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 `-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 The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH will be checked for programs
14 groff is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If
15 not set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
16 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script will only use GROFF_BIN_PATH
17 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
18 environment variable to groff.
23 A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
36 Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing messages
37 to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading whitespace.
38 `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
40 A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and second
41 parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers instead directly; this
42 very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac' independent from the
43 escape character (which might even be disabled).
45 It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
46 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
48 The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string within
49 the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1', and `0'
55 Option -v shows the version number.
60 The grog script will now work in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
61 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
63 Option -v shows the version number.
68 A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has been
69 added to select a different prologue file.
74 For security reasons the following changes have been done:
76 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
77 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
78 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
81 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
82 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
83 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
84 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
85 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
86 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
88 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
89 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
92 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
93 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
94 variable if you really need the current directory.
96 groff will now install its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version>
97 by default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac
98 directory (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) will be scanned
99 before the standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro
100 packages (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this
101 directory will be searched before the local tmac directory.
103 All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they will exit
104 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards.
109 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
117 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
118 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
119 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
121 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
123 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
125 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
126 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
127 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
133 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
134 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
135 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
137 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
138 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
139 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
140 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
141 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
142 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
144 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
145 contains the current year.
147 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
148 number of the groff package.
150 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
151 font `foo' is undefined:
154 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
156 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
158 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
160 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
161 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
163 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
166 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
167 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
169 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
170 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
171 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
173 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
175 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
176 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
179 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
180 (which is an alias to character `"').
182 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
183 (which is an alias to character "'").
185 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
186 better support of HTML output:
188 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
191 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
193 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
194 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
195 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
196 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
198 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
201 use_charnames_in_special
202 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
203 inside special commands.
206 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
207 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
212 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
217 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
219 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
221 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
222 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
223 punctuation, for example).
228 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
230 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
236 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
237 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
238 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
243 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
244 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
245 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
246 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
251 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
252 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
257 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
263 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
264 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
265 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
270 A port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part of the
271 distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
272 <blake@florida-software.com>.
274 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
275 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
277 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
278 ========================
280 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
285 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
286 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not
287 all reported bug could be fixed, so please send mails again if
288 something is still not working.
290 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
291 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
293 There is now a man page called groff_man.man which documents the
294 basics of the -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan
295 G. Kleinmann <sgk@debian.org>.
297 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format
298 originally contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
300 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
301 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
303 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer
304 contain the word `UNIX'.
306 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
307 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
309 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix
310 `/usr/local/' as the default instead of replacing an existent groff
313 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
314 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros
320 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by
321 Gaius Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been
322 included into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance
323 to test it. Bug reports are highly welcome.
328 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
334 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
335 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
340 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
341 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
343 Will now support 8 gray levels.
348 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
353 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
354 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
355 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
356 half a dozen other projects.
361 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
362 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
363 latest GNU coding standards.
365 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
366 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
368 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
369 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
370 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
371 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
372 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
373 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
374 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
375 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
376 always installed as -me.
378 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
384 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
385 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
391 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
397 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
402 The -m option enables manual feed.
407 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
408 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
409 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
410 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
416 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
422 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
423 graphic to be specified.
431 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
432 environment variable xxx.
437 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
438 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
447 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
448 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
454 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
455 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
456 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
458 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
459 enabled by default) instead of an error.
461 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
462 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
467 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
468 try to keep the table on one page.
473 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
474 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
475 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
476 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
481 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
482 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
483 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
488 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
489 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
491 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
493 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
494 \(an. See groff_char(7).
496 ^L is now a legal input character.
501 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
502 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
503 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
504 default device is ps.)
506 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
507 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
508 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
509 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
511 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
512 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
513 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
514 draw_lines parameter.
516 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
517 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
518 always loaded by troff.
520 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
525 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
527 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
528 while a character definition is being processed.
530 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
533 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
534 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
536 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
537 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
538 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
539 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
540 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
542 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
543 with compatibility mode disabled.
545 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
546 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
547 for loading the device-specific macros.
552 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
553 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
554 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
555 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
557 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
558 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
559 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
561 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
562 (the quotes are required).
567 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
568 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
569 be prevented by the -R option.
571 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
572 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
574 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
577 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
578 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
584 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
585 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
586 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
588 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
591 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
592 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
593 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
598 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
599 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
604 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
610 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
611 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
612 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
613 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
614 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
615 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
616 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
617 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
618 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
619 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
620 be derived from the $r or $R register.
622 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
624 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
625 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
628 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
633 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
634 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
635 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
637 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
638 redisplays the current page.
646 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
647 differently with blocks.
649 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
650 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
652 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
654 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
660 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
661 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
662 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
667 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
668 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
669 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
670 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
671 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
673 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
674 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
679 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
681 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
682 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
687 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
692 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
693 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
694 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
700 Support for scalable fonts.
705 No changes other than bug fixes.
710 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
711 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
712 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
713 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
715 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
717 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
718 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
719 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
720 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
721 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
722 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
724 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
727 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
728 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
730 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
735 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
736 input level as the opening [.
738 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
739 suitable for use as a name.
741 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
744 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
745 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
746 the -mX option is given.
748 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
753 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
754 constructs by writing a troff macro.
759 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
764 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
765 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
766 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
767 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
769 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
770 Document Structuring Convention.
772 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
773 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
774 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
775 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
776 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
779 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
780 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
785 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
786 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
789 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
790 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
793 Xditview now uses imake.
798 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
800 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
801 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
802 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
803 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
804 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
805 that the `n' condition will be true.
807 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
808 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
809 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
811 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
812 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
813 latest version of the tpic specials.
818 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
819 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
820 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
825 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
826 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
828 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
829 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
830 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
835 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
840 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
841 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
843 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
844 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
845 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
851 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
853 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
859 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
860 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
861 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
862 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
863 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
865 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
867 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
870 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
871 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
872 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
873 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
874 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
875 amount of extra space to each word space.
877 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
879 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
880 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
881 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
882 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
883 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
889 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
891 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
892 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
898 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
899 complicated equations inside pictures.
901 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
902 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
908 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
909 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
915 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
916 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
917 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
920 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
921 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
923 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
924 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
926 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
927 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
928 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
929 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
930 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
931 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
933 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
934 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
935 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
936 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
939 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
940 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
942 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
943 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
948 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
949 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
950 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
952 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
953 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
954 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
955 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
956 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
957 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
958 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
959 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
960 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
966 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
967 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
969 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
972 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
973 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
974 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
975 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
976 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
977 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
978 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
980 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
981 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
982 when the diversion is reread.
984 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
987 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
988 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
989 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
990 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
991 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
992 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
993 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
995 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
998 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1001 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1003 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1004 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1006 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1008 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1009 of end of sentence recognition.
1011 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1012 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1014 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1015 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1017 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1019 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1020 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1021 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1026 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1027 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1029 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1030 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1033 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1034 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1036 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1038 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1039 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1041 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1042 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1045 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1046 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1048 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1049 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1050 of the `textht' variable.
1052 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1053 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1058 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1059 has been applied to a table.
1064 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1066 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1067 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1072 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1073 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1074 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1075 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1076 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1077 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1078 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1080 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1081 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1082 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'