(How) Can I upload an Asymptote module to CTAN?

Question

Let's say I have an experimental Asymptote module that I want to make available through CTAN. I can think of several options for this:

• Create a package that uses a filecontents* environment to install the module in the current directory.

• Somehow find an appropriate place in the TDS(?) structure where Asymptote will automatically look for modules. This would be ideal if

  1. Such a place existed (outside the asymptote/base folder, which I am guessing is not intended for additions), and
  2. I knew anything at all about the TDS structure. (Judging from other questions, this is something that is hard to get right unless you know what you are doing.)

• Create a package, which must be loaded after the asymptote package, that uses an asydef environment to include all my Asymptote code in all the Asymptote images throughout the tex document. This would be the easiest, but I think it's the least desirable of the three methods described. For one thing, it prevents the user from choosing which asy environments actually need the extra overhead of loading my module. For another, it can only be used for diagrams inside a tex file; I personally prefer to write all but the simplest asy code in a separate .asy file first, since it is easier to debug that way.

Are any of these reasonable? In particular, is there anything I could do for the second option?

Is CTAN even a suitable option for publishing an Asymptote module?

Answer 1

@cfr: There is no change of CTAN policy concerning TDS-structured packages. We allow them as secondary artifacts and ask authors to make them conform to TeX Live standards. We have never requested nor endorsed them as primary artifacts. The rationale for flattened source archives is easier handling for administration, cataloguing, searching, and browsing. Remember, CTAN stores submissions not as packages, but unpacked. Joachim (CTAN Team member and TDS co-author).