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 Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
11 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
12 set the glyph and background colours.
14 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
17 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
18 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
21 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
27 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
28 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
33 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
35 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
36 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
37 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
40 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
42 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
43 ldots (three dots on the base line)
44 dollar (a dollar glyph)
46 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
47 hasn't been documented previously:
56 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
61 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
64 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
66 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
72 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
73 installed automatically.
78 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
79 hasn't been installed previously.
84 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
89 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
90 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
91 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
96 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
104 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
105 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
106 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
109 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
110 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
111 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
112 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
113 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
115 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
118 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
119 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
122 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
123 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
126 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which will keep the
127 same point size as body text.
130 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
131 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
132 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1' will
133 produce 14pt headings, `.NH 2' will produce 12pt, and all other levels
134 will remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
136 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
137 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
140 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
145 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
146 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
150 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
152 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
153 <head>...</head> block.
158 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
159 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
164 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
165 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
166 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
167 troff always use unscaled character widths.
176 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
177 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
178 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
179 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
181 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands will be both printed
182 on standard error and run.
187 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
188 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
190 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
191 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
193 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
196 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
198 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
200 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
201 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
202 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
204 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
205 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
206 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
208 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
209 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
210 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
212 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
213 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
215 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
216 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
221 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
226 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
227 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
232 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
233 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
234 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
235 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
236 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
241 o New option `-j' to emit output splitted into multiple files.
246 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
247 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
248 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
250 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
255 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
258 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
259 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
260 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
261 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
262 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
267 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
272 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
273 hpftodit manual page for more details.
278 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
279 the old single script style.
281 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
282 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
283 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
285 New documentation file: README_SH.
287 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
292 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
294 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
304 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
305 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
307 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
309 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
310 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
311 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
313 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
314 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
316 http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/type/unicodegn.jsp
318 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
319 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
320 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
322 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
327 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
329 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
330 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
331 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
332 glyphs. The new request
336 will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
337 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
341 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
342 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
344 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
347 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
348 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
349 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
351 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
352 new `rfschar' request.
354 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
355 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
356 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
358 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
359 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
360 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
361 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
363 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
364 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
365 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
367 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
374 \D'Fd' (default color)
376 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
377 position is *not* changed.
379 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
380 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
382 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
383 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
385 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
387 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
388 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
389 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
390 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
391 same glyph shape as with other devices.
396 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
397 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
399 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
400 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
401 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
403 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
404 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
405 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
406 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
407 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
408 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
410 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
412 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
413 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
419 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
420 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
422 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
423 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
426 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
428 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
429 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
431 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
432 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
433 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
438 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
441 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
442 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
447 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
448 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
453 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
459 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
460 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
465 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
467 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
468 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
473 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
474 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
476 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
478 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
479 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
480 afmtodit for more details.
485 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
488 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
489 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
490 sub-subheading indentation.
492 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
495 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
496 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
498 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
501 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
502 explicitly specified on the command line.
504 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
505 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
507 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
508 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
509 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
510 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
512 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
513 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
514 the driver specific DESC file.
516 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
519 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
528 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
529 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
530 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
531 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
532 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
533 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
535 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
536 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
537 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
540 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
545 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
551 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
552 drivers) to set the default line width.
557 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
562 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
567 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
568 compatibility with NetBSD.
570 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
573 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
574 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
577 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
582 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
583 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
584 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
588 papersize /etc/papersize a4
590 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
591 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
592 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
595 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
597 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
603 ***************************************************************************
605 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
607 ***************************************************************************
612 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
613 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
614 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
615 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
616 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
617 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
618 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
619 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
622 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
623 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
626 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
627 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
630 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
631 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
632 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
634 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
635 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
636 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
639 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
642 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
643 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
645 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
646 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
648 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
649 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
651 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
652 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
654 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
655 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
657 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
659 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
662 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
665 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
666 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
672 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
673 . nop I will now define `bar'.
675 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
679 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
680 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
682 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
683 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
684 control their output format.
686 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
687 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
688 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
689 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
690 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
691 before checking special fonts.
693 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
694 doesn't emit a final newline.
696 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
697 with \c counts as one input line.
699 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
700 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
703 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
704 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
705 Note that this is an incompatible change.
707 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
708 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
710 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
711 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
712 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
713 for more information.
715 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
718 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
719 already existing patterns).
721 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
722 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
723 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
724 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
726 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
727 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
728 final `0' can be omitted.
730 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
731 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
732 any) before the character translation. Example:
744 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
746 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
747 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
748 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
749 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
750 post-vertical line space.
752 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
762 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
763 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
765 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
766 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
767 single space characters.
769 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
772 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
773 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
774 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
775 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
776 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
781 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
782 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
783 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
784 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
785 for PostScript output only.
787 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
788 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
790 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
791 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
792 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
793 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
794 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
796 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
797 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
798 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
800 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
803 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
804 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
807 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
808 works in compatibility mode.
810 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
811 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
813 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
816 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
817 reference to the ms macros.
819 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
821 o Changes in www.tmac:
823 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
824 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
825 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
828 The following macros have been renamed:
834 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
835 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
837 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
838 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
840 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
841 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
843 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
844 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
846 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
847 generation to headings.
849 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
852 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
853 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
855 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
856 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
859 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
861 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
863 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
865 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
866 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
871 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
872 disabled in compatibility mode).
877 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
878 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
879 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
884 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
885 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
886 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
888 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
890 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
892 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
897 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
898 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
899 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
904 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
905 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
906 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
911 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
912 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
918 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
923 o Color support has been added.
925 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
926 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
931 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
932 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
933 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
936 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
937 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
939 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
940 extended) has been added.
942 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
944 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
945 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
946 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
948 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
949 doesn't take care of hcode values.
951 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
952 to gray values currently.
957 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
958 ANSI color) escape sequences.
960 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
961 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
962 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
964 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
965 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
966 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
967 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
968 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
970 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
971 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
972 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
973 man(1) for more details.
975 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
976 reverting to the old behaviour.
978 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
979 enable SGR output (the default).
981 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
982 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
983 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
984 for this (including xterm).
989 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
991 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
993 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
995 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
996 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
999 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1004 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1005 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1006 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1011 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1013 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
1016 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1019 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1021 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1022 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1024 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1026 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1027 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1028 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1033 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1038 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1039 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1040 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1045 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1050 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1051 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1054 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1056 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1057 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1059 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1065 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1067 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1073 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1075 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1076 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1084 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1085 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1086 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1087 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1088 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1090 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1091 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1092 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1093 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1094 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1095 environment variables to groff.
1100 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1101 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1102 supported). Most important changes are:
1105 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1106 . `.Lb': prints library names
1107 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1109 . Updated `.St' command
1110 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1111 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1112 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1113 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1114 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1115 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1116 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1117 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1120 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1121 documents the mdoc package.
1123 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1124 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1126 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1127 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1128 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1131 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1133 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1134 `if 1'. For example,
1140 can now be written as
1146 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1147 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1148 ending the diversion).
1150 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1151 and some other escape sequences also.
1153 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1154 unbreakable space character.
1156 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1157 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1158 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1163 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1168 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1173 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1180 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1181 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1182 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1183 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1186 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1187 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1189 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1190 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1191 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1192 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1195 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1196 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1197 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1212 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1216 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1217 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1219 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1220 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1221 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1223 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1224 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1225 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1226 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1228 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
1229 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1231 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
1234 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1235 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1236 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1237 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1239 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1240 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1242 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1243 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1246 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1247 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1249 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1251 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1252 previous font family.
1254 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1255 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1257 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1258 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1259 macro or string is written to a stream.
1261 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1262 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1265 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1267 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1268 underlines spaces also).
1273 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1274 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1279 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1280 been added to select a different prologue file.
1282 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1283 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1284 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1289 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1291 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1292 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1293 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1296 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1297 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1298 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1299 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1300 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1301 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1303 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1304 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1307 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1308 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1309 variable if you really need the current directory.
1311 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1312 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1313 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1314 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1315 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1316 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1318 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1319 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1320 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1325 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1333 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1334 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1335 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1337 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1339 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1341 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1342 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1343 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1349 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1350 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1351 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1353 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1354 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1355 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1356 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1357 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1358 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1360 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1361 contains the current year.
1363 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1364 number of the groff package.
1366 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1367 font `foo' is undefined:
1370 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1372 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1374 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1376 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1377 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1379 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1382 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1383 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1385 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1386 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1387 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1389 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1391 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1392 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1395 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1396 (which is an alias to character `"').
1398 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1399 (which is an alias to character "'").
1401 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1402 better support of HTML output:
1404 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1407 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1409 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1410 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1411 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1412 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1414 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1417 use_charnames_in_special
1418 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1419 inside special commands.
1422 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1423 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1428 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1433 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1435 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1437 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1438 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1439 punctuation, for example).
1444 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1446 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1452 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1453 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1454 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1459 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1460 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1461 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1462 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1467 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1468 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1473 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
1479 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1480 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1481 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1486 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1487 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1488 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1490 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1491 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1493 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1494 ========================
1496 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1501 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1502 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1503 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1506 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1507 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1509 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1510 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1513 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1514 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1516 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1517 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1519 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1522 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1523 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1525 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1526 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1528 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1529 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1535 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1536 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1537 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1538 reports are highly welcome.
1543 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1549 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1550 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1555 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1556 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1558 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1563 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1568 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1569 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1570 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1571 half a dozen other projects.
1576 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1577 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1578 latest GNU coding standards.
1580 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1581 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1583 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1584 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1585 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1586 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1587 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1588 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1589 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1590 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1591 always installed as -me.
1593 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1599 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1600 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1606 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1612 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1617 The -m option enables manual feed.
1622 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1623 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1624 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1625 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1631 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1637 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1638 graphic to be specified.
1646 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1647 environment variable xxx.
1652 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1653 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1662 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1663 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1669 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1670 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1671 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1673 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1674 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1676 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1677 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1682 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1683 try to keep the table on one page.
1688 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1689 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1690 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1691 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1696 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1697 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1698 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1703 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1704 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1706 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1708 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1709 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1711 ^L is now a legal input character.
1716 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1717 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1718 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1719 default device is ps.)
1721 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1722 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1723 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1724 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1726 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1727 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1728 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1729 draw_lines parameter.
1731 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1732 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1733 always loaded by troff.
1735 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1740 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1742 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1743 while a character definition is being processed.
1745 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1748 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1749 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1751 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1752 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1753 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1754 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1755 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1757 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1758 with compatibility mode disabled.
1760 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1761 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1762 for loading the device-specific macros.
1767 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1768 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1769 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1770 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1772 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1773 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1774 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1776 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1777 (the quotes are required).
1782 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1783 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1784 be prevented by the -R option.
1786 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1787 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1789 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1792 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1793 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1799 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1800 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1801 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1803 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1806 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1807 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1808 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1813 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1814 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1819 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1825 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1826 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1827 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1828 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1829 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1830 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1831 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1832 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1833 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1834 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1835 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1837 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1839 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1840 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1843 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1848 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1849 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1850 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1852 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1853 redisplays the current page.
1861 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1862 differently with blocks.
1864 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1865 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1867 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1869 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1875 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1876 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1877 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1882 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1883 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1884 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1885 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1886 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1888 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1889 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1894 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1896 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1897 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1902 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1907 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1908 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1909 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1915 Support for scalable fonts.
1920 No changes other than bug fixes.
1925 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1926 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1927 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1928 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1930 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1932 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1933 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1934 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1935 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1936 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1937 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1939 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1942 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1943 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1945 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1950 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1951 input level as the opening [.
1953 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1954 suitable for use as a name.
1956 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1959 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1960 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1961 the -mX option is given.
1963 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1968 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1969 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1974 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1979 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1980 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1981 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1982 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1984 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1985 Document Structuring Convention.
1987 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1988 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1989 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1990 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1991 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1994 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1995 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2000 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2001 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
2004 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2005 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2008 Xditview now uses imake.
2013 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2015 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2016 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2017 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2018 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2019 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2020 that the `n' condition will be true.
2022 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2023 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2024 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2026 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
2027 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2028 latest version of the tpic specials.
2033 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2034 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2035 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
2040 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2041 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2043 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2044 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2045 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2050 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2055 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2056 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2058 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2059 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2060 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2066 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2068 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2074 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2075 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2076 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2077 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2078 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2080 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2082 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2085 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2086 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
2087 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2088 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
2089 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2090 amount of extra space to each word space.
2092 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2094 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
2095 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2096 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2097 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2098 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2104 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2106 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2107 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2113 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2114 complicated equations inside pictures.
2116 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2117 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2123 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2124 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2130 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2131 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2132 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2135 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2136 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2138 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2139 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2141 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2142 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2143 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2144 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2145 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2146 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2148 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2149 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2150 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2151 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2154 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
2155 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2157 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2158 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2163 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2164 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2165 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2167 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2168 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2169 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2170 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2171 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2172 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2173 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2174 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2175 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2181 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2182 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2184 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2187 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2188 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2189 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2190 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2191 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2192 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2193 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2195 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2196 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
2197 when the diversion is reread.
2199 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2202 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2203 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2204 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2205 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2206 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2207 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2208 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2210 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2213 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2216 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2218 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2219 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2221 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2223 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2224 of end of sentence recognition.
2226 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2227 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2229 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2230 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2232 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2234 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2235 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2236 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2241 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2242 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2244 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2245 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2248 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2249 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2251 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2253 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2254 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2256 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2257 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2260 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2261 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2263 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2264 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2265 of the `textht' variable.
2267 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2268 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2273 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2274 has been applied to a table.
2279 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2281 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2282 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2287 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2288 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2289 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2290 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2291 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2292 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2293 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2295 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2296 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2297 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'