1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes
2 are not described. There are more details in the man pages.
7 o `-mFOO' will now search first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
8 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
9 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
10 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
11 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
13 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH will be checked for programs
14 groff is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH.
15 If not set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is
16 located. Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script will only use
17 GROFF_BIN_PATH to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH
18 and PATH environment variable to groff.
23 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
24 package has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode) will
25 produce one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
28 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
41 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
42 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
43 ending the diversion).
45 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
46 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
47 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
49 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
50 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
51 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
52 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
54 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
55 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
57 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
58 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
61 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
63 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
64 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
65 macro or string is written to a stream.
70 Option -v shows the version number.
75 o The grog script will now work in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
76 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
78 o Option -v shows the version number.
83 A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has been
84 added to select a different prologue file.
89 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
91 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
92 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
93 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
96 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
97 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
98 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
99 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
100 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
101 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
103 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
104 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
107 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
108 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
109 variable if you really need the current directory.
111 o groff will now install its data files into
112 /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by default, following the GNU standard.
113 Additionally, a local tmac directory (by default
114 /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) will be scanned before the standard tmac
115 directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages (if
116 necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
117 will be searched before the local tmac directory.
119 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they will
120 exit immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards.
125 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
133 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
134 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
135 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
137 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
139 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
141 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
142 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
143 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
149 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
150 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
151 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
153 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
154 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
155 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
156 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
157 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
158 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
160 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
161 contains the current year.
163 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
164 number of the groff package.
166 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
167 font `foo' is undefined:
170 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
172 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
174 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
176 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
177 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
179 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
182 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
183 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
185 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
186 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
187 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
189 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
191 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
192 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
195 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
196 (which is an alias to character `"').
198 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
199 (which is an alias to character "'").
201 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
202 better support of HTML output:
204 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
207 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
209 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
210 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
211 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
212 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
214 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
217 use_charnames_in_special
218 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
219 inside special commands.
222 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
223 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
228 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
233 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
235 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
237 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
238 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
239 punctuation, for example).
244 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
246 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
252 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
253 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
254 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
259 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
260 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
261 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
262 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
267 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
268 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
273 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
279 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
280 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
281 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
286 A port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part of the
287 distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
288 <blake@florida-software.com>.
290 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
291 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
293 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
294 ========================
296 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
301 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
302 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not
303 all reported bug could be fixed, so please send mails again if
304 something is still not working.
306 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
307 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
309 There is now a man page called groff_man.man which documents the
310 basics of the -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan
311 G. Kleinmann <sgk@debian.org>.
313 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format
314 originally contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
316 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
317 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
319 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer
320 contain the word `UNIX'.
322 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
323 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
325 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix
326 `/usr/local/' as the default instead of replacing an existent groff
329 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
330 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros
336 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by
337 Gaius Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been
338 included into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance
339 to test it. Bug reports are highly welcome.
344 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
350 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
351 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
356 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
357 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
359 Will now support 8 gray levels.
364 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
369 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
370 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
371 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
372 half a dozen other projects.
377 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
378 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
379 latest GNU coding standards.
381 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
382 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
384 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
385 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
386 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
387 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
388 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
389 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
390 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
391 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
392 always installed as -me.
394 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
400 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
401 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
407 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
413 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
418 The -m option enables manual feed.
423 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
424 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
425 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
426 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
432 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
438 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
439 graphic to be specified.
447 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
448 environment variable xxx.
453 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
454 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
463 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
464 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
470 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
471 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
472 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
474 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
475 enabled by default) instead of an error.
477 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
478 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
483 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
484 try to keep the table on one page.
489 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
490 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
491 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
492 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
497 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
498 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
499 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
504 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
505 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
507 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
509 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
510 \(an. See groff_char(7).
512 ^L is now a legal input character.
517 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
518 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
519 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
520 default device is ps.)
522 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
523 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
524 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
525 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
527 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
528 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
529 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
530 draw_lines parameter.
532 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
533 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
534 always loaded by troff.
536 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
541 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
543 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
544 while a character definition is being processed.
546 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
549 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
550 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
552 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
553 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
554 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
555 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
556 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
558 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
559 with compatibility mode disabled.
561 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
562 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
563 for loading the device-specific macros.
568 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
569 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
570 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
571 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
573 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
574 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
575 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
577 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
578 (the quotes are required).
583 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
584 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
585 be prevented by the -R option.
587 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
588 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
590 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
593 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
594 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
600 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
601 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
602 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
604 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
607 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
608 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
609 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
614 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
615 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
620 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
626 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
627 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
628 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
629 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
630 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
631 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
632 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
633 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
634 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
635 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
636 be derived from the $r or $R register.
638 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
640 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
641 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
644 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
649 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
650 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
651 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
653 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
654 redisplays the current page.
662 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
663 differently with blocks.
665 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
666 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
668 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
670 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
676 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
677 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
678 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
683 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
684 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
685 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
686 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
687 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
689 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
690 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
695 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
697 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
698 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
703 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
708 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
709 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
710 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
716 Support for scalable fonts.
721 No changes other than bug fixes.
726 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
727 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
728 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
729 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
731 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
733 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
734 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
735 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
736 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
737 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
738 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
740 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
743 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
744 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
746 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
751 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
752 input level as the opening [.
754 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
755 suitable for use as a name.
757 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
760 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
761 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
762 the -mX option is given.
764 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
769 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
770 constructs by writing a troff macro.
775 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
780 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
781 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
782 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
783 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
785 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
786 Document Structuring Convention.
788 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
789 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
790 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
791 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
792 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
795 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
796 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
801 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
802 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
805 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
806 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
809 Xditview now uses imake.
814 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
816 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
817 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
818 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
819 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
820 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
821 that the `n' condition will be true.
823 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
824 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
825 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
827 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
828 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
829 latest version of the tpic specials.
834 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
835 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
836 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
841 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
842 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
844 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
845 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
846 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
851 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
856 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
857 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
859 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
860 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
861 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
867 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
869 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
875 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
876 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
877 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
878 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
879 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
881 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
883 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
886 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
887 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
888 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
889 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
890 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
891 amount of extra space to each word space.
893 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
895 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
896 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
897 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
898 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
899 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
905 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
907 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
908 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
914 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
915 complicated equations inside pictures.
917 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
918 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
924 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
925 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
931 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
932 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
933 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
936 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
937 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
939 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
940 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
942 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
943 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
944 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
945 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
946 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
947 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
949 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
950 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
951 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
952 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
955 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
956 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
958 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
959 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
964 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
965 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
966 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
968 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
969 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
970 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
971 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
972 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
973 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
974 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
975 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
976 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
982 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
983 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
985 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
988 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
989 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
990 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
991 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
992 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
993 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
994 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
996 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
997 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
998 when the diversion is reread.
1000 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1003 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1004 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1005 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1006 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1007 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1008 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1009 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1011 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1014 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1017 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1019 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1020 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1022 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1024 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1025 of end of sentence recognition.
1027 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1028 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1030 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1031 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1033 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1035 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1036 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1037 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1042 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1043 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1045 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1046 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1049 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1050 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1052 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1054 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1055 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1057 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1058 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1061 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1062 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1064 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1065 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1066 of the `textht' variable.
1068 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1069 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1074 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1075 has been applied to a table.
1080 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1082 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1083 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1088 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1089 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1090 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1091 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1092 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1093 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1094 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1096 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1097 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1098 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'