Problems with the listings package

[Hoffmann, Jobst]

Hi Frank, hi Karl,

thank you for your quick answer. At the moment when writing my first
mail I didn't think of the \DeclareRelease/\DeclareCurrentRelease
commands - my fault, but  I also didn't want to introduce a new option.

Thank you for pointing me to the right direction, I will follow your
advices!

Kind regards
Jobst

Am Samstag, dem 25.01.2025 um 10:42 +0100 schrieb Frank Mittelbach:
> Am 24.01.25 um 22:55 schrieb Karl Berry:
> > Hi Jobst,
> > 
> >      The question is, whether I should fix the error after such a
> > long time
> > 
> > I think it's good to fix errors, yes.
> > 
> >      and how can I assure compatibility with the current user
> >      documents/package documentation?
> > 
> > Of course it's your choice, but my gut reaction is that isn't
> > significant enough to warrant a new package option to preserve the
> > old
> > behavior. Instead, you could make it possible for people to use the
> > LaTeX rollback feature to get the old behavior if they really want
> > it. I can't say what, exactly, but there is doc and examples around
> > on
> > the rollback stuff.
> > 
> > My further hunch is that most users would be happy to have the
> > options
> > work as originally intended/documented and not be worried about the
> > change in output. But who knows.
> > 
> > Maybe others here have better ideas ... --thanks, karl.
> > 
> 
> given that (as I understand what you wrote) it is a real coding
> error, 
> even if it is one that is fairly old, I would just fix it to match 
> documentation and behavior.
> 
> If you think it is important to allow preserving the error in old 
> documents I would use the \DeclareRelease mechanism. With it any user
> can rollback to a certain version if that is necessary for an old 
> document. E.g., array.sty has
> 
> \DeclareRelease{}{1994-06-01}{array-2016-10-06.sty}
> \DeclareRelease{}{2016-10-06}{array-2016-10-06.sty}
> \DeclareRelease{v2.4}{2020-02-10}{array-2020-02-10.sty}
> \DeclareRelease{v2.5}{2023-11-01}{array-2023-11-01.sty}
> \DeclareCurrentRelease{}{2024-06-01}
> 
> \NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}[2024/06/01]
> \ProvidesPackage{array}
>           [2024/10/17 v2.6g Tabular extension package (FMi)]
> 
> 
> so you can do
> 
> \usepackage{array}[=v2.4]
> 
> or
> 
> \usepackage{array}[=2022-10-01]  % or whatever date in the relevant
> time
>                                   % span
> 
> to get what is stored in array-2020-02-10.sty instead of the current 
> version.
> 
> What I wouldn't do is to introduce an option that users need to add
> just 
> to get the correct result
> 
> frank

-- 
Prof. Dr. Jobst Hoffmann            Tel:   +49 (241) 6009-5 31 59
Fachhochschule Aachen Abt. Jülich   Fax:   +49 (241) 6009-5 31 89
Fachbereich 09                      email: j.hoffmann at fh-aachen.de