Mark deprecated packages

[Coekjan]

Description

• Some packages are designed as workaround for compiler bugs or limitation, e.g:

  • https://typst.app/universe/package/indenta: for Behavior of first line indentation in paragraphs seems limiting typst#311
  • https://typst.app/universe/package/natrix: for Misaligned Matrix/Vector Brackets typst#1617

  When the compiler fixes the related bugs, these packages shall not be used anymore.

• Some old packages may be not actively maintained and can be replaced by some other better and actively maintained packages. The old package owners can mark them deprecated.

• ...

It would be nice to notify the users to remove the deprecated dependencies, especially when the users update their typst compiler and try to use it to compile an existing document.

---

Maybe we can allow package authors and typst maintainers to add some metadata (e.g. deprecated-since: '0.12.0') for a package at preview/{package}/meta.toml. More metadata can be added in it, so this design is not limited to deprecate a package.

By this design, the compiler can check this metadata and issue warnings to users.

[YDX-2147483647]

Apart from workaround and being unmaintained, there is a third type of deprecation: built into typst. So I suggest also add a replaced-by/in-favor-of entry. Examples:

• https://typst.app/universe/package/xarrow → https://typst.app/docs/reference/math/stretch/
• https://typst.app/universe/package/tablex → https://typst.app/docs/guides/table-guide/

Update:

• https://typst.app/universe/package/anti-matter/
  It can't compile anymore, and “the only thing this package can do that …(builtins)… cannot” mentioned in Deprecate? tingerrr/anti-matter#3 is covered in Forum 3472.

[eltos]

An alternative could be to expand the existing compiler key:

compiler: The minimum Typst compiler version required for this package to work.

to accept a range of versions

compiler = { min = "0.11", max = "0.13" }

i.e.

compiler.min = "0.8"
compiler.max = "0.11.1"

where both min and max are optional.

This would in addition to deprecation also allow marking older package versions incompatible with newer typst versions as a result of API incompatibility and notify users to update the package.

EDIT: I realise this would result in an error rather than a warning, so it's probably for another feature request.