1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
2 described. There are more details in the man and info pages.
10 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
11 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
12 set the glyph and background colours.
14 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
17 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
18 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
21 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' output device.
26 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
27 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
32 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
34 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
35 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
36 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
39 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
41 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
42 ldots (three dots on the base line)
43 dollar (a dollar glyph)
45 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
46 hasn't been documented previously:
55 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
60 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
63 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
65 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
71 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
72 installed automatically.
77 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
78 hasn't been installed previously.
83 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
88 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
89 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
90 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
95 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
103 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
104 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
105 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
108 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
109 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
110 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
111 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
112 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
114 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
117 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
118 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
121 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
122 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
125 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which will keep the
126 same point size as body text.
129 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
130 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
131 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1' will
132 produce 14pt headings, `.NH 2' will produce 12pt, and all other levels
133 will remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
135 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
136 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
139 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
144 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
145 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
149 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
151 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
152 <head>...</head> block.
157 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
158 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
163 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
164 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
165 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
166 troff always use unscaled character widths.
175 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
176 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
177 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
178 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
180 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands will be both printed
181 on standard error and run.
186 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
187 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
189 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
190 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
192 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
195 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
197 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
199 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
200 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
201 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
203 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
204 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
205 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
207 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
208 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
209 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
211 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
212 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
214 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
215 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
220 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
225 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
226 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
231 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
232 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
233 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
234 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
235 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
240 o New option `-j' to emit output splitted into multiple files.
245 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
246 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
247 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
249 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
254 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
257 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
258 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
259 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
260 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
261 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
266 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
271 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
272 hpftodit manual page for more details.
277 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
278 the old single script style.
280 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
281 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
282 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
284 New documentation file: README_SH.
286 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
291 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
293 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
303 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
304 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
306 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
308 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
309 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
310 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
312 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
313 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
315 http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/type/unicodegn.jsp
317 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
318 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
319 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
321 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
326 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
328 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
329 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
330 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
331 glyphs. The new request
335 will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
336 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
340 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
341 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
343 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
346 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
347 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
348 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
350 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
351 new `rfschar' request.
353 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
354 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
355 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
357 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
358 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
359 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
360 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
362 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
363 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
364 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
366 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
373 \D'Fd' (default color)
375 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
376 position is *not* changed.
378 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
379 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
381 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
382 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
384 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
386 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
387 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
388 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
389 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
390 same glyph shape as with other devices.
395 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
396 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
398 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
399 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
400 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
402 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
403 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
404 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
405 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
406 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
407 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
409 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
411 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
412 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
418 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
419 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
421 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
422 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
425 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
427 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
428 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
430 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
431 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
432 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
437 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
440 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
441 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
446 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
447 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
452 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
458 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
459 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
464 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
466 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
467 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
472 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
473 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
475 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
477 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
478 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
479 afmtodit for more details.
484 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
487 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
488 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
489 sub-subheading indentation.
491 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
494 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
495 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
497 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
500 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
501 explicitly specified on the command line.
503 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
504 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
506 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
507 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
508 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
509 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
511 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
512 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
513 the driver specific DESC file.
515 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
518 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
527 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
528 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
529 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
530 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
531 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
532 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
534 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
535 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
536 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
539 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
544 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
550 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
551 drivers) to set the default line width.
556 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
561 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
566 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
567 compatibility with NetBSD.
569 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
572 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
573 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
576 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
581 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
582 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
583 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
587 papersize /etc/papersize a4
589 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
590 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
591 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
594 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
596 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
602 ***************************************************************************
604 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
606 ***************************************************************************
611 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
612 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
613 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
614 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
615 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
616 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
617 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
618 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
621 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
622 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
625 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
626 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
629 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
630 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
631 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
633 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
634 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
635 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
638 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
641 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
642 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
644 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
645 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
647 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
648 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
650 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
651 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
653 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
654 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
656 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
658 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
661 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
664 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
665 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
671 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
672 . nop I will now define `bar'.
674 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
678 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
679 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
681 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
682 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
683 control their output format.
685 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
686 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
687 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
688 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
689 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
690 before checking special fonts.
692 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
693 doesn't emit a final newline.
695 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
696 with \c counts as one input line.
698 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
699 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
702 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
703 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
704 Note that this is an incompatible change.
706 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
707 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
709 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
710 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
711 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
712 for more information.
714 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
717 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
718 already existing patterns).
720 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
721 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
722 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
723 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
725 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
726 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
727 final `0' can be omitted.
729 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
730 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
731 any) before the character translation. Example:
743 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
745 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
746 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
747 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
748 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
749 post-vertical line space.
751 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
761 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
762 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
764 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
765 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
766 single space characters.
768 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
771 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
772 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
773 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
774 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
775 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
780 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
781 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
782 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
783 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
784 for PostScript output only.
786 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
787 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
789 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
790 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
791 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
792 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
793 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
795 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
796 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
797 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
799 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
802 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
803 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
806 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
807 works in compatibility mode.
809 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
810 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
812 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
815 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
816 reference to the ms macros.
818 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
820 o Changes in www.tmac:
822 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
823 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
824 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
827 The following macros have been renamed:
833 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
834 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
836 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
837 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
839 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
840 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
842 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
843 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
845 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
846 generation to headings.
848 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
851 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
852 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
854 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
855 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
858 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
860 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
862 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
864 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
865 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
870 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
871 disabled in compatibility mode).
876 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
877 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
878 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
883 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
884 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
885 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
887 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
889 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
891 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
896 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
897 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
898 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
903 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
904 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
905 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
910 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
911 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
917 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
922 o Color support has been added.
924 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
925 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
930 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
931 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
932 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
935 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
936 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
938 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
939 extended) has been added.
941 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
943 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
944 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
945 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
947 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
948 doesn't take care of hcode values.
950 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
951 to gray values currently.
956 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
957 ANSI color) escape sequences.
959 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
960 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
961 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
963 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
964 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
965 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
966 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
967 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
969 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
970 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
971 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
972 man(1) for more details.
974 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
975 reverting to the old behaviour.
977 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
978 enable SGR output (the default).
980 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
981 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
982 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
983 for this (including xterm).
988 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
990 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
992 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
994 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
995 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
998 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1003 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1004 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1005 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1010 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1012 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
1015 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1018 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1020 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1021 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1023 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1025 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1026 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1027 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1032 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1037 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1038 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1039 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1044 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1049 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1050 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1053 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1055 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1056 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1058 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1064 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1066 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1072 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1074 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1075 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1083 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1084 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1085 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1086 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1087 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1089 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1090 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1091 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1092 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1093 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1094 environment variables to groff.
1099 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1100 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1101 supported). Most important changes are:
1104 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1105 . `.Lb': prints library names
1106 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1108 . Updated `.St' command
1109 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1110 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1111 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1112 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1113 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1114 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1115 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1116 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1119 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1120 documents the mdoc package.
1122 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1123 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1125 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1126 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1127 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1130 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1132 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1133 `if 1'. For example,
1139 can now be written as
1145 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1146 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1147 ending the diversion).
1149 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1150 and some other escape sequences also.
1152 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1153 unbreakable space character.
1155 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1156 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1157 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1162 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1167 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1172 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1179 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1180 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1181 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1182 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1185 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1186 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1188 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1189 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1190 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1191 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1194 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1195 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1196 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1211 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1215 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1216 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1218 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1219 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1220 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1222 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1223 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1224 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1225 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1227 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
1228 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1230 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
1233 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1234 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1235 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1236 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1238 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1239 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1241 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1242 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1245 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1246 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1248 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1250 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1251 previous font family.
1253 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1254 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1256 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1257 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1258 macro or string is written to a stream.
1260 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1261 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1264 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1266 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1267 underlines spaces also).
1272 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1273 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1278 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1279 been added to select a different prologue file.
1281 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1282 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1283 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1288 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1290 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1291 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1292 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1295 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1296 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1297 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1298 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1299 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1300 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1302 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1303 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1306 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1307 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1308 variable if you really need the current directory.
1310 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1311 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1312 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1313 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1314 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1315 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1317 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1318 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1319 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1324 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1332 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1333 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1334 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1336 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1338 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1340 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1341 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1342 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1348 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1349 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1350 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1352 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1353 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1354 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1355 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1356 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1357 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1359 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1360 contains the current year.
1362 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1363 number of the groff package.
1365 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1366 font `foo' is undefined:
1369 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1371 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1373 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1375 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1376 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1378 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1381 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1382 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1384 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1385 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1386 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1388 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1390 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1391 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1394 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1395 (which is an alias to character `"').
1397 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1398 (which is an alias to character "'").
1400 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1401 better support of HTML output:
1403 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1406 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1408 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1409 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1410 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1411 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1413 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1416 use_charnames_in_special
1417 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1418 inside special commands.
1421 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1422 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1427 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1432 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1434 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1436 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1437 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1438 punctuation, for example).
1443 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1445 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1451 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1452 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1453 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1458 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1459 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1460 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1461 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1466 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1467 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1472 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
1478 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1479 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1480 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1485 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1486 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1487 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1489 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1490 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1492 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1493 ========================
1495 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1500 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1501 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1502 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1505 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1506 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1508 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1509 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1512 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1513 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1515 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1516 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1518 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1521 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1522 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1524 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1525 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1527 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1528 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1534 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1535 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1536 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1537 reports are highly welcome.
1542 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1548 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1549 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1554 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1555 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1557 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1562 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1567 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1568 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1569 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1570 half a dozen other projects.
1575 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1576 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1577 latest GNU coding standards.
1579 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1580 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1582 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1583 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1584 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1585 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1586 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1587 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1588 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1589 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1590 always installed as -me.
1592 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1598 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1599 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1605 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1611 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1616 The -m option enables manual feed.
1621 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1622 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1623 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1624 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1630 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1636 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1637 graphic to be specified.
1645 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1646 environment variable xxx.
1651 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1652 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1661 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1662 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1668 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1669 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1670 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1672 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1673 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1675 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1676 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1681 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1682 try to keep the table on one page.
1687 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1688 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1689 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1690 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1695 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1696 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1697 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1702 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1703 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1705 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1707 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1708 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1710 ^L is now a legal input character.
1715 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1716 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1717 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1718 default device is ps.)
1720 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1721 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1722 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1723 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1725 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1726 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1727 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1728 draw_lines parameter.
1730 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1731 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1732 always loaded by troff.
1734 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1739 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1741 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1742 while a character definition is being processed.
1744 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1747 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1748 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1750 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1751 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1752 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1753 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1754 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1756 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1757 with compatibility mode disabled.
1759 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1760 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1761 for loading the device-specific macros.
1766 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1767 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1768 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1769 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1771 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1772 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1773 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1775 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1776 (the quotes are required).
1781 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1782 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1783 be prevented by the -R option.
1785 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1786 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1788 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1791 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1792 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1798 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1799 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1800 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1802 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1805 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1806 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1807 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1812 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1813 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1818 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1824 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1825 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1826 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1827 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1828 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1829 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1830 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1831 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1832 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1833 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1834 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1836 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1838 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1839 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1842 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1847 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1848 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1849 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1851 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1852 redisplays the current page.
1860 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1861 differently with blocks.
1863 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1864 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1866 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1868 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1874 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1875 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1876 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1881 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1882 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1883 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1884 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1885 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1887 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1888 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1893 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1895 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1896 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1901 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1906 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1907 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1908 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1914 Support for scalable fonts.
1919 No changes other than bug fixes.
1924 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1925 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1926 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1927 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1929 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1931 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1932 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1933 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1934 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1935 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1936 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1938 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1941 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1942 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1944 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1949 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1950 input level as the opening [.
1952 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1953 suitable for use as a name.
1955 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1958 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1959 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1960 the -mX option is given.
1962 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1967 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1968 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1973 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1978 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1979 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1980 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1981 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1983 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1984 Document Structuring Convention.
1986 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1987 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1988 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1989 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1990 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1993 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1994 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1999 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2000 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
2003 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2004 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2007 Xditview now uses imake.
2012 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2014 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2015 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2016 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2017 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2018 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2019 that the `n' condition will be true.
2021 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2022 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2023 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2025 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
2026 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2027 latest version of the tpic specials.
2032 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2033 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2034 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
2039 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2040 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2042 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2043 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2044 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2049 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2054 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2055 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2057 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2058 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2059 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2065 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2067 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2073 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2074 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2075 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2076 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2077 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2079 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2081 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2084 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2085 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
2086 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2087 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
2088 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2089 amount of extra space to each word space.
2091 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2093 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
2094 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2095 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2096 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2097 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2103 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2105 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2106 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2112 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2113 complicated equations inside pictures.
2115 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2116 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2122 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2123 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2129 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2130 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2131 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2134 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2135 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2137 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2138 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2140 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2141 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2142 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2143 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2144 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2145 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2147 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2148 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2149 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2150 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2153 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
2154 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2156 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2157 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2162 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2163 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2164 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2166 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2167 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2168 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2169 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2170 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2171 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2172 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2173 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2174 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2180 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2181 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2183 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2186 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2187 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2188 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2189 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2190 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2191 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2192 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2194 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2195 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
2196 when the diversion is reread.
2198 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2201 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2202 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2203 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2204 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2205 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2206 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2207 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2209 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2212 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2215 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2217 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2218 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2220 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2222 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2223 of end of sentence recognition.
2225 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2226 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2228 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2229 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2231 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2233 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2234 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2235 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2240 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2241 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2243 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2244 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2247 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2248 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2250 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2252 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2253 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2255 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2256 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2259 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2260 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2262 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2263 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2264 of the `textht' variable.
2266 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2267 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2272 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2273 has been applied to a table.
2278 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2280 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2281 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2286 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2287 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2288 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2289 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2290 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2291 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2292 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2294 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2295 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2296 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'