1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
2 described. There are more details in the man and info pages.
10 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
11 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
12 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
13 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
15 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands will be both printed
16 on standard error and run.
21 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
22 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
23 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
25 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
26 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
27 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
29 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
30 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests. This is
31 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
36 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
41 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
42 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
47 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
48 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
49 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
54 o New option `-j' to emit output splitted into multiple files.
60 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
61 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
62 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
67 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
69 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
79 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
80 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
82 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
84 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
85 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
86 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
88 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
89 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
91 http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/typeforum/unicodegn.html
93 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
94 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
95 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
97 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
102 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
104 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
105 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
106 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
107 glyphs. The new request
111 will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
112 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
116 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
117 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
119 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
122 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
123 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
124 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
126 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
127 new `rfschar' request.
129 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
130 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
131 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
133 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
134 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
135 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
136 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
138 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
139 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
140 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
142 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
149 \D'Fd' (default color)
151 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
152 position is *not* changed.
154 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
155 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
157 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
158 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
160 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
162 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
163 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
164 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
165 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
166 same glyph shape as with other devices.
171 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
172 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
174 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
175 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
176 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
178 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
179 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
180 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
181 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
182 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
183 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
185 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
187 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
188 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
194 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
195 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
197 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
198 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
201 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
203 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
204 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
206 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
207 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
208 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
213 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
216 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
217 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
222 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
223 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
228 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
234 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
235 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
240 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
242 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
243 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
248 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
249 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
251 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
253 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
254 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
255 afmtodit for more details.
260 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
263 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
264 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
265 sub-subheading indentation.
267 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
270 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
271 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
273 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
276 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
277 explicitly specified on the command line.
279 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
280 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
282 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
283 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
284 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
285 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
287 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
288 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
289 the driver specific DESC file.
291 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
294 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
303 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
304 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
305 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
306 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
307 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
308 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
310 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
311 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
312 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
315 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
320 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
326 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
327 drivers) to set the default line width.
332 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
337 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
342 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
343 compatibility with NetBSD.
345 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
348 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
349 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
352 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
357 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
358 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
359 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
363 papersize /etc/papersize a4
365 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
366 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
367 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
370 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
372 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
378 ***************************************************************************
380 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
382 ***************************************************************************
387 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
388 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
389 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
390 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
391 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
392 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
393 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
394 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
397 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
398 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
401 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
402 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
405 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
406 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
407 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
409 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
410 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
411 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
414 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
417 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
418 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
420 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
421 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
423 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
424 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
426 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
427 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
429 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
430 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
432 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
434 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
437 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
440 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
441 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
447 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
448 . nop I will now define `bar'.
450 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
454 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
455 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
457 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
458 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
459 control their output format.
461 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
462 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
463 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
464 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
465 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
466 before checking special fonts.
468 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
469 doesn't emit a final newline.
471 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
472 with \c counts as one input line.
474 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
475 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
478 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
479 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
480 Note that this is an incompatible change.
482 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
483 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
485 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
486 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
487 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
488 for more information.
490 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
493 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
494 already existing patterns).
496 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
497 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
498 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
499 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
501 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
502 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
503 final `0' can be omitted.
505 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
506 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
507 any) before the character translation. Example:
519 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
521 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
522 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
523 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
524 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
525 post-vertical line space.
527 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
537 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
538 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
540 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
541 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
542 single space characters.
544 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
547 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
548 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
549 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
550 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
551 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
556 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
557 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
558 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
559 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
560 for PostScript output only.
562 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
563 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
565 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
566 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
567 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
568 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
569 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
571 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
572 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
573 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
575 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
578 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
579 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
582 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
583 works in compatibility mode.
585 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
586 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
588 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
591 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
592 reference to the ms macros.
594 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
596 o Changes in www.tmac:
598 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
599 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
600 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
603 The following macros have been renamed:
609 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
610 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
612 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
613 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
615 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
616 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
618 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
619 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
621 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
622 generation to headings.
624 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
627 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
628 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
630 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
631 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
634 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
636 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
638 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
640 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
641 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
646 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
647 disabled in compatibility mode).
652 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
653 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
654 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
659 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
660 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
661 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
663 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
665 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
667 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
672 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
673 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
674 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
679 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
680 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
681 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
686 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
687 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
693 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
698 o Color support has been added.
700 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
701 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
706 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
707 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
708 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
711 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
712 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
714 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
715 extended) has been added.
717 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
719 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
720 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
721 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
723 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
724 doesn't take care of hcode values.
726 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
727 to gray values currently.
732 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
733 ANSI color) escape sequences.
735 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
736 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
737 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
739 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
740 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
741 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
742 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
743 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
745 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
746 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
747 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
748 man(1) for more details.
750 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
751 reverting to the old behaviour.
753 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
754 enable SGR output (the default).
756 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
757 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
758 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
759 for this (including xterm).
764 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
766 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
768 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
770 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
771 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
774 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
779 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
780 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
781 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
786 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
788 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
791 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
794 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
796 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
797 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
799 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
801 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
802 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
803 currently. troff completely ignores it.
808 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
813 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
814 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
815 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
820 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
825 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
826 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
829 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
831 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
832 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
834 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
840 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
842 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
848 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
850 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
851 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
859 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
860 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
861 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
862 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
863 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
865 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
866 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
867 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
868 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
869 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
870 environment variables to groff.
875 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
876 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
877 supported). Most important changes are:
880 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
881 . `.Lb': prints library names
882 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
884 . Updated `.St' command
885 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
886 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
887 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
888 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
889 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
890 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
891 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
892 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
895 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
896 documents the mdoc package.
898 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
899 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
901 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
902 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
903 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
906 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
908 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
915 can now be written as
921 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
922 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
923 ending the diversion).
925 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
926 and some other escape sequences also.
928 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
929 unbreakable space character.
931 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
932 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
933 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
938 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
943 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
948 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
955 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
956 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
957 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
958 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
961 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
962 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
964 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
965 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
966 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
967 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
970 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
971 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
972 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
987 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
991 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
992 mode, and 0 otherwise.
994 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
995 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
996 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
998 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
999 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1000 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1001 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1003 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
1004 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1006 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
1009 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1010 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1011 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1012 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1014 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1015 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1017 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1018 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1021 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1022 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1024 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1026 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1027 previous font family.
1029 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1030 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1032 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1033 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1034 macro or string is written to a stream.
1036 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1037 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1040 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1042 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1043 underlines spaces also).
1048 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1049 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1054 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1055 been added to select a different prologue file.
1057 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1058 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1059 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1064 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1066 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1067 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1068 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1071 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1072 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1073 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1074 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1075 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1076 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1078 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1079 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1082 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1083 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1084 variable if you really need the current directory.
1086 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1087 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1088 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1089 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1090 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1091 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1093 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1094 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1095 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1100 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1108 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1109 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1110 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1112 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1114 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1116 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1117 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1118 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1124 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1125 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1126 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1128 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1129 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1130 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1131 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1132 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1133 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1135 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1136 contains the current year.
1138 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1139 number of the groff package.
1141 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1142 font `foo' is undefined:
1145 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1147 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1149 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1151 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1152 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1154 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1157 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1158 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1160 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1161 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1162 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1164 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1166 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1167 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1170 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1171 (which is an alias to character `"').
1173 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1174 (which is an alias to character "'").
1176 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1177 better support of HTML output:
1179 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1182 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1184 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1185 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1186 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1187 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1189 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1192 use_charnames_in_special
1193 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1194 inside special commands.
1197 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1198 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1203 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1208 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1210 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1212 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1213 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1214 punctuation, for example).
1219 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1221 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1227 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1228 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1229 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1234 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1235 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1236 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1237 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1242 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1243 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1248 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
1254 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1255 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1256 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1261 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1262 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1263 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1265 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1266 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1268 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1269 ========================
1271 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1276 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1277 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1278 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1281 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1282 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1284 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1285 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1288 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1289 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1291 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1292 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1294 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1297 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1298 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1300 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1301 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1303 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1304 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1310 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1311 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1312 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1313 reports are highly welcome.
1318 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1324 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1325 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1330 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1331 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1333 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1338 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1343 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1344 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1345 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1346 half a dozen other projects.
1351 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1352 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1353 latest GNU coding standards.
1355 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1356 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1358 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1359 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1360 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1361 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1362 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1363 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1364 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1365 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1366 always installed as -me.
1368 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1374 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1375 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1381 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1387 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1392 The -m option enables manual feed.
1397 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1398 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1399 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1400 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1406 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1412 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1413 graphic to be specified.
1421 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1422 environment variable xxx.
1427 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1428 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1437 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1438 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1444 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1445 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1446 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1448 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1449 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1451 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1452 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1457 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1458 try to keep the table on one page.
1463 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1464 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1465 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1466 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1471 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1472 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1473 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1478 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1479 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1481 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1483 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1484 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1486 ^L is now a legal input character.
1491 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1492 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1493 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1494 default device is ps.)
1496 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1497 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1498 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1499 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1501 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1502 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1503 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1504 draw_lines parameter.
1506 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1507 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1508 always loaded by troff.
1510 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1515 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1517 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1518 while a character definition is being processed.
1520 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1523 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1524 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1526 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1527 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1528 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1529 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1530 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1532 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1533 with compatibility mode disabled.
1535 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1536 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1537 for loading the device-specific macros.
1542 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1543 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1544 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1545 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1547 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1548 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1549 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1551 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1552 (the quotes are required).
1557 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1558 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1559 be prevented by the -R option.
1561 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1562 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1564 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1567 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1568 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1574 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1575 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1576 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1578 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1581 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1582 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1583 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1588 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1589 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1594 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1600 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1601 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1602 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1603 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1604 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1605 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1606 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1607 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1608 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1609 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1610 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1612 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1614 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1615 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1618 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1623 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1624 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1625 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1627 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1628 redisplays the current page.
1636 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1637 differently with blocks.
1639 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1640 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1642 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1644 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1650 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1651 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1652 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1657 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1658 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1659 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1660 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1661 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1663 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1664 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1669 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1671 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1672 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1677 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1682 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1683 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1684 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1690 Support for scalable fonts.
1695 No changes other than bug fixes.
1700 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1701 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1702 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1703 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1705 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1707 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1708 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1709 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1710 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1711 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1712 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1714 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1717 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1718 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1720 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1725 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1726 input level as the opening [.
1728 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1729 suitable for use as a name.
1731 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1734 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1735 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1736 the -mX option is given.
1738 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1743 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1744 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1749 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1754 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1755 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1756 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1757 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1759 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1760 Document Structuring Convention.
1762 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1763 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1764 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1765 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1766 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1769 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1770 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1775 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1776 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1779 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1780 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1783 Xditview now uses imake.
1788 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1790 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1791 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1792 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1793 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1794 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1795 that the `n' condition will be true.
1797 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1798 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1799 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1801 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1802 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1803 latest version of the tpic specials.
1808 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1809 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1810 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1815 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1816 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1818 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1819 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1820 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1825 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1830 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1831 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1833 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1834 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1835 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1841 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1843 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1849 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1850 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1851 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1852 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1853 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1855 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1857 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1860 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1861 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1862 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1863 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1864 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1865 amount of extra space to each word space.
1867 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1869 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1870 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1871 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1872 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1873 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1879 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1881 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1882 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1888 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1889 complicated equations inside pictures.
1891 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1892 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1898 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1899 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1905 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1906 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1907 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1910 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1911 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1913 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1914 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1916 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1917 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1918 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1919 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1920 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1921 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1923 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1924 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1925 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1926 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1929 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1930 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1932 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1933 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1938 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1939 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1940 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1942 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1943 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1944 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1945 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1946 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1947 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1948 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1949 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1950 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1956 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1957 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1959 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1962 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1963 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1964 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1965 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1966 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1967 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1968 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1970 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1971 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1972 when the diversion is reread.
1974 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1977 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1978 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1979 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1980 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1981 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1982 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1983 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1985 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1988 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1991 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1993 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1994 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1996 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1998 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1999 of end of sentence recognition.
2001 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2002 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2004 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2005 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2007 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2009 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2010 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2011 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2016 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2017 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2019 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2020 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2023 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2024 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2026 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2028 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2029 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2031 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2032 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2035 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2036 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2038 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2039 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2040 of the `textht' variable.
2042 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2043 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2048 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2049 has been applied to a table.
2054 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2056 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2057 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2062 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2063 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2064 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2065 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2066 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2067 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2068 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2070 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2071 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2072 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'