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, 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 Similar to fonts, `\mP' and `\MP' switch back to the previous color. `\m'
22 and `\M' correspond to the new troff output commands `m' and `DF'. The
23 device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be redefined.
25 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
26 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode).
28 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
29 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
30 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
33 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
36 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
37 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
39 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
40 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
42 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
44 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
45 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
51 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
52 . nop I will now define `bar'.
54 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
58 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
59 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
61 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
62 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
63 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
64 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
65 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
66 before checking special fonts.
68 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
69 with \c counts as one input line.
71 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
72 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
75 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
76 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
77 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
78 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
80 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available (mainly for internal use with
81 grohtml). Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
83 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
84 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
86 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
87 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
88 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
90 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
93 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
94 works in compatibility mode.
96 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
97 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
99 o `groff_mwww.1' has been renamed to `groff_www.1'. The file mwww.tmac
102 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
103 reference to the ms macros.
105 o Changes in www.tmac:
107 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
108 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
109 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
112 The following macros have been renamed:
118 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
119 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
121 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
122 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
124 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
125 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
127 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
128 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
130 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
131 generation to headings.
133 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
136 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
137 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
139 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
140 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
143 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
145 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
147 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
149 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
150 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
155 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
156 disabled in compatibility mode).
161 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
162 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
163 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
168 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
169 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
170 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
172 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
174 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
176 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
181 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
182 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
183 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
188 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
189 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
195 o Color support has been added.
201 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
202 ANSI color) escape sequences.
204 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
205 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
206 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
208 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
209 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
210 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
211 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
212 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
214 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
215 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
216 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
217 man(1) for more details.
219 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
220 reverting to the old behaviour.
222 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
223 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
224 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
225 for this (including xterm).
230 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
232 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
234 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
236 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
237 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
243 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
248 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
253 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
254 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
255 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
260 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
265 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
266 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
269 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
271 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
272 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
274 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
280 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
282 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
288 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
290 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
291 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
299 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
300 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
301 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
302 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
303 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
305 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
306 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
307 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
308 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
309 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
310 environment variables to groff.
315 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
316 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
317 supported). Most important changes are:
320 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
321 . `.Lb': prints library names
322 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
324 . Updated `.St' command
325 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
326 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
327 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
328 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
329 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
330 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
331 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
332 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
335 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
336 documents the mdoc package.
338 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
339 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
341 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
342 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
343 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
346 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
348 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
355 can now be written as
361 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
362 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
363 ending the diversion).
365 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
366 and some other escape sequences also.
368 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
369 unbreakable space character.
371 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
372 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
373 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
378 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
383 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
388 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
395 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
396 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
397 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
398 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
401 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
402 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
404 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
405 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
406 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
407 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
410 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
411 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
412 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
427 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
431 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
432 mode, and 0 otherwise.
434 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
435 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
436 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
438 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
439 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
440 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
441 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
443 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
444 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
446 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
447 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
450 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
451 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
453 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
455 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
456 previous font family.
458 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
459 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
461 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
462 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
463 macro or string is written to a stream.
465 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
466 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
469 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
471 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
472 underlines spaces also).
477 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
478 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
483 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
484 been added to select a different prologue file.
486 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
487 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
488 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
493 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
495 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
496 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
497 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
500 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
501 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
502 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
503 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
504 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
505 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
507 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
508 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
511 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
512 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
513 variable if you really need the current directory.
515 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
516 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
517 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
518 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
519 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
520 is searched before the local tmac directory.
522 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
523 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
524 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
529 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
537 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
538 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
539 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
541 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
543 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
545 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
546 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
547 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
553 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
554 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
555 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
557 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
558 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
559 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
560 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
561 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
562 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
564 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
565 contains the current year.
567 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
568 number of the groff package.
570 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
571 font `foo' is undefined:
574 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
576 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
578 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
580 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
581 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
583 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
586 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
587 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
589 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
590 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
591 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
593 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
595 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
596 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
599 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
600 (which is an alias to character `"').
602 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
603 (which is an alias to character "'").
605 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
606 better support of HTML output:
608 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
611 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
613 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
614 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
615 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
616 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
618 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
621 use_charnames_in_special
622 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
623 inside special commands.
626 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
627 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
632 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
637 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
639 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
641 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
642 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
643 punctuation, for example).
648 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
650 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
656 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
657 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
658 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
663 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
664 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
665 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
666 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
671 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
672 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
677 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
683 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
684 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
685 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
690 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
691 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
692 <blake@florida-software.com>.
694 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
695 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
697 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
698 ========================
700 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
705 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
706 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
707 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
710 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
711 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
713 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
714 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
717 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
718 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
720 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
721 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
723 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
726 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
727 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
729 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
730 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
732 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
733 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
739 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
740 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
741 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
742 reports are highly welcome.
747 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
753 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
754 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
759 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
760 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
762 Will now support 8 gray levels.
767 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
772 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
773 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
774 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
775 half a dozen other projects.
780 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
781 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
782 latest GNU coding standards.
784 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
785 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
787 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
788 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
789 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
790 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
791 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
792 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
793 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
794 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
795 always installed as -me.
797 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
803 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
804 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
810 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
816 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
821 The -m option enables manual feed.
826 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
827 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
828 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
829 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
835 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
841 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
842 graphic to be specified.
850 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
851 environment variable xxx.
856 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
857 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
866 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
867 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
873 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
874 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
875 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
877 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
878 enabled by default) instead of an error.
880 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
881 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
886 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
887 try to keep the table on one page.
892 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
893 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
894 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
895 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
900 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
901 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
902 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
907 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
908 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
910 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
912 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
913 \(an. See groff_char(7).
915 ^L is now a legal input character.
920 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
921 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
922 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
923 default device is ps.)
925 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
926 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
927 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
928 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
930 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
931 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
932 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
933 draw_lines parameter.
935 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
936 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
937 always loaded by troff.
939 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
944 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
946 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
947 while a character definition is being processed.
949 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
952 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
953 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
955 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
956 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
957 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
958 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
959 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
961 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
962 with compatibility mode disabled.
964 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
965 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
966 for loading the device-specific macros.
971 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
972 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
973 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
974 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
976 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
977 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
978 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
980 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
981 (the quotes are required).
986 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
987 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
988 be prevented by the -R option.
990 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
991 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
993 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
996 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
997 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1003 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1004 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1005 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1007 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1010 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1011 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1012 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1017 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1018 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1023 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1029 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1030 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1031 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1032 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1033 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1034 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1035 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1036 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1037 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1038 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1039 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1041 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1043 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1044 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1047 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1052 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1053 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1054 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1056 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1057 redisplays the current page.
1065 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1066 differently with blocks.
1068 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1069 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1071 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1073 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1079 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1080 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1081 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1086 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1087 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1088 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1089 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1090 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1092 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1093 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1098 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1100 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1101 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1106 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1111 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1112 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1113 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1119 Support for scalable fonts.
1124 No changes other than bug fixes.
1129 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1130 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1131 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1132 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1134 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1136 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1137 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1138 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1139 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1140 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1141 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1143 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1146 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1147 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1149 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1154 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1155 input level as the opening [.
1157 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1158 suitable for use as a name.
1160 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1163 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1164 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1165 the -mX option is given.
1167 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1172 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1173 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1178 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1183 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1184 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1185 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1186 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1188 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1189 Document Structuring Convention.
1191 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1192 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1193 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1194 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1195 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1198 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1199 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1204 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1205 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1208 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1209 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1212 Xditview now uses imake.
1217 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1219 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1220 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1221 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1222 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1223 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1224 that the `n' condition will be true.
1226 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1227 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1228 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1230 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1231 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1232 latest version of the tpic specials.
1237 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1238 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1239 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1244 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1245 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1247 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1248 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1249 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1254 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1259 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1260 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1262 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1263 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1264 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1270 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1272 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1278 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1279 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1280 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1281 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1282 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1284 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1286 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1289 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1290 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1291 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1292 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1293 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1294 amount of extra space to each word space.
1296 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1298 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1299 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1300 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1301 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1302 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1308 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1310 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1311 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1317 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1318 complicated equations inside pictures.
1320 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1321 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1327 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1328 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1334 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1335 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1336 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1339 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1340 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1342 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1343 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1345 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1346 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1347 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1348 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1349 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1350 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1352 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1353 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1354 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1355 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1358 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1359 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1361 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1362 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1367 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1368 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1369 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1371 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1372 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1373 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1374 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1375 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1376 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1377 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1378 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1379 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1385 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1386 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1388 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1391 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1392 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1393 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1394 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1395 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1396 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1397 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1399 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1400 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1401 when the diversion is reread.
1403 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1406 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1407 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1408 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1409 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1410 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1411 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1412 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1414 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1417 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1420 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1422 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1423 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1425 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1427 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1428 of end of sentence recognition.
1430 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1431 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1433 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1434 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1436 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1438 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1439 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1440 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1445 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1446 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1448 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1449 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1452 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1453 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1455 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1457 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1458 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1460 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1461 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1464 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1465 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1467 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1468 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1469 of the `textht' variable.
1471 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1472 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1477 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1478 has been applied to a table.
1483 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1485 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1486 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1491 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1492 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1493 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1494 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1495 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1496 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1497 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1499 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1500 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1501 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'