1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
2 described. There are more details in the man pages.
7 ***************************************************************************
9 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
11 ***************************************************************************
16 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
17 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
18 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
19 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
20 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
21 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
22 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
23 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
26 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
27 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
30 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
31 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
32 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
34 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
35 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
36 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
39 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
42 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
43 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
45 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
46 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
48 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
49 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
51 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
52 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
54 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
55 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
57 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
59 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
60 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
66 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
67 . nop I will now define `bar'.
69 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
73 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
74 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
76 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
77 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
78 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
79 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
80 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
81 before checking special fonts.
83 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
84 doesn't emit a final newline.
86 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
87 with \c counts as one input line.
89 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
90 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
93 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
94 patterns file without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
95 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
98 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
101 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
102 already existing patterns).
104 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
105 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
106 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
107 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
109 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
110 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
111 final `0' can be omitted.
113 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
114 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
115 any) before the character translation. Example:
127 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
129 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
130 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
131 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
132 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
133 post-vertical line space.
135 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
145 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available (mainly for internal use with
146 grohtml). Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
148 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
149 they are ignored now.
151 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
154 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
155 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
156 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
157 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
158 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
160 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
161 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
163 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
164 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
165 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
167 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
170 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
171 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
174 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
175 works in compatibility mode.
177 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
178 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
180 o `groff_mwww.1' has been renamed to `groff_www.1'. The file mwww.tmac
183 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
184 reference to the ms macros.
186 o Changes in www.tmac:
188 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
189 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
190 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
193 The following macros have been renamed:
199 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
200 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
202 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
203 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
205 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
206 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
208 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
209 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
211 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
212 generation to headings.
214 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
217 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
218 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
220 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
221 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
224 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
226 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
228 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
230 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
231 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
236 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
237 disabled in compatibility mode).
242 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
243 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
244 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
249 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
250 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
251 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
253 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
255 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
257 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
262 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
263 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
264 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
269 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
270 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
276 o Color support has been added.
281 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
282 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
283 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
286 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
287 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
289 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
290 extended) has been added.
292 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
294 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
295 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
296 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
298 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
299 doesn't take care of hcode values.
301 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
302 to gray values currently.
307 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
308 ANSI color) escape sequences.
310 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
311 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
312 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
314 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
315 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
316 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
317 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
318 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
320 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
321 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
322 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
323 man(1) for more details.
325 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
326 reverting to the old behaviour.
328 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
329 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
330 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
331 for this (including xterm).
336 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
338 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
340 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
342 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
343 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
349 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
354 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
359 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
360 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
361 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
366 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
371 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
372 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
375 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
377 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
378 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
380 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
386 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
388 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
394 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
396 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
397 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
405 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
406 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
407 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
408 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
409 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
411 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
412 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
413 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
414 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
415 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
416 environment variables to groff.
421 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
422 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
423 supported). Most important changes are:
426 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
427 . `.Lb': prints library names
428 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
430 . Updated `.St' command
431 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
432 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
433 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
434 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
435 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
436 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
437 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
438 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
441 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
442 documents the mdoc package.
444 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
445 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
447 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
448 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
449 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
452 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
454 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
461 can now be written as
467 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
468 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
469 ending the diversion).
471 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
472 and some other escape sequences also.
474 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
475 unbreakable space character.
477 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
478 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
479 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
484 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
489 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
494 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
501 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
502 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
503 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
504 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
507 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
508 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
510 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
511 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
512 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
513 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
516 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
517 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
518 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
533 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
537 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
538 mode, and 0 otherwise.
540 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
541 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
542 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
544 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
545 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
546 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
547 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
549 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
550 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
552 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
553 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
556 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
557 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
559 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
561 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
562 previous font family.
564 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
565 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
567 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
568 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
569 macro or string is written to a stream.
571 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
572 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
575 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
577 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
578 underlines spaces also).
583 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
584 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
589 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
590 been added to select a different prologue file.
592 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
593 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
594 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
599 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
601 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
602 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
603 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
606 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
607 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
608 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
609 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
610 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
611 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
613 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
614 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
617 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
618 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
619 variable if you really need the current directory.
621 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
622 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
623 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
624 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
625 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
626 is searched before the local tmac directory.
628 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
629 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
630 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
635 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
643 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
644 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
645 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
647 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
649 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
651 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
652 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
653 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
659 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
660 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
661 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
663 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
664 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
665 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
666 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
667 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
668 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
670 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
671 contains the current year.
673 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
674 number of the groff package.
676 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
677 font `foo' is undefined:
680 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
682 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
684 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
686 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
687 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
689 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
692 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
693 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
695 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
696 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
697 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
699 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
701 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
702 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
705 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
706 (which is an alias to character `"').
708 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
709 (which is an alias to character "'").
711 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
712 better support of HTML output:
714 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
717 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
719 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
720 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
721 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
722 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
724 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
727 use_charnames_in_special
728 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
729 inside special commands.
732 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
733 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
738 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
743 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
745 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
747 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
748 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
749 punctuation, for example).
754 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
756 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
762 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
763 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
764 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
769 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
770 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
771 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
772 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
777 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
778 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
783 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
789 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
790 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
791 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
796 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
797 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
798 <blake@florida-software.com>.
800 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
801 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
803 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
804 ========================
806 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
811 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
812 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
813 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
816 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
817 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
819 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
820 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
823 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
824 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
826 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
827 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
829 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
832 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
833 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
835 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
836 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
838 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
839 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
845 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
846 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
847 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
848 reports are highly welcome.
853 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
859 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
860 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
865 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
866 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
868 Will now support 8 gray levels.
873 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
878 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
879 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
880 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
881 half a dozen other projects.
886 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
887 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
888 latest GNU coding standards.
890 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
891 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
893 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
894 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
895 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
896 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
897 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
898 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
899 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
900 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
901 always installed as -me.
903 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
909 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
910 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
916 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
922 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
927 The -m option enables manual feed.
932 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
933 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
934 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
935 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
941 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
947 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
948 graphic to be specified.
956 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
957 environment variable xxx.
962 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
963 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
972 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
973 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
979 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
980 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
981 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
983 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
984 enabled by default) instead of an error.
986 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
987 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
992 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
993 try to keep the table on one page.
998 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
999 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1000 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1001 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1006 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1007 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1008 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1013 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1014 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1016 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1018 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1019 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1021 ^L is now a legal input character.
1026 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1027 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1028 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1029 default device is ps.)
1031 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1032 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1033 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1034 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1036 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1037 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1038 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1039 draw_lines parameter.
1041 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1042 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1043 always loaded by troff.
1045 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1050 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1052 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1053 while a character definition is being processed.
1055 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1058 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1059 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1061 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1062 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1063 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1064 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1065 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1067 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1068 with compatibility mode disabled.
1070 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1071 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1072 for loading the device-specific macros.
1077 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1078 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1079 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1080 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1082 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1083 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1084 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1086 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1087 (the quotes are required).
1092 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1093 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1094 be prevented by the -R option.
1096 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1097 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1099 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1102 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1103 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1109 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1110 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1111 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1113 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1116 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1117 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1118 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1123 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1124 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1129 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1135 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1136 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1137 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1138 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1139 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1140 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1141 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1142 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1143 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1144 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1145 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1147 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1149 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1150 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1153 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1158 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1159 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1160 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1162 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1163 redisplays the current page.
1171 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1172 differently with blocks.
1174 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1175 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1177 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1179 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1185 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1186 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1187 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1192 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1193 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1194 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1195 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1196 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1198 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1199 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1204 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1206 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1207 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1212 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1217 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1218 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1219 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1225 Support for scalable fonts.
1230 No changes other than bug fixes.
1235 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1236 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1237 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1238 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1240 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1242 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1243 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1244 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1245 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1246 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1247 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1249 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1252 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1253 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1255 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1260 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1261 input level as the opening [.
1263 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1264 suitable for use as a name.
1266 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1269 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1270 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1271 the -mX option is given.
1273 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1278 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1279 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1284 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1289 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1290 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1291 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1292 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1294 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1295 Document Structuring Convention.
1297 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1298 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1299 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1300 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1301 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1304 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1305 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1310 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1311 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1314 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1315 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1318 Xditview now uses imake.
1323 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1325 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1326 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1327 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1328 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1329 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1330 that the `n' condition will be true.
1332 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1333 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1334 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1336 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1337 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1338 latest version of the tpic specials.
1343 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1344 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1345 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1350 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1351 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1353 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1354 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1355 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1360 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1365 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1366 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1368 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1369 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1370 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1376 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1378 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1384 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1385 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1386 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1387 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1388 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1390 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1392 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1395 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1396 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1397 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1398 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1399 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1400 amount of extra space to each word space.
1402 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1404 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1405 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1406 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1407 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1408 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1414 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1416 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1417 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1423 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1424 complicated equations inside pictures.
1426 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1427 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1433 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1434 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1440 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1441 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1442 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1445 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1446 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1448 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1449 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1451 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1452 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1453 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1454 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1455 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1456 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1458 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1459 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1460 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1461 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1464 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1465 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1467 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1468 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1473 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1474 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1475 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1477 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1478 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1479 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1480 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1481 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1482 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1483 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1484 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1485 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1491 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1492 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1494 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1497 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1498 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1499 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1500 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1501 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1502 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1503 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1505 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1506 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1507 when the diversion is reread.
1509 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1512 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1513 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1514 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1515 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1516 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1517 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1518 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1520 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1523 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1526 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1528 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1529 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1531 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1533 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1534 of end of sentence recognition.
1536 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1537 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1539 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1540 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1542 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1544 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1545 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1546 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1551 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1552 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1554 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1555 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1558 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1559 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1561 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1563 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1564 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1566 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1567 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1570 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1571 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1573 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1574 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1575 of the `textht' variable.
1577 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1578 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1583 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1584 has been applied to a table.
1589 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1591 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1592 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1597 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1598 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1599 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1600 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1601 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1602 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1603 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1605 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1606 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1607 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'