#151 Use of luatexbase package

[David Carlisle]

pgfplots under luatex loads luatexbase with a comment

    % I need \newcatcodetable
    \RequirePackage{luatexbase}%

However \newcatcodetable has been defined in the format since 2015 releases, luatexbase is a compatibility package which defines a lot of additional things that are not really recommended in the current latex.

This has come up again on stackexchange

https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/351862/load-pgfplots-after-cleveref-throws-error-with-lualatex

The issue here is that luatexbase and cleveref are defining \@gobble@optarg in incompatible ways.

I could change luatexbase to call its internal command something else but since the only reason for this package is compatibility with old use, there is a temptation not to change much there..But more generally it would be better if pgfplots didn't load it even if I change luatexbase to fix this issue.

If you want a cross-format file that defines \newcatcodetable as in latex for plain tex or old latex you could use ltluatex.tex

Or simply only RequirePackage{luatexbase} if \newcatcodetable is not defined.

Marked as a "bug", although it's more a "feature request" or perhaps a "sorry we moved the goalposts":-)

David

[Christian Feuersänger]

Thanks for the detailed report!

I have modified the code such that it loads luatexbase if and only if \newcatcodetable is undefined.