1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
2 described. There are more details in the man pages.
7 ***************************************************************************
9 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
11 ***************************************************************************
16 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
17 grops, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
18 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
19 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
20 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
21 Similar to fonts, `\mP' and `\MP' switch back to the previous color. `\m'
22 and `\M' correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m'
23 and `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't
26 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
27 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
30 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
31 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
32 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
34 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
35 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
36 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
39 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
42 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
43 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
45 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
46 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
48 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
50 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
51 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
57 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
58 . nop I will now define `bar'.
60 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
64 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
65 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
67 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
68 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
69 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
70 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
71 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
72 before checking special fonts.
74 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
75 with \c counts as one input line.
77 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
78 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
81 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
82 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
83 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
84 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
86 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available (mainly for internal use with
87 grohtml). Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
89 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
90 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
92 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
93 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
94 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
96 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
99 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
100 works in compatibility mode.
102 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
103 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
105 o `groff_mwww.1' has been renamed to `groff_www.1'. The file mwww.tmac
108 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
109 reference to the ms macros.
111 o Changes in www.tmac:
113 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
114 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
115 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
118 The following macros have been renamed:
124 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
125 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
127 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
128 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
130 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
131 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
133 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
134 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
136 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
137 generation to headings.
139 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
142 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
143 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
145 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
146 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
149 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
151 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
153 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
155 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
156 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
161 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
162 disabled in compatibility mode).
167 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
168 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
169 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
174 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
175 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
176 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
178 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
180 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
182 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
187 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
188 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
189 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
194 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
195 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
201 o Color support has been added.
207 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
208 ANSI color) escape sequences.
210 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
211 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
212 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
214 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
215 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
216 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
217 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
218 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
220 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
221 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
222 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
223 man(1) for more details.
225 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
226 reverting to the old behaviour.
228 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
229 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
230 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
231 for this (including xterm).
236 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
238 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
240 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
242 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
243 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
249 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
254 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
259 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
260 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
261 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
266 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
271 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
272 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
275 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
277 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
278 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
280 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
286 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
288 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
294 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
296 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
297 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
305 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
306 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
307 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
308 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
309 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
311 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
312 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
313 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
314 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
315 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
316 environment variables to groff.
321 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
322 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
323 supported). Most important changes are:
326 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
327 . `.Lb': prints library names
328 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
330 . Updated `.St' command
331 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
332 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
333 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
334 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
335 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
336 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
337 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
338 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
341 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
342 documents the mdoc package.
344 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
345 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
347 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
348 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
349 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
352 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
354 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
361 can now be written as
367 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
368 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
369 ending the diversion).
371 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
372 and some other escape sequences also.
374 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
375 unbreakable space character.
377 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
378 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
379 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
384 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
389 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
394 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
401 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
402 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
403 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
404 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
407 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
408 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
410 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
411 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
412 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
413 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
416 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
417 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
418 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
433 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
437 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
438 mode, and 0 otherwise.
440 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
441 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
442 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
444 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
445 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
446 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
447 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
449 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
450 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
452 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
453 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
456 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
457 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
459 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
461 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
462 previous font family.
464 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
465 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
467 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
468 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
469 macro or string is written to a stream.
471 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
472 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
475 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
477 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
478 underlines spaces also).
483 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
484 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
489 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
490 been added to select a different prologue file.
492 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
493 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
494 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
499 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
501 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
502 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
503 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
506 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
507 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
508 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
509 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
510 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
511 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
513 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
514 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
517 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
518 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
519 variable if you really need the current directory.
521 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
522 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
523 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
524 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
525 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
526 is searched before the local tmac directory.
528 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
529 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
530 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
535 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
543 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
544 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
545 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
547 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
549 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
551 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
552 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
553 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
559 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
560 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
561 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
563 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
564 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
565 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
566 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
567 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
568 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
570 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
571 contains the current year.
573 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
574 number of the groff package.
576 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
577 font `foo' is undefined:
580 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
582 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
584 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
586 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
587 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
589 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
592 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
593 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
595 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
596 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
597 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
599 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
601 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
602 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
605 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
606 (which is an alias to character `"').
608 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
609 (which is an alias to character "'").
611 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
612 better support of HTML output:
614 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
617 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
619 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
620 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
621 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
622 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
624 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
627 use_charnames_in_special
628 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
629 inside special commands.
632 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
633 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
638 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
643 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
645 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
647 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
648 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
649 punctuation, for example).
654 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
656 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
662 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
663 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
664 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
669 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
670 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
671 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
672 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
677 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
678 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
683 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
689 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
690 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
691 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
696 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
697 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
698 <blake@florida-software.com>.
700 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
701 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
703 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
704 ========================
706 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
711 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
712 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
713 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
716 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
717 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
719 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
720 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
723 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
724 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
726 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
727 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
729 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
732 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
733 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
735 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
736 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
738 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
739 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
745 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
746 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
747 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
748 reports are highly welcome.
753 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
759 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
760 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
765 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
766 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
768 Will now support 8 gray levels.
773 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
778 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
779 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
780 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
781 half a dozen other projects.
786 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
787 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
788 latest GNU coding standards.
790 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
791 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
793 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
794 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
795 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
796 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
797 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
798 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
799 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
800 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
801 always installed as -me.
803 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
809 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
810 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
816 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
822 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
827 The -m option enables manual feed.
832 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
833 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
834 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
835 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
841 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
847 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
848 graphic to be specified.
856 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
857 environment variable xxx.
862 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
863 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
872 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
873 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
879 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
880 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
881 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
883 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
884 enabled by default) instead of an error.
886 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
887 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
892 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
893 try to keep the table on one page.
898 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
899 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
900 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
901 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
906 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
907 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
908 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
913 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
914 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
916 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
918 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
919 \(an. See groff_char(7).
921 ^L is now a legal input character.
926 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
927 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
928 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
929 default device is ps.)
931 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
932 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
933 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
934 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
936 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
937 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
938 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
939 draw_lines parameter.
941 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
942 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
943 always loaded by troff.
945 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
950 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
952 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
953 while a character definition is being processed.
955 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
958 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
959 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
961 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
962 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
963 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
964 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
965 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
967 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
968 with compatibility mode disabled.
970 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
971 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
972 for loading the device-specific macros.
977 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
978 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
979 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
980 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
982 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
983 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
984 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
986 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
987 (the quotes are required).
992 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
993 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
994 be prevented by the -R option.
996 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
997 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
999 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1002 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1003 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1009 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1010 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1011 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1013 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1016 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1017 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1018 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1023 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1024 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1029 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1035 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1036 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1037 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1038 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1039 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1040 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1041 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1042 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1043 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1044 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1045 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1047 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1049 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1050 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1053 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1058 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1059 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1060 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1062 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1063 redisplays the current page.
1071 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1072 differently with blocks.
1074 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1075 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1077 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1079 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1085 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1086 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1087 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1092 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1093 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1094 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1095 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1096 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1098 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1099 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1104 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1106 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1107 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1112 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1117 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1118 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1119 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1125 Support for scalable fonts.
1130 No changes other than bug fixes.
1135 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1136 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1137 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1138 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1140 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1142 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1143 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1144 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1145 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1146 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1147 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1149 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1152 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1153 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1155 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1160 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1161 input level as the opening [.
1163 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1164 suitable for use as a name.
1166 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1169 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1170 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1171 the -mX option is given.
1173 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1178 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1179 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1184 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1189 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1190 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1191 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1192 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1194 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1195 Document Structuring Convention.
1197 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1198 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1199 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1200 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1201 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1204 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1205 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1210 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1211 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1214 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1215 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1218 Xditview now uses imake.
1223 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1225 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1226 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1227 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1228 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1229 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1230 that the `n' condition will be true.
1232 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1233 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1234 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1236 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1237 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1238 latest version of the tpic specials.
1243 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1244 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1245 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1250 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1251 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1253 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1254 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1255 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1260 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1265 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1266 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1268 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1269 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1270 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1276 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1278 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1284 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1285 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1286 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1287 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1288 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1290 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1292 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1295 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1296 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1297 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1298 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1299 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1300 amount of extra space to each word space.
1302 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1304 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1305 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1306 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1307 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1308 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1314 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1316 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1317 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1323 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1324 complicated equations inside pictures.
1326 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1327 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1333 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1334 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1340 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1341 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1342 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1345 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1346 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1348 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1349 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1351 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1352 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1353 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1354 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1355 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1356 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1358 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1359 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1360 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1361 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1364 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1365 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1367 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1368 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1373 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1374 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1375 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1377 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1378 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1379 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1380 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1381 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1382 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1383 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1384 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1385 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1391 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1392 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1394 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1397 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1398 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1399 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1400 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1401 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1402 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1403 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1405 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1406 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1407 when the diversion is reread.
1409 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1412 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1413 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1414 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1415 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1416 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1417 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1418 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1420 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1423 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1426 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1428 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1429 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1431 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1433 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1434 of end of sentence recognition.
1436 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1437 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1439 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1440 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1442 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1444 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1445 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1446 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1451 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1452 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1454 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1455 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1458 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1459 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1461 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1463 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1464 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1466 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1467 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1470 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1471 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1473 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1474 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1475 of the `textht' variable.
1477 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1478 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1483 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1484 has been applied to a table.
1489 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1491 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1492 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1497 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1498 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1499 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1500 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1501 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1502 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1503 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1505 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1506 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1507 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'