I am working on a package that is supposed to provide a modern alternative to the package [`expex`](https://ctan.org/pkg/expex). This question is not about its possible implementation. I will do that myself (suggestions are always welcome, though). The question is about its potential user-side syntax. The package provides so many intricate items that I am a little confused while attempting to standardise retaining its simplicity. Let's first see what it can do and then hypothetically LaTeX-ify it.

```
% arara: pdflatex
% arara: pdflatex
% arara: clean: { extensions: [ log,aux ] }
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{expex}

\begin{document}
\subsubsection*{Singleton examples:}
\ex
This is an example.
\xe

\ex
\begingl
\glpreamble Some text in the preamble.//
\gla        This is an example.//
\glb        abcdefgh abcdefgh abcdefgh abcdefgh//
\glft       abcd abcd abcd abcd.//
\endgl
\xe

\subsubsection*{Multiple examples:}
\pex % For multiple examples, we need \pex and not \ex
\a This is an example.
\a This is an example.
\xe

\lingset{%
  exnoformat        = {%
    |%
    X% represents the number that can take arbitrary content
     % before it
    ->% 
  }%
}

\pex
\a\begingl
\glpreamble Some text in the preamble.//
\gla        This is an example.//
\glb        abcdefgh abcdefgh abcdefgh abcdefgh//
\glft       abcd abcd abcd abcd.//
\endgl
\a\begingl
\glpreamble Some text in the preamble.//
\gla        This is an example.//
\glb        abcdefgh abcdefgh abcdefgh abcdefgh//
\glft       abcd abcd abcd abcd.//
\endgl
\xe
\end{document}
```

It's a huge package that offers micro control over most of the elements of tables, but I will take care of the syntax for the customisation macros. I need a simple syntax for the examples I have shown above.

Personally I would prefer to have a single syntax instead of the four-way distinction as seen in the MWE.

Tip: If you want to run this, don't save the test-file as `expex.tex`. The original TeX-file is named like that and thus the test fails to compile.