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.
14 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
15 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
16 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
21 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
26 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
27 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
32 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
33 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
34 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
39 o New option `-j' to emit output splitted into multiple files.
44 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
46 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
56 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
57 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
59 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
61 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
62 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
63 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
65 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
66 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
68 http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/typeforum/unicodegn.html
70 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
71 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
72 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
74 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
79 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
81 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
82 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
83 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
84 glyphs. The new request
88 will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
89 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
93 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
94 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
96 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
99 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
100 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
101 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
103 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
104 new `rfschar' request.
106 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
107 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
108 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
110 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
111 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
112 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
113 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
115 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
116 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
117 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
119 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
126 \D'Fd' (default color)
128 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
129 position is *not* changed.
131 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
132 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
134 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
135 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
137 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
139 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
140 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
141 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
142 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
143 same glyph shape as with other devices.
148 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
149 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
151 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
152 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
153 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
155 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
156 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
157 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
158 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
159 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
160 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
162 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
164 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
165 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
171 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
172 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
174 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
175 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
178 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
180 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
181 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
183 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
184 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
185 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
190 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
193 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
194 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
199 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
200 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
205 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
211 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
212 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
217 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
219 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
220 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
225 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
226 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
228 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
230 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
231 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
232 afmtodit for more details.
237 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
240 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
241 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
242 sub-subheading indentation.
244 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
247 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
248 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
250 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
253 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
254 explicitly specified on the command line.
256 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
257 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
259 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
260 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
261 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
262 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
264 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
265 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
266 the driver specific DESC file.
268 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
271 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
280 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
281 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
282 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
283 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
284 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
285 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
287 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
288 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
289 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
292 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
297 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
303 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
304 drivers) to set the default line width.
309 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
314 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
319 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
320 compatibility with NetBSD.
322 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
325 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
326 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
329 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
334 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
335 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
336 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
340 papersize /etc/papersize a4
342 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
343 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
344 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
347 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
349 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
355 ***************************************************************************
357 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
359 ***************************************************************************
364 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
365 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
366 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
367 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
368 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
369 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
370 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
371 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
374 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
375 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
378 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
379 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
382 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
383 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
384 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
386 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
387 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
388 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
391 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
394 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
395 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
397 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
398 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
400 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
401 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
403 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
404 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
406 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
407 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
409 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
411 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
414 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
417 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
418 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
424 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
425 . nop I will now define `bar'.
427 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
431 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
432 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
434 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
435 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
436 control their output format.
438 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
439 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
440 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
441 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
442 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
443 before checking special fonts.
445 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
446 doesn't emit a final newline.
448 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
449 with \c counts as one input line.
451 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
452 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
455 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
456 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
457 Note that this is an incompatible change.
459 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
460 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
462 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
463 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
464 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
465 for more information.
467 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
470 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
471 already existing patterns).
473 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
474 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
475 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
476 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
478 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
479 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
480 final `0' can be omitted.
482 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
483 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
484 any) before the character translation. Example:
496 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
498 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
499 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
500 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
501 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
502 post-vertical line space.
504 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
514 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
515 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
517 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
518 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
519 single space characters.
521 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
524 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
525 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
526 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
527 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
528 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
533 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
534 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
535 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
536 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
537 for PostScript output only.
539 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
540 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
542 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
543 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
544 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
545 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
546 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
548 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
549 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
550 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
552 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
555 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
556 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
559 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
560 works in compatibility mode.
562 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
563 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
565 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
568 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
569 reference to the ms macros.
571 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
573 o Changes in www.tmac:
575 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
576 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
577 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
580 The following macros have been renamed:
586 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
587 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
589 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
590 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
592 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
593 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
595 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
596 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
598 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
599 generation to headings.
601 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
604 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
605 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
607 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
608 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
611 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
613 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
615 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
617 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
618 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
623 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
624 disabled in compatibility mode).
629 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
630 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
631 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
636 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
637 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
638 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
640 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
642 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
644 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
649 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
650 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
651 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
656 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
657 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
658 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
663 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
664 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
670 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
675 o Color support has been added.
677 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
678 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
683 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
684 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
685 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
688 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
689 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
691 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
692 extended) has been added.
694 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
696 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
697 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
698 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
700 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
701 doesn't take care of hcode values.
703 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
704 to gray values currently.
709 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
710 ANSI color) escape sequences.
712 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
713 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
714 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
716 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
717 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
718 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
719 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
720 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
722 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
723 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
724 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
725 man(1) for more details.
727 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
728 reverting to the old behaviour.
730 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
731 enable SGR output (the default).
733 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
734 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
735 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
736 for this (including xterm).
741 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
743 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
745 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
747 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
748 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
751 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
756 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
757 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
758 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
763 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
765 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
768 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
771 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
773 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
774 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
776 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
778 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
779 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
780 currently. troff completely ignores it.
785 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
790 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
791 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
792 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
797 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
802 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
803 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
806 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
808 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
809 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
811 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
817 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
819 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
825 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
827 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
828 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
836 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
837 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
838 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
839 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
840 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
842 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
843 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
844 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
845 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
846 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
847 environment variables to groff.
852 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
853 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
854 supported). Most important changes are:
857 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
858 . `.Lb': prints library names
859 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
861 . Updated `.St' command
862 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
863 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
864 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
865 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
866 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
867 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
868 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
869 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
872 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
873 documents the mdoc package.
875 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
876 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
878 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
879 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
880 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
883 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
885 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
892 can now be written as
898 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
899 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
900 ending the diversion).
902 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
903 and some other escape sequences also.
905 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
906 unbreakable space character.
908 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
909 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
910 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
915 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
920 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
925 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
932 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
933 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
934 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
935 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
938 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
939 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
941 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
942 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
943 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
944 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
947 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
948 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
949 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
964 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
968 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
969 mode, and 0 otherwise.
971 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
972 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
973 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
975 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
976 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
977 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
978 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
980 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
981 line are widened by a given limit or more.
983 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
986 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
987 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
988 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
989 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
991 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
992 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
994 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
995 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
998 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
999 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1001 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1003 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1004 previous font family.
1006 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1007 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1009 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1010 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1011 macro or string is written to a stream.
1013 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1014 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1017 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1019 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1020 underlines spaces also).
1025 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1026 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1031 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1032 been added to select a different prologue file.
1034 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1035 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1036 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1041 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1043 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1044 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1045 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1048 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1049 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1050 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1051 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1052 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1053 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1055 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1056 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1059 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1060 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1061 variable if you really need the current directory.
1063 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1064 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1065 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1066 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1067 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1068 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1070 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1071 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1072 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1077 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1085 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1086 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1087 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1089 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1091 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1093 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1094 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1095 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1101 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1102 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1103 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1105 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1106 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1107 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1108 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1109 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1110 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1112 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1113 contains the current year.
1115 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1116 number of the groff package.
1118 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1119 font `foo' is undefined:
1122 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1124 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1126 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1128 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1129 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1131 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1134 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1135 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1137 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1138 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1139 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1141 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1143 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1144 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1147 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1148 (which is an alias to character `"').
1150 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1151 (which is an alias to character "'").
1153 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1154 better support of HTML output:
1156 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1159 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1161 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1162 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1163 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1164 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1166 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1169 use_charnames_in_special
1170 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1171 inside special commands.
1174 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1175 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1180 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1185 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1187 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1189 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1190 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1191 punctuation, for example).
1196 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1198 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1204 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1205 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1206 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1211 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1212 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1213 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1214 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1219 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1220 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1225 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
1231 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1232 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1233 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1238 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1239 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1240 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1242 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1243 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1245 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1246 ========================
1248 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1253 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1254 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1255 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1258 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1259 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1261 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1262 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1265 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1266 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1268 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1269 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1271 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1274 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1275 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1277 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1278 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1280 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1281 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1287 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1288 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1289 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1290 reports are highly welcome.
1295 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1301 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1302 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1307 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1308 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1310 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1315 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1320 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1321 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1322 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1323 half a dozen other projects.
1328 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1329 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1330 latest GNU coding standards.
1332 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1333 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1335 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1336 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1337 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1338 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1339 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1340 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1341 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1342 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1343 always installed as -me.
1345 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1351 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1352 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1358 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1364 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1369 The -m option enables manual feed.
1374 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1375 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1376 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1377 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1383 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1389 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1390 graphic to be specified.
1398 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1399 environment variable xxx.
1404 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1405 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1414 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1415 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1421 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1422 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1423 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1425 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1426 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1428 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1429 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1434 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1435 try to keep the table on one page.
1440 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1441 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1442 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1443 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1448 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1449 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1450 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1455 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1456 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1458 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1460 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1461 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1463 ^L is now a legal input character.
1468 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1469 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1470 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1471 default device is ps.)
1473 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1474 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1475 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1476 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1478 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1479 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1480 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1481 draw_lines parameter.
1483 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1484 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1485 always loaded by troff.
1487 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1492 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1494 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1495 while a character definition is being processed.
1497 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1500 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1501 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1503 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1504 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1505 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1506 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1507 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1509 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1510 with compatibility mode disabled.
1512 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1513 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1514 for loading the device-specific macros.
1519 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1520 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1521 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1522 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1524 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1525 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1526 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1528 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1529 (the quotes are required).
1534 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1535 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1536 be prevented by the -R option.
1538 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1539 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1541 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1544 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1545 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1551 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1552 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1553 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1555 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1558 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1559 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1560 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1565 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1566 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1571 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1577 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1578 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1579 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1580 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1581 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1582 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1583 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1584 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1585 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1586 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1587 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1589 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1591 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1592 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1595 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1600 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1601 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1602 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1604 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1605 redisplays the current page.
1613 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1614 differently with blocks.
1616 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1617 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1619 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1621 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1627 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1628 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1629 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1634 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1635 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1636 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1637 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1638 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1640 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1641 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1646 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1648 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1649 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1654 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1659 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1660 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1661 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1667 Support for scalable fonts.
1672 No changes other than bug fixes.
1677 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1678 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1679 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1680 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1682 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1684 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1685 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1686 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1687 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1688 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1689 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1691 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1694 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1695 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1697 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1702 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1703 input level as the opening [.
1705 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1706 suitable for use as a name.
1708 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1711 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1712 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1713 the -mX option is given.
1715 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1720 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1721 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1726 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1731 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1732 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1733 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1734 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1736 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1737 Document Structuring Convention.
1739 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1740 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1741 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1742 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1743 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1746 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1747 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1752 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1753 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1756 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1757 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1760 Xditview now uses imake.
1765 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1767 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1768 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1769 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1770 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1771 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1772 that the `n' condition will be true.
1774 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1775 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1776 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1778 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1779 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1780 latest version of the tpic specials.
1785 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1786 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1787 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1792 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1793 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1795 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1796 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1797 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1802 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1807 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1808 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1810 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1811 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1812 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1818 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1820 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1826 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1827 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1828 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1829 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1830 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1832 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1834 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1837 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1838 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1839 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1840 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1841 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1842 amount of extra space to each word space.
1844 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1846 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1847 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1848 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1849 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1850 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1856 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1858 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1859 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1865 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1866 complicated equations inside pictures.
1868 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1869 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1875 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1876 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1882 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1883 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1884 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1887 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1888 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1890 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1891 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1893 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1894 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1895 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1896 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1897 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1898 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1900 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1901 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1902 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1903 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1906 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1907 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1909 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1910 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1915 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1916 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1917 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1919 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1920 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1921 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1922 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1923 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1924 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1925 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1926 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1927 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1933 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1934 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1936 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1939 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1940 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1941 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1942 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1943 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1944 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1945 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1947 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1948 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1949 when the diversion is reread.
1951 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1954 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1955 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1956 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1957 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1958 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1959 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1960 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1962 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1965 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1968 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1970 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1971 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1973 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1975 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1976 of end of sentence recognition.
1978 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1979 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1981 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1982 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1984 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1986 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1987 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1988 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1993 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1994 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1996 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1997 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2000 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2001 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2003 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2005 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2006 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2008 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2009 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2012 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2013 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2015 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2016 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2017 of the `textht' variable.
2019 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2020 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2025 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2026 has been applied to a table.
2031 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2033 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2034 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2039 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2040 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2041 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2042 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2043 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2044 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2045 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2047 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2048 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2049 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'