Overview

This document contains an overview of how to write classes and packages for LaTeX. It does not introduce all of the commands necessary to write packages: these can be found in either LaTeX: A Document Preparation System or The LaTeX Companion. But it does describe the new commands for structuring classes and packages.

Section 2.7

contains some general advice about writing classes and packages. It describes the difference between classes and packages, the command naming conventions, the use of doc and docstrip, how TeX's primitive file and box commands interact with LaTeX. It also contains some hints about general LaTeX style.

Section 3

describes the structure of classes and packages. This includes building classes and packages on top of other classes and packages, declaring options and declaring commands. It also contains example classes.

Section 4

lists the new class and package commands.

Section 6

gives detailed advice on how to upgrade existing LaTeX 2.09 classes and packages to LaTeX2e.