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 The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
11 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
12 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
13 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
15 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands will be both printed
16 on standard error and run.
21 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
24 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
26 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
28 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
29 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
30 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
32 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
33 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
34 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
36 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
37 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
38 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
40 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
41 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
43 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
44 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
49 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
54 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
55 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
60 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
61 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
62 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
67 o New option `-j' to emit output splitted into multiple files.
72 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
73 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
74 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
76 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
81 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
86 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
88 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
98 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
99 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
101 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
103 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
104 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
105 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
107 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
108 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
110 http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/type/unicodegn.jsp
112 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
113 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
114 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
116 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
121 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
123 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
124 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
125 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
126 glyphs. The new request
130 will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
131 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
135 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
136 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
138 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
141 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
142 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
143 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
145 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
146 new `rfschar' request.
148 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
149 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
150 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
152 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
153 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
154 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
155 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
157 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
158 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
159 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
161 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
168 \D'Fd' (default color)
170 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
171 position is *not* changed.
173 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
174 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
176 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
177 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
179 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
181 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
182 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
183 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
184 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
185 same glyph shape as with other devices.
190 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
191 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
193 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
194 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
195 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
197 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
198 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
199 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
200 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
201 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
202 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
204 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
206 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
207 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
213 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
214 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
216 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
217 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
220 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
222 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
223 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
225 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
226 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
227 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
232 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
235 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
236 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
241 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
242 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
247 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
253 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
254 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
259 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
261 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
262 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
267 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
268 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
270 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
272 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
273 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
274 afmtodit for more details.
279 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
282 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
283 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
284 sub-subheading indentation.
286 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
289 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
290 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
292 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
295 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
296 explicitly specified on the command line.
298 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
299 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
301 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
302 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
303 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
304 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
306 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
307 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
308 the driver specific DESC file.
310 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
313 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
322 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
323 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
324 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
325 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
326 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
327 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
329 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
330 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
331 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
334 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
339 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
345 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
346 drivers) to set the default line width.
351 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
356 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
361 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
362 compatibility with NetBSD.
364 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
367 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
368 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
371 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
376 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
377 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
378 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
382 papersize /etc/papersize a4
384 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
385 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
386 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
389 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
391 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
397 ***************************************************************************
399 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
401 ***************************************************************************
406 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
407 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
408 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
409 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
410 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
411 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
412 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
413 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
416 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
417 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
420 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
421 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
424 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
425 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
426 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
428 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
429 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
430 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
433 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
436 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
437 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
439 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
440 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
442 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
443 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
445 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
446 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
448 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
449 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
451 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
453 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
456 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
459 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
460 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
466 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
467 . nop I will now define `bar'.
469 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
473 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
474 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
476 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
477 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
478 control their output format.
480 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
481 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
482 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
483 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
484 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
485 before checking special fonts.
487 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
488 doesn't emit a final newline.
490 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
491 with \c counts as one input line.
493 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
494 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
497 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
498 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
499 Note that this is an incompatible change.
501 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
502 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
504 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
505 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
506 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
507 for more information.
509 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
512 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
513 already existing patterns).
515 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
516 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
517 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
518 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
520 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
521 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
522 final `0' can be omitted.
524 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
525 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
526 any) before the character translation. Example:
538 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
540 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
541 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
542 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
543 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
544 post-vertical line space.
546 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
556 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
557 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
559 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
560 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
561 single space characters.
563 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
566 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
567 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
568 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
569 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
570 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
575 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
576 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
577 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
578 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
579 for PostScript output only.
581 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
582 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
584 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
585 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
586 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
587 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
588 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
590 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
591 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
592 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
594 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
597 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
598 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
601 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
602 works in compatibility mode.
604 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
605 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
607 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
610 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
611 reference to the ms macros.
613 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
615 o Changes in www.tmac:
617 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
618 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
619 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
622 The following macros have been renamed:
628 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
629 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
631 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
632 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
634 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
635 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
637 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
638 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
640 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
641 generation to headings.
643 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
646 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
647 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
649 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
650 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
653 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
655 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
657 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
659 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
660 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
665 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
666 disabled in compatibility mode).
671 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
672 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
673 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
678 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
679 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
680 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
682 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
684 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
686 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
691 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
692 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
693 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
698 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
699 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
700 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
705 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
706 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
712 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
717 o Color support has been added.
719 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
720 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
725 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
726 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
727 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
730 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
731 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
733 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
734 extended) has been added.
736 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
738 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
739 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
740 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
742 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
743 doesn't take care of hcode values.
745 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
746 to gray values currently.
751 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
752 ANSI color) escape sequences.
754 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
755 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
756 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
758 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
759 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
760 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
761 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
762 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
764 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
765 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
766 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
767 man(1) for more details.
769 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
770 reverting to the old behaviour.
772 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
773 enable SGR output (the default).
775 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
776 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
777 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
778 for this (including xterm).
783 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
785 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
787 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
789 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
790 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
793 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
798 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
799 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
800 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
805 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
807 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
810 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
813 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
815 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
816 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
818 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
820 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
821 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
822 currently. troff completely ignores it.
827 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
832 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
833 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
834 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
839 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
844 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
845 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
848 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
850 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
851 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
853 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
859 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
861 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
867 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
869 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
870 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
878 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
879 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
880 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
881 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
882 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
884 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
885 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
886 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
887 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
888 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
889 environment variables to groff.
894 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
895 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
896 supported). Most important changes are:
899 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
900 . `.Lb': prints library names
901 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
903 . Updated `.St' command
904 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
905 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
906 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
907 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
908 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
909 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
910 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
911 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
914 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
915 documents the mdoc package.
917 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
918 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
920 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
921 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
922 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
925 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
927 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
934 can now be written as
940 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
941 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
942 ending the diversion).
944 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
945 and some other escape sequences also.
947 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
948 unbreakable space character.
950 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
951 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
952 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
957 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
962 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
967 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
974 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
975 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
976 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
977 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
980 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
981 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
983 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
984 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
985 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
986 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
989 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
990 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
991 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1006 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1010 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1011 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1013 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1014 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1015 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1017 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1018 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1019 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1020 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1022 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
1023 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1025 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
1028 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1029 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1030 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1031 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1033 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1034 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1036 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1037 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1040 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1041 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1043 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1045 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1046 previous font family.
1048 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1049 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1051 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1052 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1053 macro or string is written to a stream.
1055 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1056 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1059 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1061 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1062 underlines spaces also).
1067 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1068 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1073 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1074 been added to select a different prologue file.
1076 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1077 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1078 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1083 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1085 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1086 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1087 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1090 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1091 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1092 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1093 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1094 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1095 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1097 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1098 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1101 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1102 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1103 variable if you really need the current directory.
1105 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1106 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1107 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1108 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1109 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1110 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1112 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1113 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1114 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1119 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1127 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1128 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1129 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1131 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1133 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1135 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1136 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1137 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1143 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1144 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1145 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1147 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1148 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1149 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1150 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1151 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1152 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1154 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1155 contains the current year.
1157 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1158 number of the groff package.
1160 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1161 font `foo' is undefined:
1164 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1166 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1168 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1170 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1171 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1173 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1176 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1177 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1179 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1180 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1181 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1183 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1185 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1186 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1189 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1190 (which is an alias to character `"').
1192 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1193 (which is an alias to character "'").
1195 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1196 better support of HTML output:
1198 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1201 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1203 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1204 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1205 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1206 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1208 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1211 use_charnames_in_special
1212 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1213 inside special commands.
1216 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1217 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1222 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1227 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1229 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1231 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1232 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1233 punctuation, for example).
1238 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1240 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1246 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1247 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1248 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1253 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1254 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1255 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1256 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1261 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1262 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1267 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
1273 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1274 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1275 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1280 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1281 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1282 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1284 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1285 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1287 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1288 ========================
1290 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1295 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1296 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1297 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1300 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1301 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1303 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1304 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1307 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1308 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1310 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1311 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1313 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1316 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1317 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1319 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1320 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1322 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1323 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1329 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1330 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1331 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1332 reports are highly welcome.
1337 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1343 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1344 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1349 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1350 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1352 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1357 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1362 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1363 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1364 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1365 half a dozen other projects.
1370 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1371 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1372 latest GNU coding standards.
1374 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1375 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1377 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1378 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1379 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1380 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1381 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1382 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1383 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1384 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1385 always installed as -me.
1387 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1393 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1394 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1400 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1406 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1411 The -m option enables manual feed.
1416 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1417 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1418 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1419 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1425 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1431 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1432 graphic to be specified.
1440 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1441 environment variable xxx.
1446 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1447 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1456 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1457 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1463 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1464 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1465 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1467 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1468 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1470 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1471 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1476 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1477 try to keep the table on one page.
1482 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1483 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1484 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1485 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1490 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1491 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1492 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1497 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1498 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1500 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1502 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1503 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1505 ^L is now a legal input character.
1510 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1511 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1512 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1513 default device is ps.)
1515 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1516 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1517 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1518 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1520 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1521 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1522 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1523 draw_lines parameter.
1525 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1526 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1527 always loaded by troff.
1529 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1534 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1536 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1537 while a character definition is being processed.
1539 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1542 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1543 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1545 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1546 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1547 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1548 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1549 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1551 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1552 with compatibility mode disabled.
1554 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1555 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1556 for loading the device-specific macros.
1561 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1562 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1563 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1564 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1566 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1567 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1568 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1570 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1571 (the quotes are required).
1576 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1577 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1578 be prevented by the -R option.
1580 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1581 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1583 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1586 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1587 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1593 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1594 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1595 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1597 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1600 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1601 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1602 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1607 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1608 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1613 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1619 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1620 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1621 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1622 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1623 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1624 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1625 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1626 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1627 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1628 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1629 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1631 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1633 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1634 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1637 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1642 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1643 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1644 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1646 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1647 redisplays the current page.
1655 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1656 differently with blocks.
1658 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1659 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1661 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1663 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1669 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1670 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1671 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1676 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1677 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1678 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1679 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1680 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1682 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1683 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1688 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1690 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1691 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1696 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1701 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1702 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1703 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1709 Support for scalable fonts.
1714 No changes other than bug fixes.
1719 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1720 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1721 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1722 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1724 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1726 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1727 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1728 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1729 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1730 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1731 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1733 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1736 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1737 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1739 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1744 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1745 input level as the opening [.
1747 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1748 suitable for use as a name.
1750 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1753 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1754 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1755 the -mX option is given.
1757 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1762 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1763 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1768 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1773 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1774 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1775 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1776 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1778 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1779 Document Structuring Convention.
1781 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1782 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1783 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1784 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1785 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1788 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1789 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1794 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1795 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1798 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1799 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1802 Xditview now uses imake.
1807 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1809 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1810 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1811 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1812 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1813 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1814 that the `n' condition will be true.
1816 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1817 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1818 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1820 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1821 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1822 latest version of the tpic specials.
1827 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1828 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1829 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1834 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1835 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1837 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1838 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1839 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1844 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1849 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1850 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1852 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1853 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1854 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1860 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1862 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1868 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1869 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1870 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1871 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1872 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1874 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1876 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1879 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1880 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1881 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1882 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1883 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1884 amount of extra space to each word space.
1886 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1888 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1889 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1890 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1891 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1892 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1898 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1900 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1901 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1907 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1908 complicated equations inside pictures.
1910 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1911 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1917 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1918 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1924 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1925 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1926 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1929 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1930 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1932 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1933 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1935 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1936 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1937 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1938 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1939 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1940 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1942 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1943 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1944 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1945 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1948 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1949 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1951 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1952 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1957 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1958 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1959 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1961 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1962 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1963 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1964 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1965 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1966 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1967 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1968 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1969 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1975 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1976 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1978 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1981 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1982 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1983 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1984 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1985 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1986 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1987 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1989 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1990 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1991 when the diversion is reread.
1993 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1996 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1997 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1998 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1999 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2000 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2001 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2002 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2004 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2007 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2010 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2012 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2013 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2015 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2017 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2018 of end of sentence recognition.
2020 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2021 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2023 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2024 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2026 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2028 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2029 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2030 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2035 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2036 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2038 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2039 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2042 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2043 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2045 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2047 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2048 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2050 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2051 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2054 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2055 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2057 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2058 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2059 of the `textht' variable.
2061 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2062 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2067 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2068 has been applied to a table.
2073 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2075 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2076 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2081 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2082 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2083 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2084 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2085 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2086 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2087 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2089 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2090 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2091 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'