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 argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
11 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
12 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
13 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
15 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands will be both printed
16 on standard error and run.
21 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
22 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
24 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
27 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
29 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
31 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
32 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
33 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
35 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
36 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
37 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
39 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
40 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
41 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
43 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
44 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
46 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
47 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
52 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
57 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
58 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
63 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
64 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
65 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
70 o New option `-j' to emit output splitted into multiple files.
75 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
76 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
77 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
79 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
84 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
87 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
88 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
89 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
90 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
91 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
96 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
101 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
102 hpftodit manual page for more details.
107 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
109 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
119 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
120 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
122 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
124 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
125 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
126 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
128 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
129 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
131 http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/type/unicodegn.jsp
133 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
134 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
135 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
137 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
142 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
144 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
145 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
146 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
147 glyphs. The new request
151 will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
152 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
156 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
157 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
159 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
162 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
163 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
164 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
166 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
167 new `rfschar' request.
169 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
170 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
171 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
173 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
174 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
175 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
176 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
178 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
179 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
180 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
182 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
189 \D'Fd' (default color)
191 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
192 position is *not* changed.
194 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
195 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
197 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
198 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
200 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
202 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
203 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
204 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
205 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
206 same glyph shape as with other devices.
211 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
212 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
214 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
215 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
216 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
218 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
219 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
220 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
221 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
222 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
223 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
225 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
227 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
228 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
234 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
235 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
237 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
238 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
241 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
243 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
244 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
246 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
247 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
248 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
253 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
256 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
257 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
262 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
263 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
268 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
274 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
275 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
280 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
282 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
283 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
288 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
289 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
291 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
293 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
294 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
295 afmtodit for more details.
300 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
303 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
304 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
305 sub-subheading indentation.
307 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
310 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
311 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
313 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
316 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
317 explicitly specified on the command line.
319 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
320 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
322 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
323 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
324 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
325 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
327 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
328 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
329 the driver specific DESC file.
331 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
334 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
343 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
344 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
345 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
346 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
347 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
348 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
350 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
351 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
352 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
355 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
360 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
366 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
367 drivers) to set the default line width.
372 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
377 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
382 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
383 compatibility with NetBSD.
385 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
388 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
389 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
392 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
397 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
398 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
399 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
403 papersize /etc/papersize a4
405 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
406 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
407 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
410 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
412 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
418 ***************************************************************************
420 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
422 ***************************************************************************
427 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
428 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
429 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
430 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
431 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
432 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
433 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
434 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
437 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
438 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
441 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
442 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
445 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
446 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
447 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
449 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
450 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
451 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
454 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
457 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
458 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
460 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
461 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
463 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
464 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
466 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
467 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
469 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
470 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
472 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
474 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
477 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
480 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
481 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
487 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
488 . nop I will now define `bar'.
490 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
494 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
495 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
497 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
498 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
499 control their output format.
501 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
502 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
503 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
504 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
505 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
506 before checking special fonts.
508 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
509 doesn't emit a final newline.
511 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
512 with \c counts as one input line.
514 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
515 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
518 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
519 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
520 Note that this is an incompatible change.
522 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
523 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
525 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
526 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
527 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
528 for more information.
530 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
533 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
534 already existing patterns).
536 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
537 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
538 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
539 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
541 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
542 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
543 final `0' can be omitted.
545 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
546 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
547 any) before the character translation. Example:
559 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
561 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
562 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
563 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
564 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
565 post-vertical line space.
567 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
577 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
578 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
580 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
581 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
582 single space characters.
584 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
587 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
588 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
589 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
590 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
591 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
596 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
597 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
598 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
599 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
600 for PostScript output only.
602 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
603 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
605 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
606 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
607 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
608 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
609 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
611 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
612 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
613 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
615 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
618 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
619 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
622 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
623 works in compatibility mode.
625 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
626 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
628 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
631 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
632 reference to the ms macros.
634 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
636 o Changes in www.tmac:
638 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
639 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
640 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
643 The following macros have been renamed:
649 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
650 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
652 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
653 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
655 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
656 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
658 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
659 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
661 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
662 generation to headings.
664 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
667 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
668 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
670 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
671 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
674 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
676 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
678 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
680 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
681 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
686 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
687 disabled in compatibility mode).
692 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
693 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
694 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
699 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
700 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
701 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
703 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
705 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
707 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
712 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
713 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
714 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
719 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
720 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
721 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
726 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
727 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
733 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
738 o Color support has been added.
740 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
741 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
746 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
747 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
748 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
751 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
752 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
754 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
755 extended) has been added.
757 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
759 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
760 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
761 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
763 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
764 doesn't take care of hcode values.
766 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
767 to gray values currently.
772 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
773 ANSI color) escape sequences.
775 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
776 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
777 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
779 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
780 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
781 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
782 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
783 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
785 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
786 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
787 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
788 man(1) for more details.
790 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
791 reverting to the old behaviour.
793 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
794 enable SGR output (the default).
796 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
797 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
798 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
799 for this (including xterm).
804 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
806 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
808 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
810 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
811 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
814 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
819 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
820 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
821 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
826 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
828 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
831 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
834 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
836 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
837 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
839 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
841 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
842 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
843 currently. troff completely ignores it.
848 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
853 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
854 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
855 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
860 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
865 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
866 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
869 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
871 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
872 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
874 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
880 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
882 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
888 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
890 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
891 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
899 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
900 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
901 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
902 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
903 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
905 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
906 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
907 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
908 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
909 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
910 environment variables to groff.
915 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
916 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
917 supported). Most important changes are:
920 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
921 . `.Lb': prints library names
922 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
924 . Updated `.St' command
925 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
926 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
927 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
928 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
929 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
930 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
931 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
932 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
935 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
936 documents the mdoc package.
938 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
939 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
941 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
942 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
943 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
946 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
948 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
955 can now be written as
961 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
962 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
963 ending the diversion).
965 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
966 and some other escape sequences also.
968 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
969 unbreakable space character.
971 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
972 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
973 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
978 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
983 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
988 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
995 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
996 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
997 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
998 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1001 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1002 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1004 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1005 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1006 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1007 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1010 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1011 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1012 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1027 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1031 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1032 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1034 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1035 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1036 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1038 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1039 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1040 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1041 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1043 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
1044 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1046 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
1049 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1050 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1051 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1052 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1054 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1055 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1057 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1058 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1061 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1062 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1064 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1066 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1067 previous font family.
1069 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1070 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1072 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1073 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1074 macro or string is written to a stream.
1076 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1077 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1080 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1082 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1083 underlines spaces also).
1088 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1089 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1094 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1095 been added to select a different prologue file.
1097 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1098 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1099 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1104 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1106 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1107 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1108 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1111 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1112 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1113 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1114 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1115 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1116 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1118 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1119 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1122 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1123 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1124 variable if you really need the current directory.
1126 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1127 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1128 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1129 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1130 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1131 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1133 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1134 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1135 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1140 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1148 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1149 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1150 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1152 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1154 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1156 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1157 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1158 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1164 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1165 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1166 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1168 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1169 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1170 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1171 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1172 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1173 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1175 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1176 contains the current year.
1178 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1179 number of the groff package.
1181 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1182 font `foo' is undefined:
1185 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1187 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1189 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1191 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1192 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1194 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1197 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1198 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1200 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1201 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1202 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1204 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1206 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1207 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1210 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1211 (which is an alias to character `"').
1213 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1214 (which is an alias to character "'").
1216 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1217 better support of HTML output:
1219 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1222 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1224 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1225 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1226 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1227 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1229 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1232 use_charnames_in_special
1233 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1234 inside special commands.
1237 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1238 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1243 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1248 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1250 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1252 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1253 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1254 punctuation, for example).
1259 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1261 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1267 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1268 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1269 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1274 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1275 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1276 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1277 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1282 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1283 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1288 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
1294 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1295 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1296 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1301 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1302 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1303 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1305 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1306 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1308 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1309 ========================
1311 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1316 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1317 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1318 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1321 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1322 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1324 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1325 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1328 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1329 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1331 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1332 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1334 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1337 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1338 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1340 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1341 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1343 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1344 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1350 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1351 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1352 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1353 reports are highly welcome.
1358 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1364 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1365 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1370 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1371 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1373 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1378 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1383 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1384 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1385 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1386 half a dozen other projects.
1391 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1392 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1393 latest GNU coding standards.
1395 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1396 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1398 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1399 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1400 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1401 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1402 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1403 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1404 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1405 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1406 always installed as -me.
1408 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1414 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1415 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1421 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1427 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1432 The -m option enables manual feed.
1437 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1438 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1439 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1440 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1446 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1452 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1453 graphic to be specified.
1461 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1462 environment variable xxx.
1467 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1468 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1477 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1478 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1484 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1485 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1486 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1488 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1489 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1491 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1492 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1497 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1498 try to keep the table on one page.
1503 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1504 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1505 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1506 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1511 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1512 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1513 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1518 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1519 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1521 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1523 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1524 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1526 ^L is now a legal input character.
1531 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1532 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1533 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1534 default device is ps.)
1536 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1537 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1538 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1539 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1541 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1542 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1543 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1544 draw_lines parameter.
1546 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1547 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1548 always loaded by troff.
1550 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1555 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1557 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1558 while a character definition is being processed.
1560 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1563 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1564 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1566 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1567 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1568 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1569 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1570 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1572 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1573 with compatibility mode disabled.
1575 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1576 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1577 for loading the device-specific macros.
1582 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1583 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1584 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1585 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1587 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1588 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1589 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1591 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1592 (the quotes are required).
1597 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1598 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1599 be prevented by the -R option.
1601 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1602 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1604 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1607 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1608 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1614 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1615 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1616 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1618 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1621 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1622 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1623 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1628 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1629 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1634 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1640 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1641 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1642 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1643 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1644 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1645 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1646 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1647 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1648 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1649 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1650 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1652 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1654 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1655 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1658 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1663 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1664 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1665 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1667 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1668 redisplays the current page.
1676 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1677 differently with blocks.
1679 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1680 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1682 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1684 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1690 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1691 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1692 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1697 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1698 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1699 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1700 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1701 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1703 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1704 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1709 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1711 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1712 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1717 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1722 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1723 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1724 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1730 Support for scalable fonts.
1735 No changes other than bug fixes.
1740 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1741 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1742 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1743 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1745 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1747 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1748 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1749 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1750 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1751 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1752 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1754 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1757 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1758 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1760 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1765 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1766 input level as the opening [.
1768 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1769 suitable for use as a name.
1771 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1774 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1775 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1776 the -mX option is given.
1778 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1783 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1784 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1789 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1794 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1795 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1796 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1797 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1799 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1800 Document Structuring Convention.
1802 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1803 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1804 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1805 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1806 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1809 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1810 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1815 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1816 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1819 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1820 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1823 Xditview now uses imake.
1828 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1830 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1831 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1832 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1833 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1834 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1835 that the `n' condition will be true.
1837 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1838 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1839 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1841 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1842 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1843 latest version of the tpic specials.
1848 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1849 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1850 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1855 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1856 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1858 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1859 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1860 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1865 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1870 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1871 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1873 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1874 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1875 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1881 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1883 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1889 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1890 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1891 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1892 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1893 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1895 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1897 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1900 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1901 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1902 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1903 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1904 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1905 amount of extra space to each word space.
1907 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1909 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1910 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1911 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1912 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1913 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1919 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1921 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1922 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1928 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1929 complicated equations inside pictures.
1931 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1932 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1938 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1939 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1945 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1946 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1947 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1950 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1951 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1953 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1954 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1956 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1957 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1958 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1959 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1960 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1961 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1963 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1964 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1965 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1966 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1969 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1970 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1972 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1973 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1978 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1979 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1980 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1982 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1983 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1984 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1985 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1986 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1987 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1988 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1989 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1990 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1996 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1997 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1999 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2002 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2003 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2004 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2005 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2006 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2007 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2008 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2010 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2011 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
2012 when the diversion is reread.
2014 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2017 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2018 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2019 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2020 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2021 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2022 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2023 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2025 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2028 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2031 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2033 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2034 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2036 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2038 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2039 of end of sentence recognition.
2041 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2042 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2044 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2045 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2047 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2049 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2050 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2051 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2056 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2057 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2059 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2060 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2063 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2064 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2066 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2068 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2069 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2071 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2072 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2075 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2076 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2078 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2079 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2080 of the `textht' variable.
2082 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2083 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2088 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2089 has been applied to a table.
2094 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2096 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2097 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2102 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2103 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2104 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2105 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2106 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2107 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2108 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2110 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2111 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2112 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'