2. LaTeX2e Maintenance
Fixing bugs LaTeX2e regression test suite Preserving compatibility Interaction between packages
real world drama
2.1 Fixing bugs
  • what is a bug?
  • not necessarily what a user experienced as such

Questions:
  • has the "bad behavior" become a feature that documents rely on?
  • does a fix break other parts of the system?
2.2 LaTeX2e regression test suite
  • close to 300 test files for the kernel sources
  • changes to the system are checked against the full test suite, often enough showing surprising dependencies
  • in theory every bug fix should be accompanied by a test file checking for the problem
2.3 Preserving compatibility
  • yes or no ?
  • and how ?
2.4 Interaction between packages
  • updates in one package often breaks interfaces in others