[texhax] Packages on CTAN

[Karl Berry]

Hi Chris,

    I've developed a small LaTeX package that I think might be of use

Cool.  What is it (and your area)?  (Just curious.)

    1) how do I go about getting this package onto CTAN?  

http://www.ctan.org/upload
(Each of the backbone servers has an upload form.)

    Are there better places to get it out there?

No.

    2) is it necessary to use the dtx format?  

It's not an absolute requirement.

    It doesn't seem too hard, but I'd rather not learn it if I don't
    have to (unless someone has a VERY short tutorial on it, not the one
    on CTAN itself).

I'm not sure if this is the one you mean, but the dtxtut package is (by
far) the best one I know.  It has sample skeletons which you can just
copy and paste.  (This is what I did when I created a dtx recently.)
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/dtxtut

    3) My package defines many new commands; how can I be sure that they
    will not conflict with commands defined in other packages?

There isn't any 100% certain way, unfortunately.  (TeX has no true
namespaces.)  Using a package-specific prefix for commands where
possible is about the best that can be done.  That and fixing any
problems that come up in practice.

Googling for any commands you feel particularly unsure about might be
good :).

Hope this helps.
karl