1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes
2 are not described. There are more details in the man pages.
10 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
11 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
14 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
16 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
18 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
19 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
20 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
26 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
27 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
28 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
30 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
31 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
32 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
33 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
34 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
35 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
37 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
38 contains the current year.
40 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
41 number of the groff package.
43 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
44 font `foo' is undefined:
47 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
49 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
51 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
53 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
54 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
56 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
59 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
60 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
62 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
63 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
64 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
66 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
68 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
69 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
72 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
73 (which is an alias to character `"').
75 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
76 (which is an alias to character "'").
78 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
79 better support of HTML output:
81 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
84 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
86 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
87 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
88 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
89 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
91 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
94 use_charnames_in_special
95 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
96 inside special commands.
99 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
100 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
105 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
110 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
112 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
114 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
115 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
116 punctuation, for example).
121 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
123 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
129 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
130 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
131 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
136 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
137 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
138 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
139 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
144 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
145 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
150 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
156 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
157 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
158 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
163 A port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part of the
164 distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
165 <blake@florida-software.com>.
167 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
168 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
170 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
171 ========================
173 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
178 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
179 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not
180 all reported bug could be fixed, so please send mails again if
181 something is still not working.
183 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
184 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
186 There is now a man page called groff_man.man which documents the
187 basics of the -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan
188 G. Kleinmann <sgk@debian.org>.
190 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format
191 originally contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
193 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
194 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
196 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer
197 contain the word `UNIX'.
199 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
200 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
202 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix
203 `/usr/local/' as the default instead of replacing an existent groff
206 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
207 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros
213 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by
214 Gaius Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been
215 included into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance
216 to test it. Bug reports are highly welcome.
221 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
227 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
228 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
233 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
234 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
236 Will now support 8 gray levels.
241 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
246 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
247 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
248 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
249 half a dozen other projects.
254 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
255 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
256 latest GNU coding standards.
258 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
259 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
261 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
262 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
263 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
264 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
265 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
266 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
267 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
268 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
269 always installed as -me.
271 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
277 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
278 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
284 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
290 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
295 The -m option enables manual feed.
300 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
301 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
302 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
303 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
309 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
315 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
316 graphic to be specified.
324 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
325 environment variable xxx.
330 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
331 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
340 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
341 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
347 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
348 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
349 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
351 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
352 enabled by default) instead of an error.
354 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
355 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
360 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
361 try to keep the table on one page.
366 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
367 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
368 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
369 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
374 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
375 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
376 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
381 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
382 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
384 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
386 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
387 \(an. See groff_char(7).
389 ^L is now a legal input character.
394 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
395 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
396 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
397 default device is ps.)
399 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
400 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
401 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
402 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
404 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
405 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
406 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
407 draw_lines parameter.
409 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
410 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
411 always loaded by troff.
413 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
418 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
420 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
421 while a character definition is being processed.
423 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
426 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
427 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
429 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
430 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
431 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
432 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
433 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
435 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
436 with compatibility mode disabled.
438 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
439 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
440 for loading the device-specific macros.
445 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
446 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
447 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
448 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
450 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
451 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
452 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
454 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
455 (the quotes are required).
460 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
461 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
462 be prevented by the -R option.
464 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
465 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
467 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
470 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
471 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
477 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
478 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
479 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
481 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
484 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
485 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
486 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
491 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
492 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
497 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
503 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
504 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
505 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
506 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
507 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
508 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
509 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
510 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
511 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
512 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
513 be derived from the $r or $R register.
515 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
517 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
518 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
521 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
526 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
527 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
528 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
530 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
531 redisplays the current page.
539 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
540 differently with blocks.
542 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
543 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
545 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
547 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
553 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
554 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
555 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
560 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
561 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
562 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
563 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
564 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
566 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
567 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
572 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
574 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
575 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
580 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
585 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
586 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
587 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
593 Support for scalable fonts.
598 No changes other than bug fixes.
603 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
604 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
605 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
606 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
608 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
610 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
611 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
612 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
613 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
614 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
615 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
617 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
620 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
621 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
623 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
628 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
629 input level as the opening [.
631 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
632 suitable for use as a name.
634 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
637 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
638 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
639 the -mX option is given.
641 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
646 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
647 constructs by writing a troff macro.
652 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
657 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
658 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
659 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
660 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
662 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
663 Document Structuring Convention.
665 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
666 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
667 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
668 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
669 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
672 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
673 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
678 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
679 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
682 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
683 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
686 Xditview now uses imake.
691 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
693 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
694 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
695 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
696 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
697 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
698 that the `n' condition will be true.
700 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
701 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
702 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
704 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
705 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
706 latest version of the tpic specials.
711 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
712 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
713 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
718 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
719 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
721 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
722 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
723 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
728 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
733 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
734 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
736 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
737 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
738 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
744 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
746 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
752 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
753 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
754 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
755 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
756 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
758 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
760 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
763 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
764 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
765 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
766 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
767 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
768 amount of extra space to each word space.
770 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
772 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
773 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
774 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
775 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
776 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
782 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
784 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
785 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
791 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
792 complicated equations inside pictures.
794 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
795 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
801 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
802 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
808 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
809 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
810 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
813 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
814 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
816 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
817 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
819 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
820 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
821 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
822 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
823 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
824 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
826 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
827 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
828 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
829 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
832 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
833 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
835 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
836 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
841 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
842 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
843 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
845 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
846 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
847 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
848 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
849 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
850 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
851 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
852 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
853 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
859 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
860 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
862 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
865 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
866 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
867 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
868 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
869 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
870 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
871 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
873 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
874 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
875 when the diversion is reread.
877 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
880 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
881 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
882 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
883 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
884 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
885 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
886 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
888 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
891 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
894 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
896 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
897 containing the hyphenation patterns.
899 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
901 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
902 of end of sentence recognition.
904 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
905 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
907 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
908 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
910 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
912 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
913 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
914 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
919 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
920 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
922 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
923 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
926 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
927 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
929 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
931 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
932 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
934 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
935 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
938 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
939 wherever a quoted string can be used.
941 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
942 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
943 of the `textht' variable.
945 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
946 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
951 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
952 has been applied to a table.
957 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
959 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
960 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
965 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
966 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
967 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
968 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
969 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
970 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
971 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
973 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
974 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
975 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'