I think the combination of expl3.pdf and source3.pdf, plus any and all TUGboat articles, is more than enough at the moment.

Anyway, in terms of a public roadmap, we’re a little shaky on the details ourselves. Since no-one is working full-time on this project, it’s hard to say what should and can be done next given limited resources. I agree an over-arching plan is desirable in the long term, but I don’t see that it will help us get work done *now*.

And it’s the execution that counts, not the talking about it. (See the LuaTeX project as the perfect example.)

I think after 15 years, it is not too hasty to move away from focus on latex2e to the new project if we want it to come to light someday.

Expl3 can be counted as one of the 3 milestones towards the final product. Let’s give it the publicity it deserves.

The website is a bit of an awkward one. It’s not on any CMS system: everything is done by hand and copied from the project SVN to the live site. Also, most people interested in LaTeX want LaTeX2e, so LaTeX3 will be down the list a bit for the foreseeable future. I’d agree, though, that we perhaps need some more “visibility”.

On expl3, there are various documents. “Source3″ is the typeset reference material. It’s comprehensive but not aimed as a learners guide. The document “expl3″ is more that way, but probably not quite right at the moment. I’ve written an introductory TUGBoat article about expl3, which I hope will appear in the next issue. The plan is then to have something in each TUGBoat after that.

I’d agree we need a proper programming guide, which will probably need bits of all of the above. The Team have lots to work on, but I’ll bear this task in mind and perhaps start on something. In the end, it would be ideal to write a proper “Programming LaTeX3″ book, but that will depend on the rest of LaTeX3, not just expl3.

I have two suggestions.

1. Update the latex3 web page with clearer statement of current development stage and plan. I think this is a traditional way to excite interest but latex seems to ignore it for quite some time.

2. If expl3 is the system (basic) layer and the code is converging to stable, a good manual is needed. It could well be in the form of a book.

– Leo

http://www.latex-project.org/l3news/l3news02.pdf