1 Copyright (C) 1989-2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
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.
72 o The space width emitted by the `\|' and `\^' escape sequences can be
73 controlled on a per-font basis. If there is a glyph named `\|' or `\^',
74 respectively (note the leading backslash), defined in the current font
75 file, use this glyph's width instead of the default value.
77 This behaviour is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
83 o Two new command line options `-w' and `-W' are accepted and passed to
84 groff to enable and disable warning messages, respectively.
89 o int(x) now really behaves as documented: It truncates the non-integer part
90 of x, this is, it rounds towards zero and not towards the next integer
91 less than or equal to x.
93 o Pic now supports up to 32 macro arguments (and up to 16 on EBCDIC
96 o Heinz-Jürgen Örtel contributed code for two new keywords, `xslanted' and
97 `yslanted', which can change the shape of boxes into arbitrary
103 o Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
104 -TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
105 groff commands. The new groff -Txhtml device uses this.
110 o The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to generate
111 chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
116 o The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM versions
117 from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS printers. The
118 changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the `Euro' glyph and an
119 extended set of kerning values).
121 For backwards compatibility, the old set of font definition files is still
122 available; for details please read the man page of `grops(1)'.
127 o \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of horizontal
133 o XHTML support has been added.
135 o New command line option `-V' (to be used in XHTML mode) to produce an
136 XHTML validator button.
138 o New command line option `-y' to produce a right-justified groff signature
139 at the end of the document (in combination with option `-V').
144 o Support for keyboard navigation has been improved.
146 o Similar to other X11 applications, there are now two resource files,
147 `GXditview' and `GXditview-color'.
152 o `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
157 o New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
162 o Fabrice Ménard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
163 possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms, -mm,
164 -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized differently) by
165 appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages. Example:
167 groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
169 Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the `oe'
172 o Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
174 o German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional and
175 new orthography, respectively) has been added.
177 o Czech macro localization (with `-mcs') has been added.
179 Note that latin-2 input encoding is used for Czech.
181 o A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies the
184 o -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
185 register assignments, among other things.
187 o The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
188 rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
189 is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
191 o A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides some
192 macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit integers (mainly
193 to handle normal groff number operations without risking overflow errors).
195 o For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
196 localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are enabled
197 only after .SC is called.
199 o A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros, controlling
200 the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by `.NH'.
209 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
210 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
211 set the glyph and background colours.
213 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
216 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
217 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
220 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
226 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
227 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
232 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
234 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
235 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
236 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
239 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
241 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
242 ldots (three dots on the base line)
243 dollar (a dollar glyph)
245 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
246 hasn't been documented previously:
255 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
260 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
263 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
265 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
271 o Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
276 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
277 installed automatically.
282 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
283 hasn't been installed previously.
288 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
293 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
294 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
295 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
300 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
301 documents with groff.
308 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
309 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
310 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
313 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
314 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
315 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
316 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
317 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
319 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
322 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
323 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
326 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
327 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
330 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
331 same point size as body text.
334 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
335 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
336 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
337 produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
338 levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
340 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
341 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
344 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
349 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
350 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
354 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
356 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
357 <head>...</head> block.
359 New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
361 New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
366 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
367 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
372 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
373 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
374 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
375 troff always use unscaled character widths.
384 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
385 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
386 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
387 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
389 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
390 on standard error and run.
395 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
396 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
398 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
399 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
401 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
404 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
406 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
408 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
409 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
410 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
412 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
413 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
414 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
416 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
417 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
418 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
420 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
421 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
423 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
424 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
429 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
434 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
435 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
440 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
441 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
442 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
443 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
444 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
449 o New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
454 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
455 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
456 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
458 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
463 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
466 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
467 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
468 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
469 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
470 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
475 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
480 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
481 hpftodit manual page for more details.
486 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
487 the old single script style.
489 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
490 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
491 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
493 New documentation file: README_SH.
495 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
500 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
502 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
512 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
513 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
515 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
517 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
518 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
519 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
521 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
522 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
524 http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
526 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
527 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
528 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
530 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
535 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
537 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
538 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
539 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
540 glyphs. The new request
544 changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
545 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
549 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
550 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
552 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
555 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
556 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
557 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
559 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
560 new `rfschar' request.
562 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
563 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
564 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
566 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
567 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
568 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
569 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
571 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
572 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
573 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
575 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
582 \D'Fd' (default color)
584 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
585 position is *not* changed.
587 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
588 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
590 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
591 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
593 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
595 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
596 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
597 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
598 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
599 same glyph shape as with other devices.
604 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
605 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
607 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
608 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
609 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
611 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
612 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
613 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
614 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
615 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
616 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
618 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
620 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
621 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
627 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
628 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
630 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
631 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
634 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
636 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
637 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
639 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
640 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
641 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
646 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
649 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
650 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
655 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
656 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
661 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
667 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
668 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
673 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
675 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
676 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
681 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
682 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
684 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
686 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
687 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
688 afmtodit for more details.
693 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
696 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
697 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
698 sub-subheading indentation.
700 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
703 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
704 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
706 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
709 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
710 explicitly specified on the command line.
712 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
713 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
715 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
716 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
717 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
718 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
720 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
721 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
722 the driver specific DESC file.
724 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
727 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
736 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
737 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
738 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
739 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
740 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
741 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
743 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
744 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
745 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
748 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
753 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
759 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
760 drivers) to set the default line width.
765 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
770 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
775 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
776 compatibility with NetBSD.
778 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
781 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
782 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
785 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
790 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
791 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
792 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
796 papersize /etc/papersize a4
798 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
799 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
800 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
803 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
805 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
811 ***************************************************************************
813 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
815 ***************************************************************************
820 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
821 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
822 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
823 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
824 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
825 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
826 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
827 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
830 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
831 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
834 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
835 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
838 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
839 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
840 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
842 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
843 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
844 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
847 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
850 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
851 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
853 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
854 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
856 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
857 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
859 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
860 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
862 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
863 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
865 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
867 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
870 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
873 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
874 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
880 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
881 . nop I will now define `bar'.
883 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
887 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
888 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
890 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
891 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
892 control their output format.
894 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
895 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
896 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
897 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
898 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
899 before checking special fonts.
901 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
902 doesn't emit a final newline.
904 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
905 with \c counts as one input line.
907 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
908 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
911 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
912 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
913 Note that this is an incompatible change.
915 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
916 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
918 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
919 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
920 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
921 for more information.
923 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
926 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
927 already existing patterns).
929 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
930 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
931 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
932 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
934 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
935 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
936 final `0' can be omitted.
938 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
939 the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character code (if
940 any) before the character translation. Example:
952 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
954 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
955 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
956 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
957 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
958 post-vertical line space.
960 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
970 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
971 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
973 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
974 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
975 single space characters.
977 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
980 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
981 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
982 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
983 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
984 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
989 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
990 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
991 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
992 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
993 for PostScript output only.
995 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
996 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
998 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
999 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
1000 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
1001 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
1002 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
1004 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
1005 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
1006 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
1008 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
1011 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
1012 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
1015 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
1016 works in compatibility mode.
1018 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
1019 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
1021 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
1024 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
1025 reference to the ms macros.
1027 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
1029 o Changes in www.tmac:
1031 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
1032 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
1033 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
1036 The following macros have been renamed:
1042 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
1043 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
1045 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
1046 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
1048 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
1049 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
1051 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
1052 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
1054 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
1055 generation to headings.
1057 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
1060 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
1061 converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1063 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
1064 (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1066 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
1068 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
1070 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
1072 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
1073 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
1078 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
1079 disabled in compatibility mode).
1084 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
1085 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
1086 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
1091 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
1092 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
1093 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
1095 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
1097 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
1099 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
1104 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1105 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1106 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1111 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1112 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1113 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1118 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
1119 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
1125 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
1130 o Color support has been added.
1132 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
1133 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
1138 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
1139 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
1140 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
1143 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1144 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
1146 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
1147 extended) has been added.
1149 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
1151 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
1152 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
1153 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
1155 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
1156 doesn't take care of hcode values.
1158 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
1159 to gray values currently.
1164 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
1165 ANSI color) escape sequences.
1167 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
1168 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
1169 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
1171 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
1172 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
1173 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
1174 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
1175 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
1177 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
1178 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on the
1179 used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P' option (or
1180 adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
1182 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
1183 reverting to the old behaviour.
1185 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
1186 enable SGR output (the default).
1188 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
1189 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
1190 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
1191 for this (including xterm).
1196 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
1198 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
1200 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
1202 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
1203 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
1206 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1211 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1212 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1213 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1218 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1220 o The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch
1223 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1226 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1228 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1229 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1231 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1233 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1234 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1235 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1241 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1246 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1247 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1248 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1254 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1259 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1260 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1263 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1265 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1266 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1268 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1274 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1276 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1282 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1284 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1285 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1294 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1295 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1296 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1297 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1298 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1300 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1301 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1302 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1303 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1304 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1305 environment variables to groff.
1310 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1311 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1312 supported). Most important changes are:
1315 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1316 . `.Lb': prints library names
1317 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1319 . Updated `.St' command
1320 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1321 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1322 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1323 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1324 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1325 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1326 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1327 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1330 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1331 documents the mdoc package.
1333 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1334 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1336 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1337 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1338 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1341 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1343 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1344 `if 1'. For example,
1350 can now be written as
1356 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1357 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1358 ending the diversion).
1360 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1361 and some other escape sequences also.
1363 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1364 unbreakable space character.
1366 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1367 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1368 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1373 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1378 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1383 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1390 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1391 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1392 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1393 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1396 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1397 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1399 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1400 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1401 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1402 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1405 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1406 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1407 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1422 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1426 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1427 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1429 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1430 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1431 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1433 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1434 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1435 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1436 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1438 o The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
1439 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1441 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
1444 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1445 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1446 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1447 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1449 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1450 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1452 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1453 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1456 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1457 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1459 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1461 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1462 previous font family.
1464 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1465 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1467 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1468 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1469 macro or string is written to a stream.
1471 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1472 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1475 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1477 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1478 underlines spaces also).
1483 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1484 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1489 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1490 been added to select a different prologue file.
1492 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1493 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1494 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1499 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1501 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1502 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1503 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1506 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1507 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1508 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1509 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1510 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1511 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1513 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1514 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1517 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1518 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1519 variable if you really need the current directory.
1521 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1522 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1523 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1524 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1525 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1526 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1528 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1529 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1530 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1536 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1545 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1546 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1547 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1549 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1551 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1553 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1554 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1555 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1561 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1562 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1563 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1565 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1566 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1567 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1568 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1569 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1570 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1572 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1573 contains the current year.
1575 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1576 number of the groff package.
1578 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1579 font `foo' is undefined:
1582 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1584 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1586 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1588 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1589 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1591 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1594 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1595 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1597 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1598 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1599 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1601 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1603 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1604 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1607 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1608 (which is an alias to character `"').
1610 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1611 (which is an alias to character "'").
1613 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1614 better support of HTML output:
1616 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1619 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1621 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1622 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1623 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1624 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1626 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1629 use_charnames_in_special
1630 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1631 inside special commands.
1634 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1635 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1640 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1645 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1647 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1649 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1650 is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1651 punctuation, for example).
1656 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1658 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1664 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1665 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1666 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1671 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1672 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1673 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1674 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1679 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1680 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1685 Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
1691 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1692 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1693 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1698 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1699 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1700 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1702 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1703 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1706 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1707 ========================
1709 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1715 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1716 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1717 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1720 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1721 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1723 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1724 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1727 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1728 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1730 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1731 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1733 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1736 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1737 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1739 Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1740 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1742 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1743 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1749 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1750 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1751 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1752 reports are highly welcome.
1757 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1763 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1764 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1769 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1770 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1772 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1777 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1783 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1784 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1785 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1786 half a dozen other projects.
1792 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1793 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1794 latest GNU coding standards.
1796 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1797 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1799 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1800 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1801 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1802 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1803 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1804 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1805 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1806 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1807 always installed as -me.
1809 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1815 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1816 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1822 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1828 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1833 The -m option enables manual feed.
1839 \(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics,
1840 and form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not
1841 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1842 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1848 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1854 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1855 graphic to be specified.
1864 The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the
1865 environment variable xxx.
1870 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1871 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1881 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1882 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1888 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1889 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1890 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1892 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1893 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1895 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1896 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1901 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1902 try to keep the table on one page.
1907 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1908 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1909 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1910 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1915 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1916 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1917 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1923 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1924 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1926 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1928 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1929 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1931 ^L is now a valid input character.
1936 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1937 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1938 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1939 default device is ps.)
1941 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1942 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1943 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1944 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1946 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1947 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1948 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1949 draw_lines parameter.
1951 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1952 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1953 always loaded by troff.
1955 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1960 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1962 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1963 while a character definition is being processed.
1965 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1968 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1969 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1971 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be
1972 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1973 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1974 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1975 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1977 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1978 with compatibility mode disabled.
1980 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1981 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1982 for loading the device-specific macros.
1987 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1988 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1989 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1990 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1992 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1993 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1994 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1996 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1997 (the quotes are required).
2002 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
2003 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
2004 be prevented by the -R option.
2006 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
2007 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
2009 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
2012 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
2013 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
2019 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
2020 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
2021 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
2023 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
2026 With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses
2027 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
2028 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
2033 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
2034 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
2039 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
2045 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
2046 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
2047 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
2048 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
2049 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
2050 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
2051 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
2052 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
2053 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
2054 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register
2055 is derived from the $r or $R register.
2057 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
2059 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
2060 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable
2063 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
2068 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
2069 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
2070 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
2072 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
2073 redisplays the current page.
2082 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
2083 differently with blocks.
2085 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
2086 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
2088 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
2090 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
2096 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered
2097 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
2098 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
2103 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
2104 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
2105 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
2106 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
2107 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
2109 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box
2110 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
2116 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
2118 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
2119 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
2124 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
2129 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
2130 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
2131 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
2137 Support for scalable fonts.
2143 No changes other than bug fixes.
2149 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
2150 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
2151 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
2152 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
2154 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
2156 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
2157 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
2158 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
2159 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the
2160 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
2161 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
2163 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
2166 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
2167 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
2169 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
2174 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
2175 input level as the opening [.
2177 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
2178 suitable for use as a name.
2180 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
2183 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
2184 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
2185 the -mX option is given.
2187 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
2192 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
2193 constructs by writing a troff macro.
2198 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
2203 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
2204 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
2205 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
2206 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
2208 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
2209 Document Structuring Convention.
2211 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
2212 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
2213 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
2214 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
2215 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
2218 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
2219 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2224 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2225 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with
2228 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2229 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2232 Xditview now uses imake.
2238 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2240 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2241 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2242 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2243 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2244 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2245 that the `n' condition is true.
2247 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2248 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2249 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2251 groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling
2252 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2253 latest version of the tpic specials.
2258 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2259 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2260 delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
2265 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2266 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2268 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2269 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2270 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2275 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2280 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2281 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2283 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2284 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2285 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2292 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2294 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2300 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2301 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2302 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2303 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2304 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2306 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2308 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2311 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2312 adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no
2313 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2314 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not
2315 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2316 amount of extra space to each word space.
2318 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2320 A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an
2321 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2322 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2323 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2324 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2330 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2332 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2333 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2339 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2340 complicated equations inside pictures.
2342 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2343 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2349 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2350 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2357 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2358 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2359 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2362 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2363 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2365 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2366 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2368 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2369 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2370 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2371 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2372 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2373 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2375 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2376 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2377 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2378 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2381 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
2382 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2384 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2385 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2390 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2391 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2392 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2394 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2395 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2396 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2397 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2398 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2399 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2400 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2401 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2402 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2408 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2409 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2411 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2414 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2415 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2416 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2417 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2418 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2419 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2420 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2422 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2423 diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output
2424 when the diversion is reread.
2426 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2429 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2430 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2431 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2432 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2433 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2434 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2435 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2437 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2440 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2443 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2445 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2446 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2448 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2450 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2451 of end of sentence recognition.
2453 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2454 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2456 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2457 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2459 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2461 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2462 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2463 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2468 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2469 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2471 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2472 lines are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2475 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2476 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2478 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2480 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2481 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2483 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2484 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2487 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2488 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2490 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2491 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2492 of the `textht' variable.
2494 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2495 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2500 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2501 has been applied to a table.
2506 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2508 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2509 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2514 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2515 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2516 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2517 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2518 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2519 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2520 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2522 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2523 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2524 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
2528 version-control: never