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 If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
11 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
12 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
17 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
18 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
19 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
28 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
29 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
31 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
33 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
34 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
35 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
37 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
38 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
40 http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/typeforum/unicodegn.html
42 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
43 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
44 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
46 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
51 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
53 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
54 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
55 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
56 glyphs. The new request
60 will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
61 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
65 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
66 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
68 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
71 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
72 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
73 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
75 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
76 new `rfschar' request.
78 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
79 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
80 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
82 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
83 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
84 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
85 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
87 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
88 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
89 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
91 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
98 \D'Fd' (default color)
100 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
101 position is *not* changed.
103 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
104 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
106 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
107 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
109 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
111 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
112 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
113 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
114 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
115 same glyph shape as with other devices.
120 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
121 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
123 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
124 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
125 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
127 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
128 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
129 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
130 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
131 extension). Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
133 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
134 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
140 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
141 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
143 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
144 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
147 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
149 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
150 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
152 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
153 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
154 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
159 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
162 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
163 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
168 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
169 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
174 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
180 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
181 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
186 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
188 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
189 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
194 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
195 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
197 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
199 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
200 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
201 afmtodit for more details.
206 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
209 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
210 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
211 sub-subheading indentation.
213 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
216 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
217 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
219 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
222 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
223 explicitly specified on the command line.
225 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
226 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
228 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
229 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
230 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
231 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
233 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
234 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
235 the driver specific DESC file.
237 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
240 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
249 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
250 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
251 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
252 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
253 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
254 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
256 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
257 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
258 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
261 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
266 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
272 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
273 drivers) to set the default line width.
278 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
283 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
288 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
289 compatibility with NetBSD.
291 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
294 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
295 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
298 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
303 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
304 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
305 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
309 papersize /etc/papersize a4
311 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
312 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
313 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
316 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
318 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
324 ***************************************************************************
326 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
328 ***************************************************************************
333 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
334 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
335 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
336 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
337 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
338 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
339 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
340 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
343 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
344 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
347 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
348 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
351 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
352 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
353 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
355 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
356 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
357 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
360 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
363 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
364 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
366 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
367 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
369 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
370 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
372 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
373 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
375 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
376 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
378 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
380 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
383 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
386 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
387 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
393 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
394 . nop I will now define `bar'.
396 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
400 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
401 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
403 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
404 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
405 control their output format.
407 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
408 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
409 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
410 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
411 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
412 before checking special fonts.
414 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
415 doesn't emit a final newline.
417 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
418 with \c counts as one input line.
420 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
421 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
424 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
425 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
426 Note that this is an incompatible change.
428 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
429 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
431 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
432 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
433 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
434 for more information.
436 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
439 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
440 already existing patterns).
442 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
443 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
444 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
445 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
447 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
448 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
449 final `0' can be omitted.
451 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
452 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
453 any) before the character translation. Example:
465 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
467 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
468 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
469 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
470 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
471 post-vertical line space.
473 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
483 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
484 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
486 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
487 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
488 single space characters.
490 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
493 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
494 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
495 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
496 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
497 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
502 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
503 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
504 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
505 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
506 for PostScript output only.
508 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
509 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
511 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
512 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
513 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
514 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
515 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
517 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
518 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
519 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
521 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
524 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
525 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
528 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
529 works in compatibility mode.
531 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
532 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
534 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
537 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
538 reference to the ms macros.
540 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
542 o Changes in www.tmac:
544 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
545 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
546 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
549 The following macros have been renamed:
555 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
556 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
558 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
559 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
561 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
562 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
564 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
565 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
567 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
568 generation to headings.
570 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
573 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
574 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
576 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
577 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
580 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
582 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
584 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
586 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
587 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
592 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
593 disabled in compatibility mode).
598 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
599 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
600 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
605 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
606 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
607 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
609 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
611 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
613 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
618 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
619 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
620 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
625 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
626 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
627 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
632 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
633 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
639 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
644 o Color support has been added.
646 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
647 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
652 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
653 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
654 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
657 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
658 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
660 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
661 extended) has been added.
663 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
665 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
666 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
667 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
669 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
670 doesn't take care of hcode values.
672 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
673 to gray values currently.
678 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
679 ANSI color) escape sequences.
681 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
682 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
683 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
685 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
686 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
687 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
688 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
689 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
691 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
692 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
693 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
694 man(1) for more details.
696 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
697 reverting to the old behaviour.
699 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
700 enable SGR output (the default).
702 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
703 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
704 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
705 for this (including xterm).
710 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
712 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
714 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
716 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
717 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
720 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
725 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
726 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
727 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
732 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
734 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
737 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
740 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
742 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
743 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
745 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
747 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
748 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
749 currently. troff completely ignores it.
754 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
759 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
760 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
761 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
766 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
771 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
772 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
775 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
777 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
778 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
780 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
786 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
788 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
794 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
796 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
797 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
805 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
806 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
807 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
808 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
809 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
811 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
812 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
813 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
814 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
815 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
816 environment variables to groff.
821 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
822 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
823 supported). Most important changes are:
826 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
827 . `.Lb': prints library names
828 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
830 . Updated `.St' command
831 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
832 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
833 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
834 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
835 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
836 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
837 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
838 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
841 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
842 documents the mdoc package.
844 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
845 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
847 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
848 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
849 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
852 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
854 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
861 can now be written as
867 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
868 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
869 ending the diversion).
871 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
872 and some other escape sequences also.
874 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
875 unbreakable space character.
877 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
878 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
879 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
884 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
889 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
894 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
901 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
902 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
903 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
904 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
907 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
908 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
910 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
911 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
912 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
913 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
916 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
917 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
918 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
933 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
937 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
938 mode, and 0 otherwise.
940 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
941 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
942 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
944 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
945 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
946 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
947 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
949 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
950 line are widened by a given limit or more.
952 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
955 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
956 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
957 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
958 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
960 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
961 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
963 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
964 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
967 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
968 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
970 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
972 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
973 previous font family.
975 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
976 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
978 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
979 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
980 macro or string is written to a stream.
982 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
983 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
986 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
988 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
989 underlines spaces also).
994 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
995 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1000 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1001 been added to select a different prologue file.
1003 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1004 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1005 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1010 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1012 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1013 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1014 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1017 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1018 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1019 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1020 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1021 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1022 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1024 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1025 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1028 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1029 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1030 variable if you really need the current directory.
1032 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1033 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1034 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1035 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1036 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1037 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1039 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1040 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1041 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1046 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1054 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1055 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1056 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1058 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1060 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1062 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1063 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1064 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1070 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1071 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1072 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1074 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1075 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1076 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1077 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1078 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1079 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1081 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1082 contains the current year.
1084 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1085 number of the groff package.
1087 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1088 font `foo' is undefined:
1091 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1093 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1095 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1097 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1098 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1100 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1103 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1104 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1106 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1107 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1108 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1110 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1112 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1113 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1116 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1117 (which is an alias to character `"').
1119 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1120 (which is an alias to character "'").
1122 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1123 better support of HTML output:
1125 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1128 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1130 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1131 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1132 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1133 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1135 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1138 use_charnames_in_special
1139 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1140 inside special commands.
1143 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1144 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1149 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1154 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1156 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1158 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1159 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1160 punctuation, for example).
1165 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1167 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1173 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1174 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1175 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1180 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1181 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1182 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1183 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1188 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1189 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1194 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
1200 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1201 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1202 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1207 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1208 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1209 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1211 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1212 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1214 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1215 ========================
1217 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1222 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1223 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1224 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1227 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1228 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1230 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1231 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1234 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1235 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1237 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1238 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1240 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1243 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1244 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1246 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1247 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1249 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1250 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1256 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1257 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1258 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1259 reports are highly welcome.
1264 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1270 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1271 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1276 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1277 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1279 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1284 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1289 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1290 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1291 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1292 half a dozen other projects.
1297 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1298 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1299 latest GNU coding standards.
1301 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1302 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1304 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1305 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1306 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1307 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1308 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1309 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1310 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1311 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1312 always installed as -me.
1314 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1320 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1321 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1327 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1333 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1338 The -m option enables manual feed.
1343 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1344 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1345 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1346 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1352 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1358 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1359 graphic to be specified.
1367 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1368 environment variable xxx.
1373 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1374 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1383 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1384 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1390 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1391 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1392 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1394 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1395 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1397 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1398 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1403 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1404 try to keep the table on one page.
1409 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1410 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1411 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1412 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1417 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1418 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1419 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1424 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1425 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1427 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1429 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1430 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1432 ^L is now a legal input character.
1437 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1438 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1439 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1440 default device is ps.)
1442 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1443 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1444 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1445 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1447 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1448 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1449 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1450 draw_lines parameter.
1452 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1453 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1454 always loaded by troff.
1456 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1461 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1463 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1464 while a character definition is being processed.
1466 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1469 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1470 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1472 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1473 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1474 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1475 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1476 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1478 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1479 with compatibility mode disabled.
1481 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1482 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1483 for loading the device-specific macros.
1488 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1489 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1490 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1491 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1493 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1494 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1495 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1497 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1498 (the quotes are required).
1503 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1504 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1505 be prevented by the -R option.
1507 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1508 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1510 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1513 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1514 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1520 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1521 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1522 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1524 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1527 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1528 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1529 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1534 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1535 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1540 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1546 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1547 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1548 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1549 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1550 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1551 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1552 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1553 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1554 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1555 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1556 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1558 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1560 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1561 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1564 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1569 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1570 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1571 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1573 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1574 redisplays the current page.
1582 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1583 differently with blocks.
1585 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1586 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1588 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1590 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1596 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1597 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1598 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1603 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1604 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1605 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1606 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1607 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1609 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1610 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1615 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1617 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1618 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1623 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1628 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1629 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1630 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1636 Support for scalable fonts.
1641 No changes other than bug fixes.
1646 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1647 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1648 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1649 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1651 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1653 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1654 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1655 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1656 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1657 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1658 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1660 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1663 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1664 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1666 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1671 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1672 input level as the opening [.
1674 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1675 suitable for use as a name.
1677 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1680 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1681 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1682 the -mX option is given.
1684 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1689 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1690 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1695 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1700 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1701 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1702 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1703 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1705 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1706 Document Structuring Convention.
1708 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1709 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1710 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1711 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1712 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1715 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1716 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1721 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1722 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1725 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1726 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1729 Xditview now uses imake.
1734 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1736 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1737 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1738 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1739 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1740 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1741 that the `n' condition will be true.
1743 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1744 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1745 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1747 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1748 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1749 latest version of the tpic specials.
1754 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1755 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1756 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1761 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1762 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1764 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1765 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1766 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1771 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1776 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1777 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1779 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1780 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1781 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1787 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1789 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1795 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1796 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1797 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1798 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1799 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1801 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1803 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1806 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1807 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1808 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1809 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1810 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1811 amount of extra space to each word space.
1813 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1815 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1816 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1817 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1818 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1819 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1825 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1827 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1828 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1834 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1835 complicated equations inside pictures.
1837 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1838 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1844 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1845 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1851 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1852 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1853 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1856 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1857 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1859 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1860 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1862 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1863 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1864 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1865 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1866 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1867 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1869 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1870 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1871 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1872 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1875 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1876 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1878 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1879 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1884 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1885 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1886 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1888 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1889 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1890 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1891 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1892 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1893 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1894 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1895 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1896 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1902 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1903 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1905 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1908 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1909 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1910 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1911 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1912 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1913 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1914 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1916 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1917 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1918 when the diversion is reread.
1920 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1923 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1924 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1925 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1926 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1927 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1928 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1929 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1931 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1934 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1937 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1939 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1940 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1942 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1944 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1945 of end of sentence recognition.
1947 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1948 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1950 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1951 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1953 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1955 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1956 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1957 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1962 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1963 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1965 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1966 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1969 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1970 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1972 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1974 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1975 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1977 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1978 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1981 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1982 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1984 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1985 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1986 of the `textht' variable.
1988 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1989 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1994 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1995 has been applied to a table.
2000 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2002 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2003 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2008 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2009 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2010 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2011 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2012 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2013 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2014 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2016 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2017 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2018 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'