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 Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
11 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
13 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
15 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
16 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
17 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
19 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
20 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
22 http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/typeforum/unicodegn.html
24 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
25 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
26 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
28 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
33 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
35 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
36 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
37 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
38 glyphs. The new request
42 will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
43 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
47 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
48 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
50 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
53 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
54 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
55 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
57 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
58 new `rfschar' request.
60 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
61 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
62 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
64 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
65 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
66 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
67 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
69 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
70 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
71 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
73 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
80 \D'Fd' (default color)
82 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
83 position is *not* changed.
85 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
86 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
88 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
90 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
91 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
92 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
93 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
94 same glyph shape as with other devices.
99 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
100 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
102 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
103 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
104 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
106 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
107 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
108 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
109 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
110 extension). Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
112 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
113 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
119 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
120 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
122 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
123 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
126 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
131 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
132 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
137 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
138 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
143 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
144 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
146 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
148 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
149 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
150 afmtodit for more details.
155 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
158 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
159 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
160 sub-subheading indentation.
162 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
165 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
166 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
168 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
171 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
172 explicitly specified on the command line.
174 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
175 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
177 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
178 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
179 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
180 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
182 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
183 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
184 the driver specific DESC file.
186 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
189 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
198 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
199 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
200 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
201 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
202 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
203 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
205 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
206 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
207 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
210 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
215 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
221 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
222 drivers) to set the default line width.
227 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
232 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
237 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
238 compatibility with NetBSD.
240 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
243 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
244 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
247 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
252 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
253 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
254 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
258 papersize /etc/papersize a4
260 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
261 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
262 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
265 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
267 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
273 ***************************************************************************
275 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
277 ***************************************************************************
282 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
283 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
284 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
285 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
286 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
287 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
288 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
289 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
292 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
293 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
296 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
297 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
300 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
301 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
302 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
304 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
305 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
306 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
309 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
312 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
313 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
315 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
316 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
318 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
319 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
321 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
322 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
324 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
325 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
327 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
329 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
332 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
335 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
336 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
342 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
343 . nop I will now define `bar'.
345 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
349 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
350 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
352 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
353 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
354 control their output format.
356 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
357 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
358 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
359 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
360 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
361 before checking special fonts.
363 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
364 doesn't emit a final newline.
366 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
367 with \c counts as one input line.
369 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
370 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
373 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
374 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
375 Note that this is an incompatible change.
377 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
378 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
380 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
381 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
382 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
383 for more information.
385 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
388 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
389 already existing patterns).
391 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
392 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
393 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
394 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
396 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
397 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
398 final `0' can be omitted.
400 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
401 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
402 any) before the character translation. Example:
414 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
416 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
417 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
418 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
419 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
420 post-vertical line space.
422 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
432 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
433 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
435 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
436 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
437 single space characters.
439 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
442 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
443 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
444 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
445 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
446 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
451 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
452 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
453 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
454 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
455 for PostScript output only.
457 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
458 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
460 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
461 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
462 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
463 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
464 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
466 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
467 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
468 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
470 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
473 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
474 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
477 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
478 works in compatibility mode.
480 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
481 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
483 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
486 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
487 reference to the ms macros.
489 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
491 o Changes in www.tmac:
493 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
494 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
495 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
498 The following macros have been renamed:
504 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
505 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
507 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
508 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
510 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
511 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
513 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
514 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
516 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
517 generation to headings.
519 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
522 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
523 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
525 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
526 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
529 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
531 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
533 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
535 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
536 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
541 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
542 disabled in compatibility mode).
547 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
548 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
549 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
554 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
555 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
556 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
558 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
560 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
562 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
567 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
568 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
569 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
574 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
575 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
576 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
581 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
582 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
588 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
593 o Color support has been added.
595 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
596 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
601 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
602 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
603 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
606 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
607 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
609 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
610 extended) has been added.
612 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
614 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
615 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
616 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
618 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
619 doesn't take care of hcode values.
621 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
622 to gray values currently.
627 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
628 ANSI color) escape sequences.
630 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
631 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
632 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
634 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
635 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
636 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
637 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
638 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
640 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
641 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
642 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
643 man(1) for more details.
645 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
646 reverting to the old behaviour.
648 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
649 enable SGR output (the default).
651 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
652 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
653 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
654 for this (including xterm).
659 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
661 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
663 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
665 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
666 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
669 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
674 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
675 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
676 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
681 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
683 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
686 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
689 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
691 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
692 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
694 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
696 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
697 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
698 currently. troff completely ignores it.
703 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
708 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
709 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
710 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
715 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
720 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
721 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
724 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
726 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
727 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
729 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
735 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
737 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
743 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
745 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
746 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
754 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
755 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
756 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
757 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
758 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
760 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
761 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
762 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
763 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
764 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
765 environment variables to groff.
770 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
771 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
772 supported). Most important changes are:
775 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
776 . `.Lb': prints library names
777 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
779 . Updated `.St' command
780 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
781 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
782 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
783 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
784 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
785 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
786 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
787 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
790 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
791 documents the mdoc package.
793 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
794 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
796 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
797 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
798 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
801 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
803 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
810 can now be written as
816 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
817 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
818 ending the diversion).
820 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
821 and some other escape sequences also.
823 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
824 unbreakable space character.
826 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
827 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
828 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
833 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
838 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
843 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
850 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
851 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
852 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
853 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
856 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
857 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
859 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
860 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
861 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
862 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
865 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
866 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
867 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
882 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
886 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
887 mode, and 0 otherwise.
889 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
890 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
891 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
893 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
894 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
895 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
896 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
898 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
899 line are widened by a given limit or more.
901 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
904 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
905 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
906 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
907 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
909 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
910 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
912 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
913 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
916 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
917 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
919 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
921 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
922 previous font family.
924 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
925 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
927 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
928 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
929 macro or string is written to a stream.
931 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
932 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
935 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
937 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
938 underlines spaces also).
943 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
944 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
949 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
950 been added to select a different prologue file.
952 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
953 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
954 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
959 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
961 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
962 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
963 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
966 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
967 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
968 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
969 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
970 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
971 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
973 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
974 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
977 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
978 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
979 variable if you really need the current directory.
981 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
982 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
983 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
984 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
985 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
986 is searched before the local tmac directory.
988 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
989 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
990 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
995 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1003 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1004 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1005 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1007 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1009 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1011 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1012 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1013 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1019 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1020 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1021 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1023 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1024 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1025 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1026 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1027 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1028 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1030 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1031 contains the current year.
1033 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1034 number of the groff package.
1036 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1037 font `foo' is undefined:
1040 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1042 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1044 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1046 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1047 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1049 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1052 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1053 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1055 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1056 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1057 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1059 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1061 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1062 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1065 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1066 (which is an alias to character `"').
1068 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1069 (which is an alias to character "'").
1071 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1072 better support of HTML output:
1074 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1077 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1079 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1080 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1081 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1082 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1084 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1087 use_charnames_in_special
1088 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1089 inside special commands.
1092 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1093 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1098 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1103 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1105 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1107 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1108 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1109 punctuation, for example).
1114 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1116 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1122 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1123 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1124 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1129 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1130 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1131 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1132 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1137 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1138 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1143 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
1149 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1150 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1151 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1156 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1157 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1158 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1160 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1161 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1163 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1164 ========================
1166 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1171 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1172 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1173 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1176 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1177 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1179 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1180 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1183 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1184 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1186 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1187 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1189 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1192 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1193 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1195 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1196 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1198 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1199 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1205 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1206 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1207 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1208 reports are highly welcome.
1213 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1219 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1220 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1225 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1226 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1228 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1233 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1238 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1239 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1240 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1241 half a dozen other projects.
1246 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1247 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1248 latest GNU coding standards.
1250 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1251 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1253 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1254 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1255 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1256 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1257 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1258 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1259 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1260 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1261 always installed as -me.
1263 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1269 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1270 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1276 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1282 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1287 The -m option enables manual feed.
1292 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1293 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1294 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1295 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1301 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1307 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1308 graphic to be specified.
1316 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1317 environment variable xxx.
1322 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1323 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1332 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1333 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1339 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1340 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1341 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1343 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1344 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1346 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1347 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1352 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1353 try to keep the table on one page.
1358 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1359 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1360 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1361 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1366 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1367 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1368 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1373 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1374 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1376 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1378 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1379 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1381 ^L is now a legal input character.
1386 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1387 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1388 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1389 default device is ps.)
1391 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1392 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1393 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1394 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1396 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1397 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1398 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1399 draw_lines parameter.
1401 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1402 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1403 always loaded by troff.
1405 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1410 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1412 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1413 while a character definition is being processed.
1415 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1418 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1419 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1421 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1422 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1423 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1424 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1425 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1427 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1428 with compatibility mode disabled.
1430 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1431 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1432 for loading the device-specific macros.
1437 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1438 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1439 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1440 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1442 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1443 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1444 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1446 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1447 (the quotes are required).
1452 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1453 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1454 be prevented by the -R option.
1456 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1457 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1459 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1462 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1463 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1469 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1470 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1471 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1473 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1476 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1477 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1478 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1483 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1484 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1489 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1495 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1496 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1497 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1498 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1499 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1500 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1501 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1502 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1503 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1504 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1505 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1507 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1509 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1510 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1513 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1518 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1519 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1520 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1522 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1523 redisplays the current page.
1531 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1532 differently with blocks.
1534 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1535 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1537 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1539 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1545 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1546 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1547 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1552 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1553 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1554 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1555 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1556 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1558 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1559 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1564 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1566 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1567 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1572 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1577 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1578 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1579 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1585 Support for scalable fonts.
1590 No changes other than bug fixes.
1595 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1596 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1597 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1598 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1600 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1602 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1603 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1604 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1605 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1606 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1607 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1609 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1612 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1613 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1615 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1620 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1621 input level as the opening [.
1623 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1624 suitable for use as a name.
1626 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1629 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1630 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1631 the -mX option is given.
1633 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1638 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1639 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1644 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1649 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1650 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1651 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1652 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1654 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1655 Document Structuring Convention.
1657 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1658 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1659 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1660 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1661 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1664 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1665 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1670 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1671 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1674 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1675 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1678 Xditview now uses imake.
1683 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1685 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1686 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1687 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1688 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1689 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1690 that the `n' condition will be true.
1692 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1693 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1694 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1696 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1697 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1698 latest version of the tpic specials.
1703 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1704 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1705 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1710 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1711 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1713 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1714 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1715 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1720 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1725 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1726 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1728 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1729 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1730 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1736 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1738 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1744 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1745 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1746 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1747 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1748 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1750 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1752 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1755 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1756 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1757 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1758 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1759 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1760 amount of extra space to each word space.
1762 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1764 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1765 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1766 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1767 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1768 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1774 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1776 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1777 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1783 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1784 complicated equations inside pictures.
1786 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1787 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1793 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1794 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1800 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1801 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1802 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1805 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1806 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1808 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1809 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1811 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1812 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1813 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1814 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1815 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1816 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1818 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1819 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1820 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1821 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1824 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1825 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1827 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1828 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1833 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1834 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1835 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1837 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1838 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1839 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1840 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1841 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1842 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1843 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1844 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1845 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1851 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1852 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1854 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1857 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1858 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1859 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1860 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1861 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1862 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1863 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1865 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1866 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1867 when the diversion is reread.
1869 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1872 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1873 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1874 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1875 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1876 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1877 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1878 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1880 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1883 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1886 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1888 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1889 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1891 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1893 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1894 of end of sentence recognition.
1896 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1897 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1899 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1900 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1902 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1904 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1905 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1906 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1911 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1912 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1914 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1915 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1918 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1919 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1921 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1923 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1924 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1926 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1927 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1930 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1931 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1933 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1934 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1935 of the `textht' variable.
1937 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1938 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1943 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1944 has been applied to a table.
1949 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1951 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1952 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1957 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1958 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1959 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1960 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1961 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1962 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1963 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1965 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1966 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1967 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'