1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes
2 are not described. There are more details in the man pages.
7 o `-mFOO' will now search first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
8 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
9 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
10 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
11 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
13 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH will be checked for programs
14 groff is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH.
15 If not set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is
16 located. Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script will only use
17 GROFF_BIN_PATH to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH
18 and PATH environment variable to groff.
23 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
24 package has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode) will
25 produce one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
28 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
41 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
42 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
43 ending the diversion).
45 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
46 and some other escape sequences also.
48 `\ ' will no longer be unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
49 unbreakable space character.
51 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
52 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
53 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
58 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
63 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
68 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
75 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
76 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
77 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
78 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
81 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
82 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
84 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
85 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
86 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
87 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
90 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
91 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
92 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
107 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
111 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
112 mode, and 0 otherwise.
114 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
115 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
116 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
118 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
119 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
120 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
121 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
123 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
124 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
126 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
127 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
130 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
131 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
133 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
135 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
136 output line is interrupted (i.e., if it contains `\c').
138 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
139 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
140 macro or string is written to a stream.
142 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
143 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
149 Option -v shows the version number.
154 o The grog script will now work in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
155 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
157 o Option -v shows the version number.
162 A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has been
163 added to select a different prologue file.
165 The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
166 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour (i.e.,
167 emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
172 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
174 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
175 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
176 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
179 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
180 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
181 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
182 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
183 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
184 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
186 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
187 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
190 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
191 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
192 variable if you really need the current directory.
194 o groff will now install its data files into
195 /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by default, following the GNU standard.
196 Additionally, a local tmac directory (by default
197 /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) will be scanned before the standard tmac
198 directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages (if
199 necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
200 will be searched before the local tmac directory.
202 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they will
203 exit immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards.
208 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
216 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
217 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
218 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
220 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
222 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
224 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
225 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
226 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
232 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
233 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
234 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
236 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
237 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
238 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
239 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
240 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
241 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
243 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
244 contains the current year.
246 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
247 number of the groff package.
249 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
250 font `foo' is undefined:
253 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
255 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
257 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
259 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
260 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
262 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
265 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
266 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
268 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
269 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
270 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
272 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
274 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
275 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
278 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
279 (which is an alias to character `"').
281 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
282 (which is an alias to character "'").
284 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
285 better support of HTML output:
287 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
290 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
292 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
293 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
294 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
295 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
297 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
300 use_charnames_in_special
301 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
302 inside special commands.
305 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
306 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
311 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
316 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
318 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
320 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
321 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
322 punctuation, for example).
327 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
329 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
335 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
336 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
337 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
342 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
343 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
344 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
345 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
350 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
351 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
356 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
362 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
363 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
364 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
369 A port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part of the
370 distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
371 <blake@florida-software.com>.
373 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
374 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
376 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
377 ========================
379 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
384 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
385 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not
386 all reported bug could be fixed, so please send mails again if
387 something is still not working.
389 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
390 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
392 There is now a man page called groff_man.man which documents the
393 basics of the -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan
394 G. Kleinmann <sgk@debian.org>.
396 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format
397 originally contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
399 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
400 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
402 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer
403 contain the word `UNIX'.
405 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
406 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
408 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix
409 `/usr/local/' as the default instead of replacing an existent groff
412 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
413 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros
419 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by
420 Gaius Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been
421 included into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance
422 to test it. Bug reports are highly welcome.
427 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
433 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
434 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
439 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
440 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
442 Will now support 8 gray levels.
447 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
452 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
453 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
454 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
455 half a dozen other projects.
460 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
461 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
462 latest GNU coding standards.
464 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
465 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
467 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
468 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
469 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
470 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
471 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
472 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
473 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
474 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
475 always installed as -me.
477 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
483 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
484 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
490 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
496 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
501 The -m option enables manual feed.
506 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
507 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
508 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
509 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
515 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
521 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
522 graphic to be specified.
530 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
531 environment variable xxx.
536 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
537 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
546 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
547 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
553 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
554 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
555 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
557 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
558 enabled by default) instead of an error.
560 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
561 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
566 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
567 try to keep the table on one page.
572 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
573 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
574 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
575 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
580 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
581 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
582 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
587 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
588 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
590 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
592 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
593 \(an. See groff_char(7).
595 ^L is now a legal input character.
600 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
601 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
602 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
603 default device is ps.)
605 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
606 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
607 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
608 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
610 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
611 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
612 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
613 draw_lines parameter.
615 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
616 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
617 always loaded by troff.
619 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
624 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
626 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
627 while a character definition is being processed.
629 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
632 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
633 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
635 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
636 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
637 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
638 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
639 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
641 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
642 with compatibility mode disabled.
644 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
645 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
646 for loading the device-specific macros.
651 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
652 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
653 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
654 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
656 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
657 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
658 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
660 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
661 (the quotes are required).
666 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
667 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
668 be prevented by the -R option.
670 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
671 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
673 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
676 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
677 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
683 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
684 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
685 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
687 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
690 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
691 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
692 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
697 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
698 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
703 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
709 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
710 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
711 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
712 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
713 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
714 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
715 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
716 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
717 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
718 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
719 be derived from the $r or $R register.
721 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
723 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
724 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
727 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
732 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
733 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
734 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
736 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
737 redisplays the current page.
745 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
746 differently with blocks.
748 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
749 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
751 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
753 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
759 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
760 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
761 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
766 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
767 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
768 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
769 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
770 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
772 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
773 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
778 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
780 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
781 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
786 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
791 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
792 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
793 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
799 Support for scalable fonts.
804 No changes other than bug fixes.
809 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
810 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
811 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
812 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
814 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
816 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
817 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
818 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
819 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
820 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
821 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
823 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
826 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
827 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
829 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
834 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
835 input level as the opening [.
837 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
838 suitable for use as a name.
840 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
843 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
844 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
845 the -mX option is given.
847 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
852 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
853 constructs by writing a troff macro.
858 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
863 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
864 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
865 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
866 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
868 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
869 Document Structuring Convention.
871 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
872 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
873 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
874 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
875 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
878 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
879 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
884 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
885 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
888 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
889 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
892 Xditview now uses imake.
897 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
899 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
900 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
901 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
902 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
903 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
904 that the `n' condition will be true.
906 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
907 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
908 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
910 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
911 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
912 latest version of the tpic specials.
917 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
918 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
919 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
924 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
925 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
927 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
928 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
929 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
934 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
939 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
940 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
942 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
943 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
944 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
950 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
952 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
958 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
959 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
960 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
961 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
962 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
964 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
966 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
969 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
970 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
971 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
972 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
973 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
974 amount of extra space to each word space.
976 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
978 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
979 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
980 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
981 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
982 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
988 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
990 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
991 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
997 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
998 complicated equations inside pictures.
1000 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1001 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1007 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1008 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1014 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1015 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1016 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1019 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1020 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1022 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1023 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1025 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1026 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1027 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1028 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1029 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1030 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1032 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1033 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1034 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1035 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1038 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1039 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1041 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1042 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1047 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1048 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1049 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1051 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1052 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1053 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1054 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1055 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1056 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1057 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1058 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1059 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1065 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1066 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1068 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1071 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1072 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1073 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1074 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1075 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1076 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1077 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1079 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1080 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1081 when the diversion is reread.
1083 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1086 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1087 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1088 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1089 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1090 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1091 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1092 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1094 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1097 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1100 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1102 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1103 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1105 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1107 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1108 of end of sentence recognition.
1110 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1111 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1113 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1114 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1116 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1118 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1119 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1120 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1125 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1126 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1128 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1129 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1132 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1133 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1135 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1137 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1138 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1140 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1141 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1144 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1145 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1147 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1148 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1149 of the `textht' variable.
1151 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1152 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1157 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1158 has been applied to a table.
1163 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1165 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1166 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1171 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1172 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1173 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1174 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1175 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1176 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1177 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1179 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1180 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1181 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'