaded only once.  The \pkg{fontenc} package has become an
exception to this rule: it can be loaded several times using different
options, e.g., allowing the user to add a font encoding in the
preamble. This comes at a price for package writers: the low-level
commands (see \file{ltclass.dtx}) used to check if a package was
loaded, and with which options, do not work for the \pkg{fontenc}
package.

\section\-{New math font encodings}
    
As we announced in \LaTeX{} News~9, a joint working group of the
\TeX{} Users Group and the \LaTeX3 Project has developed a new
\mbox{8-bit} math font encoding for \TeX{}.
The reason why this work is not yet released is because of other
exciting developments in the world of math fonts and math characters.
It is obviously wise to ensure that the encoding work is fully
integrated with the available fonts.

Those interested are reminded that further information about the Math
Font Group may be found on the World Wide Web at:\\
\url{http://www.tug.org/twg/mfg/}.

\section\-{Tools distribution}

The \pkg{multicol} package has now got a small but useful extension
which allows you to force a column break where this is really
necessary.  This is done with the command \verb=\columnbreak=, which
can be used like \verb=\pagebreak= (e.g.,~within paragraphs) except
that it cannot have an optional argument and thus it always forces a
new column.

\section\-{Coming soon}

Major work on a new class file structure to support flexible
designs is well under way; some of this work will be presented at the
TUG'99 conference in Vancouver, Canada.  With a bit of luck much of
this work could be ready for integration into the next release---so
watch this space!

\publicationmonth{December}
\publicationyear{1999}
\publicationissue{12}

% Should go to .cls:
\newcommand{\acro}[1]{\textsc{\MakeLowercase{#1}}}

\maketitle

\section\-{LPPL update}

Since the release of the \LaTeX{} Project Public Licence version~1.1,
we have received a small number of queries which resulted in some
minor changes to improve the wording or explain the intentions better.
As a consequence this release now contains LPPL~1.2 in the file
\file{lppl.txt} and the previous versions as \file{lppl-1-0.txt} and
\file{lppl-1-1.txt}.

\section\-{fixltx2e package}

    This package provides fixes to \LaTeXe{} which are desirable but
    cannot be integrated into the \LaTeXe{} kernel directly as they
    would produce a version incompatible to earlier releases (either
    in formatting or functionality).

    By having these fixes in the form of a package, users can benefit
    from them without the danger that their documents will fail, or
    produce unexpected results, at other sites; this works because a
    document will contain a clear indication (the \verb=\usepackage=
    line, preferably with a required date) that at least some of these
    fixes are required to format it.

\section\-{Outcome of TUG '99 (Vancouver)}

The slides from the \acro{TUG}'99 presentation we gave on \emph{a
new interface for \LaTeX\ class designers} are available from the
\LaTeX\ Project website; look for the file \verb|tug99.pdf| at:
\begin{quote}
   \url{http://www.latex-project.org/talks/}
\end{quote}

Please note that this document was intended only to be informal
``speaker's notes'' for our own use. We decided to make them available (the
speaker's notes as well as the slides that were presented) because several
people requested copies after the talk. However, they are \emph{not} in
a polished copy-edited form and are not intended for publication.

Prototype implementations of parts of this interface are now available from:
\begin{quote}
   \url{http://www.latex-project.org/code/experimental/}
\end{quote}

We are continuing to add new material at this location so as to
stimulate further discussion of the underlying concepts. As of
December 1, 1999
the following parts can be downloaded.
\begin{description}

 \item[xparse] Prototype implementation of the interface for declaring
  document command syntax. See the \texttt{.dtx} files for
  documentation.

 \item[template] Prototype implementation of the template interface
  (needs parts of \texttt{xparse}).

  The file \texttt{template.dtx} in that directory has a large section
  of documentation at the front describing the commands in the
  interface and giving a `worked example' building up some templates
  for caption formatting.

 \item[xcontents] Interface description for table of contents data (no
  code yet).  Coding examples have been thoroughly discussed on the
  \texttt{latex-l} list.

 \item[xfootnote] Working examples for generating footnotes,
  etc. Needs \texttt{xparse} and \texttt{template}.

 \end{description}
All examples are organised in subdirectories and additionally
 available as \texttt{gzip} \texttt{tar} files.

 Please remember
that this material is intended only for experimentation and comments;
thus any aspect of it, e.g., the user interface or the functionality,
may change and, in fact, is very likely to change.
For this reason it is explicitly forbidden to place this material on
\acro{CD-ROM} distributions or public servers.

These concepts, as well as their implementation, are under discussion
on the list \texttt{LATEX-L}. You can join this list, which is
intended solely for discussing ideas and concepts for future versions
of \LaTeX, by sending mail to
%\begin{quote}
  \email{listserv@URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE} 
%\end{quote}
containing the line
  \begin{quote}
    \texttt{SUBSCRIBE LATEX-L} \textit{Your Name}
  \end{quote}

This list is archived and, after subscription, you can retrieve older
posts to it by sending mail to the above address, containing a command
such as:
\begin{quote}
\texttt{GET LATEX-L LOGyymm}
\end{quote}
where \texttt{yy}=Year and \texttt{mm}=Month, e.g.
\begin{quote}
\texttt{GET LATEX-L LOG9910}
\end{quote}
for all messages sent in October 1999.

\publicationmonth{June}  
\publicationyear{2000}
\publicationissue{13}

\maketitle

\raisefirstsection 
\section\-{Yearly release cycle}

We announced in \textit{\LaTeX{} News~11} that we intended to switch
to a 12-monthly release schedule.  With the present (June~2000)
release, this switch is being made: thus the next release of \LaTeX{}
will be dated June~2001.  We shall of course continue, as in the past,
to release patches as needed to fix significant bugs.


\section\-{PSNFSS: \small Quote of the Month}

\begin{quote}
  You should say in the \LaTeX{} News that Walter Schmidt has taken over
  \PSNFSS{} from me. It gives me a certain pleasure to be able to draw a
  line under that part of my life\ldots

  \begin{latexonly}
    \vspace{-\baselineskip}
  \end{latexonly}

  \begin{flushright}
    Sebastian Rahtz
  \end{flushright}
\end{quote}

\begin{latexonly}
  \vspace{-\baselineskip} 
\end{latexonly}

\noindent
The \PSNFSS{} material, which supports the use\latex{\\}
of common PostScript fonts with \LaTeX{}, has been thoroughly updated.
Most noticeably, the \package{mathpple} package, which used to be
distributed separately, is now part of the basic \PSNFSS{} bundle;
this package provides mathematical typesetting with the Palatino
typeface family.  In addition, numerous bugs and flaws have been fixed
and the distribution has been `cleaned up'.  The file
\file{changes.txt} contains a detailed list of these changes.
\latex{\looseness=-1}   %%!!!!! It worked!

The documentation (in \file{psnfss2e.pdf}) has been completely
rewritten to provide a comprehensive introduction to the use
of PostScript fonts. 

Notice that the new \PSNFSS{} needs updated files for font metrics,
virtual fonts and font definitions.  If you received the new
version~(8.1) as part of a complete \TeX{} system then these new font
files should also have been installed.  However, if you intend to
install or update \PSNFSS{} yourself, please read the instructions in
the file \file{00readme.txt} of the new \PSNFSS{} distribution.

Support for commercial PostScript fonts, such as
Lucida~Bright, has been removed from the basic distribution;
it is now available from \ctan{}:
\begin{latexonly}
  \file{\ctanhttp macros/latex/\\
    contrib/supported/psnfssx}.
\end{latexonly}
\begin{htmlonly}
  \url{http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/supported/psnfssx}.
\end{htmlonly}

\section\-{New AMS-\LaTeX{}}

Version 2.0 of AMS-\LaTeX{} was released on December 1, 1999. It can
be obtained via \url{ftp://ftp.ams.org/pub/tex/} or
\url{http://www.ams.org/tex/amslatex.html}, as well from \ctan{}:
\begin{latexonly}
  \file{\ctanhttp macros/latex/\\
    required/amslatex}.
\end{latexonly}
\begin{htmlonly}
  \url{http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/required/amslatex}.
\end{htmlonly}

This release consists chiefly of bug fixes and consolidation of the
existing features. The division of AMS-\LaTeX{} into two main parts
(the math packages;\latex{\\}
the AMS document classes) has been made more pronounced.
The files \file{diffs-m.txt}, \file{diffs-c.txt},
\file{amsmath.faq}, and \file{amsclass.faq} describe the\latex{\\}
changes and address some common questions.

The primary documentation files remain \file{amsldoc.tex}, for the
\package{amsmath} package, and \file{instr-l.tex}, for the AMS
document classes.\latex{\\}
The documentation for the \package{amsthm} package,\latex{\\}
however, has been moved from \file{amsldoc.tex}\latex{\\}
to a separate document \file{amsthdoc.tex}.

\begin{latexonly}
  \vfill
\end{latexonly}

\section\-{New input encoding \package{latin4}}

The package \package{inputenc} has, thanks to Hana Skoumalov\'a,
been extended to cover the \package{latin4} input encoding; this
covers Baltic and Scandinavian languages as well as Greenland
Inuit and Lappish.

\begin{latexonly}
  \vfill
\end{latexonly}

\section\-{New experimental code}

In \textit{\LaTeX{} News~12} we announced some ongoing work towards a
`Designer Interface for \LaTeX' and we presented some early results
thereof.  Since then, at Gutenberg\,2000 in Toulouse and TUG\,2000 in
Oxford, we described a new output routine and an improved method of
handling vertical mode material between paragraphs.  In combination
these support higher quality \emph{automated}\footnote
                             {The stress here is on automated!}
page-breaking and page make-up\latex{\\}
for complex pages---the best yet achieved with \TeX{}!

A paper describing the new output routine is 
\begin{latexonly}
  at\\
  \file{http://www.latex-project.org/papers/xo-pfloat.pdf%
   \hspace*{-16pt}}\\
\end{latexonly}
\begin{htmlonly}
  at \url{http://www.latex-project.org/papers/xo-pfloat.pdf}. 
\end{htmlonly}
All code examples and documentation are available 
\begin{latexonly}
  at\\
   \file{http://www.latex-project.org/code/experimental/%
   \latex{\hspace*{-5pt}}}.\\[3pt]
\end{latexonly}
\begin{htmlonly}
  at \url{http://www.latex-project.org/code/experimental/}.

\end{htmlonly}
This directory has been extended to contain
\begin{description}
 \item[galley] Prototype implementation of the interface\latex{\\}
   for manipulating vertical material in galleys.
 \item[xinitials] Prototype implementation of the interface\latex{\\}
   for paragraph initials (needs the \texttt{galley} package.
 \item[xtheorem] Contributed example using the \texttt{template}
   package to provide a designer interface for theorem environments.
 \item[xoutput] A prototype implementation of the new output routine
   as described in the \texttt{xo-pfloat.pdf} paper. Expected
   availability: at or shortly after\latex{\\}
   the TUG\,2000 conference.
\end{description}

\publicationmonth{June}  
\publicationyear{2001}
\publicationissue{14}

\maketitle

\raisefirstsection
\section\-{Future releases}

We are currently exploring how to best support the very large
community of individuals, organisations and enterprises that depend on
the robustness and availability of the current standard \LaTeX{}
distribution.  The results of this may lead to some changes in the
regular release schedule and the handling of bug reports during the
next year.

\section\-{New release of \textsf{Babel} (required)}

Earlier this year a new release of \textsf{Babel} (3.7) became
available. You can read about its new features in
\begin{latexonly}
  \file{http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/}\\
  \hspace*{4em}\file{latex/required/babel/announce.txt}
\end{latexonly}
\begin{htmlonly}
  \url{http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/required/babel/announce.txt}
\end{htmlonly}

One of the bugs that got fixed in this release deals with how labels
are handled by \LaTeX{}.  Because this part of the kernel is modified
by \textsf{babel}, the relevant changes need to be coordinated.
Therefore to use \textsf{Babel} with this release of \LaTeX{} you will
need to update your version of \textsf{babel} to at least 3.7.

\section\-{New input encoding \package{latin9}}

The package \package{inputenc} has, thanks to Karsten Tinnefeld, been
extended to cover the \package{latin9} input encoding.  The
ISO-Latin~9 encoding is a useful modern replacement for ISO-Latin~1
that contains a few characters needed for French and Finnish. Of wider
interest, it also contains the euro currency sign; this could be the
killer argument for many 8-bit texts to use Latin-9 in the future.

According to a Linux manpage, ISO~Latin-9 supports Albanian, Basque,
Breton, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish,
French, Frisian, Galician, German, Greenlandic, Icelandic, Irish
Gaelic, Italian, Latin, Luxemburgish, Norwegian, Portuguese,
Rhaeto-Romanic, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish and Swedish.\\
The characters added in \package{latin9} are (in \LaTeX{} notation):\\
\begin{small}
\verb| \texteuro  \v S  \v s  \v Z  \v z  \OE  \oe  \" Y |
\end{small}\\
They displace the following characters from \package{latin1}:\\
\begin{small}
\verb| \textcurrency  \textbrokenbar  \"{}   \'{}   \c{} |\\
\verb| \textonequarter  \textonehalf  \textthreequarters |
\end{small}


\section\-{New tools}

The new package \package{trace} provides many commands to control
\LaTeX{}'s tracing and debugging output, including the excellent new
information available with \eTeX{} such as the extremely useful
tracing of local assignments.  You will find it in the tools
distribution.

It offers the command \verb|\traceon|, which is similar to
\verb|\tracingall| but suppresses uninteresting stuff such as font
loading by NFSS (which can go on for pages if you are unlucky).  It
also offers \verb|\traceoff| to \ldots\ guess what!  Full details are
in the documented source file, \file{trace.dtx}.

In the base \package{ifthen} package we have added
the uppercase synonyms \verb|\NOT| \verb|\AND| and \verb|\OR|.

\section\-{New experimental code}

In \textit{\LaTeX{} News~12} we announced some ongoing work towards a
`Designer Interface for \LaTeX' and we presented some early results
thereof.  Since then, at Gutenberg\,2000 in Toulouse and TUG\,2000 in
Oxford, we described a new output routine and an improved method of
handling vertical mode material between paragraphs.  In combination
these support higher quality \emph{automated}\footnote
                             {The stress here is on automated!}
page-breaking and page make-up\latex{\\}
for complex pages---the best yet achieved with \TeX{}!

More recently we have added material to handle the complex front
matter requirements of journal articles; this was presented at 
Gutenberg\,2001 in Metz.

A paper describing the new output routine is 
\begin{latexonly}
  at\\
\begin{small}
  \file{http://www.latex-project.org/papers/xo-pfloat.pdf}\\
\end{small}
\end{latexonly}
\begin{htmlonly}
  at \url{http://www.latex-project.org/papers/xo-pfloat.pdf}. 
\end{htmlonly}
All code examples and documentation are available 
\begin{latexonly}
  at\\
\begin{small}
   \file{http://www.latex-project.org/code/experimental}
\end{small}
\end{latexonly}
\begin{htmlonly}
  at \url{http://www.latex-project.org/code/experimental/}.
\end{htmlonly}

This directory has been extended to contain the following.
\begin{description}
 \item[galley] Prototype implementation of the interface\latex{\\}
   for manipulating vertical material in galleys.
 \item[xinitials] Prototype implementation of the interface\latex{\\}
   for paragraph initials (needs the \texttt{galley} package).
 \item[xtheorem] Contributed example using the \texttt{template}
   package to provide a designer interface for theorem environments.
 \item[xor] A prototype implementation of the new output routine
   as described in the \texttt{xo-pfloat.pdf} paper.
 \item[xfrontm] A prototype version of
   the new font matter interface.
\end{description}

 
\end{document}
 


