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 The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
11 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a glyph
12 (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the glyph)
13 sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal bounding
14 box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the particular
15 glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
17 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
18 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
19 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
22 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
27 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
33 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
34 drivers) to set the default line width.
39 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
44 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
49 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
50 compatibility with NetBSD.
52 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
55 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
56 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
59 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
64 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
65 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
66 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
70 papersize /etc/papersize a4
72 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
73 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
74 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
77 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
79 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
85 ***************************************************************************
87 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
89 ***************************************************************************
94 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
95 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
96 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
97 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
98 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
99 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
100 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
101 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
104 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
105 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
108 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
109 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
112 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
113 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
114 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
116 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
117 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
118 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
121 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
124 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
125 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
127 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
128 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
130 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
131 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
133 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
134 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
136 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
137 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
139 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
141 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
144 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
147 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
148 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
154 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
155 . nop I will now define `bar'.
157 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
161 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
162 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
164 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
165 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
166 control their output format.
168 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
169 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
170 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
171 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
172 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
173 before checking special fonts.
175 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
176 doesn't emit a final newline.
178 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
179 with \c counts as one input line.
181 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
182 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
185 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
186 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
187 Note that this is an incompatible change.
189 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
190 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
192 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
193 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
194 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
195 for more information.
197 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
200 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
201 already existing patterns).
203 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
204 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
205 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
206 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
208 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
209 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
210 final `0' can be omitted.
212 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
213 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
214 any) before the character translation. Example:
226 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
228 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
229 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
230 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
231 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
232 post-vertical line space.
234 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
244 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
245 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
247 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
248 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
249 single space characters.
251 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
254 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
255 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
256 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
257 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
258 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
263 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
264 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
265 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
266 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
267 for PostScript output only.
269 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
270 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
272 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
273 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
274 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
275 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
276 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
278 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
279 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
280 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
282 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
285 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
286 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
289 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
290 works in compatibility mode.
292 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
293 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
295 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
298 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
299 reference to the ms macros.
301 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
303 o Changes in www.tmac:
305 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
306 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
307 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
310 The following macros have been renamed:
316 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
317 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
319 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
320 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
322 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
323 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
325 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
326 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
328 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
329 generation to headings.
331 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
334 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
335 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
337 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
338 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
341 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
343 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
345 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
347 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
348 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
353 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
354 disabled in compatibility mode).
359 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
360 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
361 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
366 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
367 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
368 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
370 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
372 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
374 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
379 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
380 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
381 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
386 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
387 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
388 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
393 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
394 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
400 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
405 o Color support has been added.
407 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
408 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
413 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
414 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
415 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
418 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
419 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
421 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
422 extended) has been added.
424 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
426 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
427 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
428 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
430 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
431 doesn't take care of hcode values.
433 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
434 to gray values currently.
439 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
440 ANSI color) escape sequences.
442 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
443 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
444 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
446 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
447 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
448 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
449 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
450 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
452 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
453 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
454 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
455 man(1) for more details.
457 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
458 reverting to the old behaviour.
460 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
461 enable SGR output (the default).
463 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
464 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
465 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
466 for this (including xterm).
471 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
473 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
475 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
477 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
478 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
481 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
486 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
487 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
488 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
493 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
495 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
498 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
501 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
503 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
504 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
506 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
508 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
509 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
510 currently. troff completely ignores it.
515 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
520 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
521 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
522 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
527 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
532 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
533 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
536 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
538 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
539 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
541 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
547 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
549 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
555 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
557 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
558 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
566 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
567 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
568 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
569 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
570 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
572 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
573 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
574 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
575 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
576 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
577 environment variables to groff.
582 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
583 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
584 supported). Most important changes are:
587 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
588 . `.Lb': prints library names
589 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
591 . Updated `.St' command
592 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
593 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
594 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
595 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
596 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
597 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
598 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
599 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
602 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
603 documents the mdoc package.
605 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
606 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
608 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
609 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
610 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
613 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
615 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
622 can now be written as
628 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
629 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
630 ending the diversion).
632 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
633 and some other escape sequences also.
635 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
636 unbreakable space character.
638 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
639 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
640 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
645 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
650 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
655 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
662 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
663 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
664 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
665 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
668 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
669 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
671 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
672 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
673 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
674 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
677 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
678 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
679 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
694 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
698 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
699 mode, and 0 otherwise.
701 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
702 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
703 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
705 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
706 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
707 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
708 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
710 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
711 line are widened by a given limit or more.
713 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
716 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
717 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
718 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
719 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
721 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
722 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
724 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
725 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
728 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
729 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
731 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
733 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
734 previous font family.
736 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
737 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
739 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
740 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
741 macro or string is written to a stream.
743 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
744 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
747 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
749 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
750 underlines spaces also).
755 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
756 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
761 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
762 been added to select a different prologue file.
764 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
765 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
766 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
771 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
773 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
774 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
775 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
778 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
779 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
780 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
781 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
782 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
783 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
785 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
786 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
789 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
790 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
791 variable if you really need the current directory.
793 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
794 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
795 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
796 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
797 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
798 is searched before the local tmac directory.
800 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
801 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
802 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
807 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
815 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
816 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
817 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
819 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
821 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
823 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
824 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
825 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
831 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
832 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
833 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
835 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
836 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
837 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
838 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
839 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
840 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
842 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
843 contains the current year.
845 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
846 number of the groff package.
848 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
849 font `foo' is undefined:
852 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
854 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
856 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
858 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
859 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
861 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
864 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
865 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
867 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
868 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
869 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
871 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
873 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
874 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
877 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
878 (which is an alias to character `"').
880 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
881 (which is an alias to character "'").
883 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
884 better support of HTML output:
886 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
889 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
891 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
892 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
893 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
894 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
896 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
899 use_charnames_in_special
900 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
901 inside special commands.
904 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
905 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
910 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
915 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
917 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
919 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
920 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
921 punctuation, for example).
926 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
928 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
934 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
935 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
936 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
941 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
942 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
943 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
944 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
949 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
950 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
955 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
961 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
962 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
963 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
968 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
969 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
970 <blake@florida-software.com>.
972 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
973 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
975 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
976 ========================
978 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
983 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
984 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
985 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
988 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
989 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
991 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
992 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
995 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
996 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
998 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
999 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1001 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1004 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1005 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1007 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1008 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1010 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1011 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1017 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1018 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1019 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1020 reports are highly welcome.
1025 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1031 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1032 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1037 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1038 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1040 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1045 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1050 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1051 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1052 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1053 half a dozen other projects.
1058 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1059 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1060 latest GNU coding standards.
1062 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1063 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1065 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1066 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1067 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1068 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1069 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1070 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1071 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1072 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1073 always installed as -me.
1075 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1081 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1082 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1088 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1094 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1099 The -m option enables manual feed.
1104 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1105 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1106 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1107 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1113 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1119 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1120 graphic to be specified.
1128 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1129 environment variable xxx.
1134 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1135 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1144 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1145 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1151 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1152 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1153 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1155 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1156 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1158 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1159 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1164 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1165 try to keep the table on one page.
1170 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1171 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1172 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1173 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1178 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1179 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1180 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1185 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1186 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1188 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1190 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1191 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1193 ^L is now a legal input character.
1198 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1199 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1200 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1201 default device is ps.)
1203 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1204 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1205 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1206 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1208 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1209 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1210 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1211 draw_lines parameter.
1213 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1214 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1215 always loaded by troff.
1217 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1222 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1224 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1225 while a character definition is being processed.
1227 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1230 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1231 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1233 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1234 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1235 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1236 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1237 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1239 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1240 with compatibility mode disabled.
1242 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1243 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1244 for loading the device-specific macros.
1249 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1250 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1251 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1252 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1254 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1255 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1256 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1258 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1259 (the quotes are required).
1264 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1265 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1266 be prevented by the -R option.
1268 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1269 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1271 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1274 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1275 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1281 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1282 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1283 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1285 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1288 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1289 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1290 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1295 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1296 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1301 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1307 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1308 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1309 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1310 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1311 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1312 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1313 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1314 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1315 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1316 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1317 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1319 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1321 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1322 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1325 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1330 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1331 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1332 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1334 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1335 redisplays the current page.
1343 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1344 differently with blocks.
1346 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1347 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1349 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1351 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1357 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1358 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1359 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1364 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1365 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1366 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1367 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1368 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1370 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1371 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1376 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1378 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1379 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1384 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1389 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1390 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1391 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1397 Support for scalable fonts.
1402 No changes other than bug fixes.
1407 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1408 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1409 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1410 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1412 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1414 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1415 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1416 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1417 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1418 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1419 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1421 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1424 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1425 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1427 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1432 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1433 input level as the opening [.
1435 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1436 suitable for use as a name.
1438 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1441 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1442 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1443 the -mX option is given.
1445 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1450 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1451 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1456 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1461 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1462 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1463 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1464 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1466 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1467 Document Structuring Convention.
1469 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1470 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1471 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1472 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1473 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1476 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1477 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1482 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1483 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1486 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1487 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1490 Xditview now uses imake.
1495 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1497 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1498 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1499 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1500 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1501 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1502 that the `n' condition will be true.
1504 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1505 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1506 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1508 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1509 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1510 latest version of the tpic specials.
1515 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1516 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1517 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1522 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1523 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1525 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1526 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1527 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1532 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1537 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1538 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1540 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1541 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1542 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1548 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1550 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1556 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1557 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1558 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1559 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1560 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1562 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1564 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1567 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1568 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1569 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1570 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1571 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1572 amount of extra space to each word space.
1574 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1576 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1577 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1578 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1579 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1580 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1586 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1588 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1589 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1595 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1596 complicated equations inside pictures.
1598 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1599 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1605 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1606 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1612 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1613 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1614 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1617 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1618 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1620 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1621 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1623 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1624 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1625 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1626 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1627 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1628 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1630 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1631 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1632 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1633 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1636 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1637 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1639 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1640 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1645 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1646 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1647 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1649 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1650 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1651 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1652 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1653 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1654 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1655 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1656 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1657 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1663 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1664 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1666 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1669 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1670 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1671 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1672 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1673 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1674 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1675 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1677 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1678 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1679 when the diversion is reread.
1681 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1684 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1685 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1686 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1687 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1688 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1689 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1690 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1692 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1695 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1698 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1700 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1701 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1703 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1705 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1706 of end of sentence recognition.
1708 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1709 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1711 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1712 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1714 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1716 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1717 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1718 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1723 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1724 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1726 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1727 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1730 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1731 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1733 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1735 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1736 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1738 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1739 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1742 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1743 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1745 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1746 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1747 of the `textht' variable.
1749 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1750 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1755 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1756 has been applied to a table.
1761 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1763 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1764 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1769 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1770 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1771 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1772 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1773 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1774 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1775 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1777 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1778 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1779 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'