1 Copyright (C) 1989-2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
2 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
5 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
6 notice and this notice are preserved.
8 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
9 described. There are more details in the man and info pages.
17 o XHTML support has been added to grohtml and can be specified by
18 -Txhtml. This option also utilizes the MathML capability of
19 eqn and combines the outputs of both in the final XHTML file.
20 Users can also specify the `-P-V' option together with `-Txhtml'
21 in groff. This has the effect of creating an XHTML validator
22 button at the bottom of each page.
27 o Two new requests `device' and `devicem' have been added which are
28 equivalents to the \X and \Y escapes, respectively.
30 o A new read-only number register `.br' is available which is set to 1
31 if a macro is called as .foo and to 0 if called as 'foo. This allows to
32 reliably modify requests.
37 . ie \\n[.br] .bp@orig
42 o A new request `fzoom' has been added to adjust the optical size of a
43 font in relation to the others. The zoom factor is given in integer
44 multiples of 1/1000th. In the following example, the CR font is
45 magnified by 10% (the zoom factor is 1.1).
50 Palatino and \f[CR]Courier\f[]
52 The new number register `.zoom' holds the zoom value of the current font,
53 in multiples of 1/1000th.
55 o The `cflags' request has been extended with a new flag value 64, to be
56 used in combination with values 2 (break before character) and 4 (break
57 after character). If set, the hyphenation codes of the surrounding
58 characters are ignored.
60 o A new debugging request, `pev', has been added to print all of the current
61 known environments to stderr. It first prints the state of the current
62 environment, then iterates through all of the known environments, printing
63 each except the one that is current.
65 o A new escape `\$^' has been added. It represents the parameters of a
66 macro as if they were an argument to the `ds' request. This is used by
69 o A new read-only number register `.O' is available which returns the
70 current suppression level as set by the `\O' escape.
75 o int(x) now really behaves as documented: It truncates the non-integer part
76 of x, this is, it rounds towards zero and not towards the next integer
77 less than or equal to x.
79 o Pic now supports up to 32 macro arguments (and up to 16 on EBCDIC
85 o Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
86 -TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
87 groff commands. The new groff -Txhtml device uses this.
92 o The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to generate
93 chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
98 o The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM versions
99 from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS printers. The
100 changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the `Euro' glyph and an
101 extended set of kerning values).
103 For backwards compatibility, the old set of font definition files is still
104 available; for details please read the man page of `grops(1)'.
109 o \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of horizontal
115 o XHTML support has been added.
117 o New command line option `-V' (to be used in XHTML mode) to produce an
118 XHTML validator button.
120 o New command line option `-y' to produce a right-justified groff signature
121 at the end of the document (in combination with option `-V').
126 o Support for keyboard navigation has been improved.
128 o Similar to other X11 applications, there are now two resource files,
129 `GXditview' and `GXditview-color'.
134 o `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
139 o New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
144 o Fabrice Ménard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
145 possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms, -mm,
146 -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized differently) by
147 appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages. Example:
149 groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
151 Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the `oe'
154 o Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
156 o German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional and
157 new orthography, respectively) has been added.
159 o Czech macro localization (with `-mcs') has been added.
161 Note that latin-2 input encoding is used for Czech.
163 o A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies the
166 o -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
167 register assignments, among other things.
169 o The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
170 rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
171 is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
173 o A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides some
174 macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit integers (mainly
175 to handle normal groff number operations without risking overflow errors).
177 o For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
178 localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are enabled
179 only after .SC is called.
181 o A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros, controlling
182 the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by `.NH'.
191 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
192 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
193 set the glyph and background colours.
195 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
198 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
199 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
202 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
208 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
209 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
214 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
216 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
217 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
218 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
221 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
223 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
224 ldots (three dots on the base line)
225 dollar (a dollar glyph)
227 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
228 hasn't been documented previously:
237 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
242 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
245 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
247 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
253 o Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
258 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
259 installed automatically.
264 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
265 hasn't been installed previously.
270 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
275 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
276 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
277 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
282 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
283 documents with groff.
290 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
291 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
292 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
295 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
296 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
297 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
298 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
299 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
301 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
304 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
305 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
308 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
309 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
312 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
313 same point size as body text.
316 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
317 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
318 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
319 produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
320 levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
322 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
323 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
326 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
331 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
332 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
336 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
338 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
339 <head>...</head> block.
341 New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
343 New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
348 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
349 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
354 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
355 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
356 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
357 troff always use unscaled character widths.
366 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
367 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
368 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
369 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
371 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
372 on standard error and run.
377 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
378 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
380 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
381 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
383 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
386 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
388 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
390 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
391 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
392 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
394 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
395 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
396 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
398 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
399 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
400 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
402 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
403 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
405 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
406 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
411 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
416 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
417 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
422 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
423 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
424 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
425 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
426 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
431 o New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
436 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
437 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
438 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
440 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
445 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
448 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
449 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
450 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
451 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
452 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
457 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
462 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
463 hpftodit manual page for more details.
468 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
469 the old single script style.
471 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
472 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
473 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
475 New documentation file: README_SH.
477 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
482 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
484 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
494 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
495 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
497 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
499 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
500 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
501 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
503 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
504 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
506 http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
508 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
509 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
510 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
512 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
517 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
519 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
520 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
521 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
522 glyphs. The new request
526 changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
527 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
531 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
532 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
534 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
537 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
538 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
539 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
541 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
542 new `rfschar' request.
544 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
545 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
546 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
548 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
549 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
550 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
551 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
553 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
554 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
555 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
557 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
564 \D'Fd' (default color)
566 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
567 position is *not* changed.
569 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
570 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
572 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
573 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
575 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
577 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
578 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
579 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
580 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
581 same glyph shape as with other devices.
586 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
587 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
589 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
590 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
591 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
593 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
594 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
595 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
596 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
597 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
598 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
600 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
602 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
603 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
609 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
610 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
612 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
613 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
616 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
618 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
619 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
621 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
622 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
623 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
628 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
631 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
632 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
637 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
638 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
643 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
649 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
650 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
655 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
657 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
658 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
663 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
664 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
666 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
668 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
669 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
670 afmtodit for more details.
675 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
678 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
679 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
680 sub-subheading indentation.
682 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
685 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
686 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
688 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
691 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
692 explicitly specified on the command line.
694 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
695 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
697 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
698 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
699 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
700 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
702 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
703 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
704 the driver specific DESC file.
706 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
709 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
718 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
719 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
720 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
721 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
722 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
723 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
725 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
726 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
727 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
730 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
735 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
741 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
742 drivers) to set the default line width.
747 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
752 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
757 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
758 compatibility with NetBSD.
760 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
763 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
764 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
767 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
772 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
773 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
774 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
778 papersize /etc/papersize a4
780 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
781 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
782 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
785 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
787 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
793 ***************************************************************************
795 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
797 ***************************************************************************
802 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
803 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
804 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
805 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
806 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
807 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
808 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
809 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
812 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
813 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
816 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
817 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
820 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
821 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
822 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
824 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
825 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
826 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
829 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
832 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
833 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
835 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
836 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
838 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
839 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
841 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
842 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
844 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
845 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
847 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
849 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
852 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
855 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
856 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
862 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
863 . nop I will now define `bar'.
865 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
869 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
870 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
872 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
873 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
874 control their output format.
876 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
877 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
878 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
879 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
880 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
881 before checking special fonts.
883 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
884 doesn't emit a final newline.
886 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
887 with \c counts as one input line.
889 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
890 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
893 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
894 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
895 Note that this is an incompatible change.
897 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
898 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
900 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
901 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
902 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
903 for more information.
905 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
908 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
909 already existing patterns).
911 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
912 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
913 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
914 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
916 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
917 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
918 final `0' can be omitted.
920 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
921 the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character code (if
922 any) before the character translation. Example:
934 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
936 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
937 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
938 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
939 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
940 post-vertical line space.
942 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
952 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
953 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
955 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
956 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
957 single space characters.
959 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
962 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
963 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
964 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
965 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
966 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
971 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
972 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
973 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
974 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
975 for PostScript output only.
977 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
978 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
980 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
981 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
982 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
983 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
984 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
986 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
987 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
988 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
990 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
993 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
994 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
997 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
998 works in compatibility mode.
1000 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
1001 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
1003 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
1006 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
1007 reference to the ms macros.
1009 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
1011 o Changes in www.tmac:
1013 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
1014 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
1015 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
1018 The following macros have been renamed:
1024 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
1025 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
1027 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
1028 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
1030 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
1031 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
1033 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
1034 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
1036 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
1037 generation to headings.
1039 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
1042 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
1043 converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1045 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
1046 (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1048 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
1050 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
1052 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
1054 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
1055 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
1060 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
1061 disabled in compatibility mode).
1066 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
1067 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
1068 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
1073 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
1074 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
1075 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
1077 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
1079 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
1081 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
1086 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1087 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1088 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1093 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1094 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1095 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1100 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
1101 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
1107 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
1112 o Color support has been added.
1114 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
1115 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
1120 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
1121 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
1122 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
1125 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1126 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
1128 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
1129 extended) has been added.
1131 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
1133 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
1134 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
1135 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
1137 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
1138 doesn't take care of hcode values.
1140 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
1141 to gray values currently.
1146 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
1147 ANSI color) escape sequences.
1149 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
1150 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
1151 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
1153 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
1154 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
1155 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
1156 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
1157 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
1159 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
1160 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on the
1161 used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P' option (or
1162 adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
1164 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
1165 reverting to the old behaviour.
1167 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
1168 enable SGR output (the default).
1170 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
1171 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
1172 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
1173 for this (including xterm).
1178 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
1180 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
1182 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
1184 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
1185 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
1188 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1193 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1194 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1195 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1200 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1202 o The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch
1205 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1208 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1210 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1211 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1213 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1215 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1216 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1217 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1223 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1228 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1229 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1230 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1236 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1241 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1242 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1245 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1247 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1248 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1250 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1256 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1258 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1264 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1266 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1267 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1276 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1277 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1278 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1279 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1280 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1282 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1283 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1284 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1285 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1286 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1287 environment variables to groff.
1292 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1293 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1294 supported). Most important changes are:
1297 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1298 . `.Lb': prints library names
1299 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1301 . Updated `.St' command
1302 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1303 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1304 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1305 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1306 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1307 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1308 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1309 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1312 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1313 documents the mdoc package.
1315 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1316 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1318 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1319 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1320 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1323 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1325 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1326 `if 1'. For example,
1332 can now be written as
1338 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1339 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1340 ending the diversion).
1342 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1343 and some other escape sequences also.
1345 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1346 unbreakable space character.
1348 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1349 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1350 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1355 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1360 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1365 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1372 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1373 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1374 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1375 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1378 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1379 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1381 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1382 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1383 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1384 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1387 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1388 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1389 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1404 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1408 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1409 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1411 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1412 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1413 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1415 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1416 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1417 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1418 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1420 o The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
1421 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1423 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
1426 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1427 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1428 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1429 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1431 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1432 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1434 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1435 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1438 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1439 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1441 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1443 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1444 previous font family.
1446 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1447 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1449 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1450 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1451 macro or string is written to a stream.
1453 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1454 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1457 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1459 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1460 underlines spaces also).
1465 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1466 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1471 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1472 been added to select a different prologue file.
1474 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1475 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1476 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1481 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1483 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1484 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1485 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1488 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1489 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1490 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1491 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1492 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1493 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1495 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1496 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1499 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1500 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1501 variable if you really need the current directory.
1503 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1504 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1505 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1506 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1507 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1508 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1510 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1511 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1512 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1518 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1527 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1528 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1529 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1531 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1533 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1535 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1536 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1537 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1543 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1544 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1545 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1547 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1548 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1549 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1550 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1551 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1552 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1554 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1555 contains the current year.
1557 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1558 number of the groff package.
1560 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1561 font `foo' is undefined:
1564 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1566 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1568 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1570 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1571 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1573 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1576 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1577 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1579 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1580 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1581 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1583 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1585 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1586 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1589 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1590 (which is an alias to character `"').
1592 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1593 (which is an alias to character "'").
1595 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1596 better support of HTML output:
1598 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1601 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1603 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1604 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1605 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1606 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1608 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1611 use_charnames_in_special
1612 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1613 inside special commands.
1616 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1617 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1622 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1627 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1629 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1631 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1632 is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1633 punctuation, for example).
1638 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1640 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1646 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1647 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1648 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1653 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1654 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1655 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1656 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1661 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1662 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1667 Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
1673 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1674 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1675 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1680 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1681 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1682 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1684 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1685 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1688 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1689 ========================
1691 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1697 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1698 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1699 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1702 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1703 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1705 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1706 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1709 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1710 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1712 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1713 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1715 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1718 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1719 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1721 Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1722 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1724 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1725 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1731 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1732 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1733 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1734 reports are highly welcome.
1739 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1745 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1746 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1751 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1752 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1754 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1759 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1765 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1766 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1767 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1768 half a dozen other projects.
1774 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1775 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1776 latest GNU coding standards.
1778 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1779 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1781 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1782 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1783 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1784 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1785 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1786 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1787 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1788 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1789 always installed as -me.
1791 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1797 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1798 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1804 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1810 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1815 The -m option enables manual feed.
1821 \(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics,
1822 and form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not
1823 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1824 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1830 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1836 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1837 graphic to be specified.
1846 The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the
1847 environment variable xxx.
1852 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1853 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1863 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1864 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1870 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1871 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1872 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1874 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1875 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1877 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1878 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1883 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1884 try to keep the table on one page.
1889 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1890 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1891 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1892 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1897 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1898 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1899 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1905 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1906 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1908 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1910 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1911 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1913 ^L is now a valid input character.
1918 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1919 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1920 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1921 default device is ps.)
1923 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1924 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1925 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1926 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1928 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1929 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1930 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1931 draw_lines parameter.
1933 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1934 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1935 always loaded by troff.
1937 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1942 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1944 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1945 while a character definition is being processed.
1947 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1950 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1951 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1953 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be
1954 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1955 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1956 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1957 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1959 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1960 with compatibility mode disabled.
1962 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1963 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1964 for loading the device-specific macros.
1969 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1970 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1971 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1972 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1974 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1975 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1976 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1978 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1979 (the quotes are required).
1984 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1985 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1986 be prevented by the -R option.
1988 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1989 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1991 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1994 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1995 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
2001 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
2002 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
2003 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
2005 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
2008 With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses
2009 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
2010 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
2015 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
2016 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
2021 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
2027 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
2028 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
2029 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
2030 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
2031 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
2032 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
2033 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
2034 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
2035 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
2036 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register
2037 is derived from the $r or $R register.
2039 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
2041 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
2042 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable
2045 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
2050 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
2051 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
2052 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
2054 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
2055 redisplays the current page.
2064 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
2065 differently with blocks.
2067 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
2068 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
2070 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
2072 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
2078 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered
2079 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
2080 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
2085 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
2086 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
2087 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
2088 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
2089 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
2091 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box
2092 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
2098 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
2100 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
2101 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
2106 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
2111 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
2112 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
2113 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
2119 Support for scalable fonts.
2125 No changes other than bug fixes.
2131 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
2132 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
2133 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
2134 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
2136 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
2138 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
2139 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
2140 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
2141 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the
2142 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
2143 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
2145 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
2148 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
2149 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
2151 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
2156 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
2157 input level as the opening [.
2159 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
2160 suitable for use as a name.
2162 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
2165 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
2166 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
2167 the -mX option is given.
2169 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
2174 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
2175 constructs by writing a troff macro.
2180 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
2185 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
2186 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
2187 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
2188 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
2190 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
2191 Document Structuring Convention.
2193 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
2194 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
2195 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
2196 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
2197 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
2200 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
2201 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2206 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2207 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with
2210 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2211 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2214 Xditview now uses imake.
2220 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2222 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2223 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2224 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2225 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2226 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2227 that the `n' condition is true.
2229 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2230 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2231 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2233 groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling
2234 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2235 latest version of the tpic specials.
2240 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2241 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2242 delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
2247 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2248 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2250 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2251 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2252 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2257 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2262 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2263 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2265 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2266 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2267 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2274 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2276 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2282 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2283 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2284 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2285 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2286 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2288 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2290 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2293 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2294 adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no
2295 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2296 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not
2297 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2298 amount of extra space to each word space.
2300 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2302 A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an
2303 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2304 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2305 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2306 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2312 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2314 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2315 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2321 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2322 complicated equations inside pictures.
2324 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2325 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2331 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2332 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2339 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2340 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2341 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2344 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2345 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2347 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2348 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2350 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2351 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2352 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2353 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2354 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2355 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2357 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2358 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2359 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2360 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2363 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
2364 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2366 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2367 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2372 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2373 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2374 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2376 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2377 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2378 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2379 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2380 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2381 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2382 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2383 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2384 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2390 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2391 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2393 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2396 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2397 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2398 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2399 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2400 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2401 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2402 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2404 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2405 diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output
2406 when the diversion is reread.
2408 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2411 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2412 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2413 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2414 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2415 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2416 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2417 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2419 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2422 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2425 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2427 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2428 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2430 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2432 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2433 of end of sentence recognition.
2435 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2436 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2438 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2439 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2441 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2443 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2444 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2445 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2450 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2451 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2453 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2454 lines are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2457 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2458 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2460 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2462 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2463 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2465 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2466 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2469 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2470 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2472 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2473 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2474 of the `textht' variable.
2476 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2477 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2482 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2483 has been applied to a table.
2488 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2490 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2491 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2496 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2497 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2498 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2499 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2500 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2501 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2502 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2504 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2505 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2506 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
2510 version-control: never