New on CTAN: mylatexformat

as i lay abed, groaning, the daemon was up and about, and wrote: > The following information was provided by the package's contributor. > > Name of contribution: mylatexformat > Author's name: Florent CHERVET > Location on CTAN: macros/latex/contrib/mylatexformat > Summary description: Use mylatexformat.ltx to make a format based on the preamble of any LaTeX file > License type: lppl > > Announcement text given by the package's contributor: > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Use mylatexformat.ltx to make a format based on the preamble > of any LaTeX file. > > The use of formats helps to speed up compilations: packages > which have been > dumped in the format are loaded at very high speed. This is > useful when a > document load many packages (pgf-TikZ among other...) > > For the creation of the format use a command line like: > > etex -initialize [opts] "&pdflatex" mylatexformat.ltx > """abc.tex""" > > mylatexformat.ltx has been primarily written from > mylatex.ltx > (available on CTAN under the contrib/Carlisle/ directory) > but > gets rid of many limitations or problems of mylatex.ltx. > > More precisely: > > - The format is created from the beginning of the file > (usually > \documentclass[...]{...} > until either: > ~ \begin{document} > ~ \endofdump > if \endofdump is encountered in the preamble > ~ \csname endofdump\endcsname > for convenience: to avoid `undefined control > sequence' > in case the document is compiled without the > format. > > - \begin{document} \endofdump or \csname endofdump\endcsname > can be precedeed or followed by other macros or > commentaries. > > - Commentaries in the preamble are ignored (braces are not > required > to be equilibrated). > > - packages that modify the \document macro (like auxhook.sty > or > etoolbox.sty) can be included in the format. > > - A report is available in the .log file. > > I have been using mylatexformat.ltx with MikTeX under: > - pdfTeX in dvi mode > - pdfTeX in pdf mode > - XeTeX > > Comments about its use on other system are welcome ! > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (whew!) i've installed the new package and created an entry in the catalogue repository for it; thanks for the upload. > Users may view the package catalogue entry at > http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/mylatexformat.html > or they may browse the package directory at > http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/mylatexformat but the catalogue entry won't appear until some time tonight. Robin Fairbairns For the CTAN team