1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
2 described. There are more details in the man pages.
7 ***************************************************************************
9 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
11 ***************************************************************************
16 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
17 grops, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
18 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
19 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
20 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
21 Similar to fonts, `\mP' and `\MP' switch back to the previous color. `\m'
22 and `\M' correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m'
23 and `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't
26 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
27 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
30 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
31 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
32 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
34 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
35 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
36 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
39 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
42 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
43 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
45 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
46 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
48 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
50 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
51 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
57 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
58 . nop I will now define `bar'.
60 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
64 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
65 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
67 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
68 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
69 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
70 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
71 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
72 before checking special fonts.
74 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
75 with \c counts as one input line.
77 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
78 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
81 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
82 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
83 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
84 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
86 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available (mainly for internal use with
87 grohtml). Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
89 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
90 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
92 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
93 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
94 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
96 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
99 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
100 works in compatibility mode.
102 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
103 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
105 o `groff_mwww.1' has been renamed to `groff_www.1'. The file mwww.tmac
108 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
109 reference to the ms macros.
111 o Changes in www.tmac:
113 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
114 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
115 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
118 The following macros have been renamed:
124 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
125 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
127 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
128 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
130 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
131 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
133 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
134 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
136 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
137 generation to headings.
139 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
142 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
143 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
145 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
146 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
149 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
151 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
153 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
155 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
156 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
161 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
162 disabled in compatibility mode).
167 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
168 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
169 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
174 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
175 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
176 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
178 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
180 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
182 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
187 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
188 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
189 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
194 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
195 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
201 o Color support has been added.
206 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
207 extended) has been added.
209 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
211 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
212 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
213 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
215 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
216 doesn't take care of hcode values.
221 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
222 ANSI color) escape sequences.
224 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
225 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
226 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
228 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
229 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
230 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
231 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
232 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
234 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
235 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
236 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
237 man(1) for more details.
239 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
240 reverting to the old behaviour.
242 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
243 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
244 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
245 for this (including xterm).
250 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
252 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
254 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
256 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
257 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
263 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
268 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
273 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
274 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
275 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
280 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
285 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
286 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
289 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
291 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
292 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
294 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
300 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
302 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
308 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
310 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
311 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
319 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
320 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
321 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
322 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
323 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
325 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
326 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
327 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
328 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
329 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
330 environment variables to groff.
335 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
336 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
337 supported). Most important changes are:
340 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
341 . `.Lb': prints library names
342 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
344 . Updated `.St' command
345 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
346 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
347 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
348 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
349 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
350 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
351 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
352 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
355 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
356 documents the mdoc package.
358 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
359 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
361 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
362 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
363 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
366 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
368 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
375 can now be written as
381 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
382 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
383 ending the diversion).
385 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
386 and some other escape sequences also.
388 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
389 unbreakable space character.
391 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
392 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
393 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
398 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
403 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
408 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
415 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
416 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
417 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
418 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
421 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
422 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
424 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
425 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
426 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
427 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
430 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
431 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
432 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
447 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
451 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
452 mode, and 0 otherwise.
454 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
455 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
456 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
458 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
459 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
460 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
461 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
463 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
464 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
466 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
467 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
470 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
471 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
473 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
475 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
476 previous font family.
478 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
479 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
481 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
482 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
483 macro or string is written to a stream.
485 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
486 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
489 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
491 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
492 underlines spaces also).
497 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
498 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
503 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
504 been added to select a different prologue file.
506 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
507 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
508 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
513 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
515 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
516 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
517 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
520 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
521 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
522 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
523 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
524 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
525 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
527 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
528 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
531 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
532 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
533 variable if you really need the current directory.
535 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
536 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
537 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
538 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
539 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
540 is searched before the local tmac directory.
542 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
543 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
544 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
549 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
557 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
558 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
559 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
561 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
563 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
565 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
566 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
567 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
573 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
574 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
575 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
577 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
578 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
579 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
580 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
581 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
582 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
584 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
585 contains the current year.
587 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
588 number of the groff package.
590 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
591 font `foo' is undefined:
594 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
596 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
598 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
600 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
601 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
603 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
606 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
607 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
609 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
610 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
611 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
613 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
615 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
616 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
619 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
620 (which is an alias to character `"').
622 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
623 (which is an alias to character "'").
625 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
626 better support of HTML output:
628 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
631 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
633 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
634 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
635 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
636 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
638 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
641 use_charnames_in_special
642 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
643 inside special commands.
646 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
647 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
652 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
657 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
659 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
661 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
662 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
663 punctuation, for example).
668 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
670 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
676 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
677 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
678 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
683 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
684 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
685 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
686 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
691 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
692 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
697 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
703 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
704 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
705 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
710 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
711 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
712 <blake@florida-software.com>.
714 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
715 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
717 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
718 ========================
720 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
725 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
726 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
727 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
730 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
731 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
733 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
734 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
737 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
738 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
740 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
741 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
743 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
746 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
747 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
749 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
750 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
752 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
753 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
759 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
760 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
761 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
762 reports are highly welcome.
767 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
773 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
774 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
779 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
780 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
782 Will now support 8 gray levels.
787 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
792 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
793 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
794 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
795 half a dozen other projects.
800 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
801 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
802 latest GNU coding standards.
804 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
805 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
807 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
808 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
809 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
810 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
811 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
812 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
813 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
814 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
815 always installed as -me.
817 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
823 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
824 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
830 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
836 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
841 The -m option enables manual feed.
846 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
847 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
848 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
849 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
855 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
861 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
862 graphic to be specified.
870 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
871 environment variable xxx.
876 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
877 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
886 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
887 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
893 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
894 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
895 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
897 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
898 enabled by default) instead of an error.
900 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
901 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
906 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
907 try to keep the table on one page.
912 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
913 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
914 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
915 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
920 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
921 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
922 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
927 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
928 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
930 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
932 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
933 \(an. See groff_char(7).
935 ^L is now a legal input character.
940 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
941 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
942 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
943 default device is ps.)
945 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
946 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
947 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
948 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
950 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
951 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
952 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
953 draw_lines parameter.
955 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
956 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
957 always loaded by troff.
959 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
964 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
966 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
967 while a character definition is being processed.
969 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
972 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
973 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
975 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
976 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
977 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
978 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
979 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
981 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
982 with compatibility mode disabled.
984 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
985 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
986 for loading the device-specific macros.
991 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
992 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
993 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
994 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
996 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
997 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
998 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1000 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1001 (the quotes are required).
1006 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1007 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1008 be prevented by the -R option.
1010 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1011 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1013 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1016 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1017 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1023 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1024 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1025 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1027 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1030 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1031 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1032 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1037 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1038 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1043 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1049 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1050 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1051 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1052 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1053 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1054 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1055 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1056 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1057 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1058 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1059 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1061 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1063 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1064 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1067 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1072 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1073 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1074 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1076 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1077 redisplays the current page.
1085 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1086 differently with blocks.
1088 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1089 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1091 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1093 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1099 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1100 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1101 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1106 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1107 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1108 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1109 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1110 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1112 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1113 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1118 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1120 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1121 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1126 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1131 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1132 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1133 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1139 Support for scalable fonts.
1144 No changes other than bug fixes.
1149 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1150 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1151 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1152 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1154 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1156 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1157 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1158 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1159 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1160 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1161 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1163 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1166 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1167 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1169 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1174 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1175 input level as the opening [.
1177 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1178 suitable for use as a name.
1180 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1183 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1184 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1185 the -mX option is given.
1187 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1192 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1193 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1198 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1203 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1204 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1205 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1206 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1208 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1209 Document Structuring Convention.
1211 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1212 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1213 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1214 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1215 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1218 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1219 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1224 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1225 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1228 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1229 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1232 Xditview now uses imake.
1237 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1239 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1240 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1241 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1242 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1243 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1244 that the `n' condition will be true.
1246 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1247 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1248 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1250 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1251 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1252 latest version of the tpic specials.
1257 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1258 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1259 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1264 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1265 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1267 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1268 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1269 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1274 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1279 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1280 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1282 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1283 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1284 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1290 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1292 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1298 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1299 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1300 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1301 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1302 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1304 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1306 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1309 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1310 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1311 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1312 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1313 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1314 amount of extra space to each word space.
1316 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1318 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1319 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1320 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1321 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1322 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1328 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1330 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1331 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1337 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1338 complicated equations inside pictures.
1340 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1341 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1347 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1348 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1354 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1355 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1356 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1359 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1360 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1362 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1363 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1365 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1366 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1367 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1368 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1369 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1370 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1372 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1373 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1374 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1375 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1378 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1379 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1381 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1382 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1387 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1388 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1389 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1391 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1392 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1393 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1394 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1395 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1396 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1397 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1398 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1399 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1405 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1406 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1408 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1411 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1412 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1413 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1414 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1415 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1416 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1417 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1419 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1420 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1421 when the diversion is reread.
1423 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1426 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1427 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1428 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1429 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1430 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1431 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1432 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1434 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1437 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1440 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1442 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1443 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1445 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1447 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1448 of end of sentence recognition.
1450 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1451 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1453 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1454 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1456 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1458 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1459 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1460 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1465 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1466 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1468 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1469 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1472 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1473 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1475 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1477 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1478 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1480 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1481 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1484 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1485 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1487 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1488 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1489 of the `textht' variable.
1491 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1492 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1497 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1498 has been applied to a table.
1503 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1505 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1506 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1511 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1512 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1513 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1514 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1515 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1516 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1517 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1519 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1520 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1521 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'