It’s been a while since I gave an update on progress with siunitx version 2. I’ve had other things on the go, but am trying to make some progress with the code as I have lots of bugs which are fixed in the new version. Since the last snapshot, I’ve gone back over everything and moved internally to expl3 syntax. That makes my life a lot easier, as there are lots of tools available without needing to write them all for myself. It does mean that users/testers will need to have expl3 installed: you will need the most recent release, which should appear in TeX Live and MiKTeX soon for online installation, or can be downloaded from CTAN (look for expl3.tds.zip).

There are some notes and outstanding questions with the current snapshot: it is still some way from being finished. Things to be aware of or to think about:

  • Places where units should be repeated are not working properly at the moment. That is the next thing I need to sort out: I’d hope it will be done soon (perhaps another snapshot in a couple of weeks)
  • I’d set the defaults to use text mode for units and math mode for numbers. This may not stay that way, see for example the results for \SI{1.23}{J.mol^{-1}.K^{-1}}. This is because printing units literally has to do the powers in the same font as the units.
  • The options system is now using the LaTeX3 l3keys module. Following the pattern that looks likely for LaTeX3 work, I’ve given the options names divided into words using hyphens. I hope that they make sense.
  • At present, complex numbers are always printed with the complex root (i) after the number. I need an option to reverse this, but can’t think of a good name.
  • I’ve tried to simplify the various ‘trapambig...’ options into a single one (use-brackets). I’m not sure if this will work for everyone: do people need the ability to turn bracketing on and off in a more granulated way?

For those who want to test things out, you can get: