The l3experimental packages are a collection of experimental
implementations for aspects of the LaTeX3 kernel, dealing with
higher-level ideas such as the Designer Interface. Some of them
work as stand alone packages, providing new functionality, and
can be used on top of LaTeX2e with no changes to the existing
kernel. The present release includes: l3benchmark for measuring
the time taken by TeX to run certain code; l3cctab, support for
saving and restoring category codes en masse in a table;
l3color, support for setting colors using a range of color
models; l3draw, a code-level interface for constructing
drawings; l3graphics, an interfaces for the inclusion of
graphics files; l3pdf, support for core PDF concepts like
compression, objects, PDF version and so on; l3str, support for
string manipulation; l3sys-shell, which provides abstractions
for common shell functions like file deletion and copying;
xcoffins, which allows the alignment of boxes using a series of
'handle' positions, supplementing the simple TeX reference
point; xgalley, which controls boxes receiving text for
typesetting.
