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 Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
11 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
13 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
15 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
16 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
17 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
19 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
20 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
22 http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/typeforum/unicodegn.html
24 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
25 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
26 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
28 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
33 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
35 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
36 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
37 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
38 glyphs. The new request
42 will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
43 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
47 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
48 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
50 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
53 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
54 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
55 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
57 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
58 new `rfschar' request.
60 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
61 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
62 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
64 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
65 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
66 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
67 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
69 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
70 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
71 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
73 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
80 \D'Fd' (default color)
82 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
83 position is *not* changed.
85 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
86 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
88 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
89 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
91 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
93 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
94 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
95 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
96 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
97 same glyph shape as with other devices.
102 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
103 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
105 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
106 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
107 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
109 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
110 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
111 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
112 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
113 extension). Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
115 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
116 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
122 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
123 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
125 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
126 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
129 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
131 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
132 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
134 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
135 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
136 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
141 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
144 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
145 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
150 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
151 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
156 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
162 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
163 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
168 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
170 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
171 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
176 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
177 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
179 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
181 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
182 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
183 afmtodit for more details.
188 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
191 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
192 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
193 sub-subheading indentation.
195 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
198 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
199 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
201 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
204 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
205 explicitly specified on the command line.
207 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
208 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
210 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
211 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
212 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
213 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
215 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
216 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
217 the driver specific DESC file.
219 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
222 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
231 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
232 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
233 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
234 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
235 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
236 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
238 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
239 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
240 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
243 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
248 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
254 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
255 drivers) to set the default line width.
260 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
265 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
270 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
271 compatibility with NetBSD.
273 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
276 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
277 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
280 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
285 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
286 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
287 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
291 papersize /etc/papersize a4
293 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
294 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
295 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
298 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
300 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
306 ***************************************************************************
308 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
310 ***************************************************************************
315 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
316 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
317 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
318 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
319 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
320 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
321 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
322 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
325 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
326 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
329 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
330 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
333 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
334 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
335 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
337 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
338 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
339 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
342 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
345 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
346 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
348 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
349 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
351 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
352 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
354 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
355 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
357 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
358 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
360 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
362 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
365 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
368 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
369 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
375 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
376 . nop I will now define `bar'.
378 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
382 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
383 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
385 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
386 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
387 control their output format.
389 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
390 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
391 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
392 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
393 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
394 before checking special fonts.
396 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
397 doesn't emit a final newline.
399 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
400 with \c counts as one input line.
402 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
403 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
406 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
407 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
408 Note that this is an incompatible change.
410 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
411 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
413 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
414 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
415 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
416 for more information.
418 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
421 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
422 already existing patterns).
424 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
425 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
426 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
427 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
429 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
430 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
431 final `0' can be omitted.
433 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
434 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
435 any) before the character translation. Example:
447 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
449 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
450 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
451 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
452 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
453 post-vertical line space.
455 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
465 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
466 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
468 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
469 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
470 single space characters.
472 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
475 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
476 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
477 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
478 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
479 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
484 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
485 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
486 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
487 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
488 for PostScript output only.
490 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
491 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
493 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
494 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
495 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
496 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
497 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
499 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
500 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
501 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
503 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
506 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
507 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
510 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
511 works in compatibility mode.
513 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
514 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
516 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
519 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
520 reference to the ms macros.
522 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
524 o Changes in www.tmac:
526 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
527 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
528 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
531 The following macros have been renamed:
537 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
538 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
540 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
541 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
543 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
544 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
546 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
547 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
549 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
550 generation to headings.
552 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
555 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
556 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
558 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
559 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
562 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
564 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
566 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
568 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
569 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
574 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
575 disabled in compatibility mode).
580 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
581 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
582 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
587 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
588 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
589 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
591 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
593 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
595 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
600 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
601 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
602 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
607 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
608 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
609 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
614 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
615 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
621 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
626 o Color support has been added.
628 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
629 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
634 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
635 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
636 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
639 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
640 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
642 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
643 extended) has been added.
645 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
647 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
648 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
649 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
651 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
652 doesn't take care of hcode values.
654 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
655 to gray values currently.
660 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
661 ANSI color) escape sequences.
663 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
664 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
665 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
667 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
668 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
669 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
670 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
671 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
673 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
674 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
675 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
676 man(1) for more details.
678 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
679 reverting to the old behaviour.
681 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
682 enable SGR output (the default).
684 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
685 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
686 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
687 for this (including xterm).
692 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
694 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
696 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
698 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
699 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
702 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
707 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
708 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
709 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
714 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
716 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
719 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
722 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
724 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
725 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
727 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
729 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
730 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
731 currently. troff completely ignores it.
736 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
741 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
742 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
743 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
748 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
753 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
754 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
757 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
759 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
760 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
762 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
768 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
770 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
776 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
778 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
779 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
787 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
788 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
789 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
790 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
791 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
793 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
794 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
795 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
796 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
797 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
798 environment variables to groff.
803 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
804 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
805 supported). Most important changes are:
808 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
809 . `.Lb': prints library names
810 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
812 . Updated `.St' command
813 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
814 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
815 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
816 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
817 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
818 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
819 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
820 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
823 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
824 documents the mdoc package.
826 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
827 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
829 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
830 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
831 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
834 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
836 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
843 can now be written as
849 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
850 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
851 ending the diversion).
853 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
854 and some other escape sequences also.
856 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
857 unbreakable space character.
859 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
860 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
861 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
866 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
871 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
876 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
883 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
884 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
885 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
886 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
889 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
890 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
892 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
893 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
894 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
895 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
898 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
899 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
900 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
915 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
919 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
920 mode, and 0 otherwise.
922 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
923 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
924 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
926 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
927 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
928 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
929 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
931 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
932 line are widened by a given limit or more.
934 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
937 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
938 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
939 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
940 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
942 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
943 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
945 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
946 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
949 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
950 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
952 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
954 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
955 previous font family.
957 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
958 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
960 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
961 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
962 macro or string is written to a stream.
964 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
965 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
968 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
970 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
971 underlines spaces also).
976 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
977 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
982 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
983 been added to select a different prologue file.
985 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
986 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
987 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
992 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
994 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
995 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
996 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
999 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1000 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1001 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1002 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1003 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1004 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1006 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1007 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1010 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1011 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1012 variable if you really need the current directory.
1014 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1015 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1016 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1017 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1018 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1019 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1021 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1022 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1023 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1028 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1036 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1037 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1038 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1040 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1042 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1044 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1045 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1046 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1052 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1053 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1054 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1056 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1057 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1058 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1059 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1060 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1061 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1063 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1064 contains the current year.
1066 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1067 number of the groff package.
1069 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1070 font `foo' is undefined:
1073 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1075 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1077 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1079 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1080 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1082 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1085 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1086 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1088 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1089 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1090 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1092 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1094 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1095 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1098 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1099 (which is an alias to character `"').
1101 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1102 (which is an alias to character "'").
1104 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1105 better support of HTML output:
1107 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1110 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1112 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1113 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1114 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1115 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1117 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1120 use_charnames_in_special
1121 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1122 inside special commands.
1125 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1126 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1131 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1136 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1138 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1140 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1141 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1142 punctuation, for example).
1147 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1149 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1155 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1156 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1157 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1162 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1163 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1164 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1165 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1170 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1171 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1176 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
1182 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1183 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1184 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1189 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1190 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1191 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1193 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1194 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1196 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1197 ========================
1199 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1204 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1205 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1206 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1209 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1210 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1212 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1213 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1216 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1217 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1219 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1220 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1222 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1225 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1226 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1228 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1229 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1231 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1232 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1238 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1239 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1240 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1241 reports are highly welcome.
1246 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1252 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1253 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1258 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1259 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1261 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1266 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1271 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1272 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1273 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1274 half a dozen other projects.
1279 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1280 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1281 latest GNU coding standards.
1283 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1284 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1286 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1287 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1288 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1289 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1290 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1291 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1292 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1293 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1294 always installed as -me.
1296 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1302 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1303 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1309 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1315 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1320 The -m option enables manual feed.
1325 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1326 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1327 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1328 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1334 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1340 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1341 graphic to be specified.
1349 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1350 environment variable xxx.
1355 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1356 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1365 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1366 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1372 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1373 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1374 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1376 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1377 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1379 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1380 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1385 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1386 try to keep the table on one page.
1391 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1392 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1393 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1394 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1399 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1400 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1401 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1406 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1407 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1409 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1411 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1412 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1414 ^L is now a legal input character.
1419 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1420 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1421 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1422 default device is ps.)
1424 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1425 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1426 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1427 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1429 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1430 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1431 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1432 draw_lines parameter.
1434 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1435 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1436 always loaded by troff.
1438 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1443 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1445 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1446 while a character definition is being processed.
1448 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1451 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1452 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1454 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1455 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1456 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1457 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1458 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1460 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1461 with compatibility mode disabled.
1463 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1464 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1465 for loading the device-specific macros.
1470 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1471 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1472 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1473 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1475 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1476 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1477 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1479 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1480 (the quotes are required).
1485 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1486 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1487 be prevented by the -R option.
1489 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1490 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1492 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1495 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1496 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1502 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1503 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1504 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1506 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1509 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1510 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1511 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1516 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1517 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1522 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1528 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1529 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1530 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1531 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1532 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1533 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1534 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1535 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1536 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1537 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1538 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1540 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1542 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1543 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1546 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1551 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1552 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1553 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1555 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1556 redisplays the current page.
1564 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1565 differently with blocks.
1567 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1568 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1570 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1572 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1578 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1579 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1580 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1585 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1586 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1587 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1588 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1589 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1591 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1592 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1597 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1599 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1600 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1605 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1610 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1611 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1612 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1618 Support for scalable fonts.
1623 No changes other than bug fixes.
1628 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1629 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1630 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1631 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1633 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1635 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1636 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1637 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1638 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1639 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1640 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1642 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1645 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1646 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1648 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1653 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1654 input level as the opening [.
1656 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1657 suitable for use as a name.
1659 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1662 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1663 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1664 the -mX option is given.
1666 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1671 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1672 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1677 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1682 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1683 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1684 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1685 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1687 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1688 Document Structuring Convention.
1690 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1691 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1692 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1693 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1694 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1697 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1698 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1703 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1704 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1707 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1708 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1711 Xditview now uses imake.
1716 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1718 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1719 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1720 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1721 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1722 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1723 that the `n' condition will be true.
1725 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1726 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1727 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1729 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1730 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1731 latest version of the tpic specials.
1736 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1737 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1738 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1743 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1744 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1746 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1747 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1748 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1753 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1758 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1759 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1761 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1762 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1763 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1769 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1771 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1777 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1778 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1779 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1780 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1781 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1783 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1785 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1788 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1789 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1790 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1791 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1792 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1793 amount of extra space to each word space.
1795 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1797 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1798 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1799 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1800 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1801 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1807 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1809 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1810 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1816 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1817 complicated equations inside pictures.
1819 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1820 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1826 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1827 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1833 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1834 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1835 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1838 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1839 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1841 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1842 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1844 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1845 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1846 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1847 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1848 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1849 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1851 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1852 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1853 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1854 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1857 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1858 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1860 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1861 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1866 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1867 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1868 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1870 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1871 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1872 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1873 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1874 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1875 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1876 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1877 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1878 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1884 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1885 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1887 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1890 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1891 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1892 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1893 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1894 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1895 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1896 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1898 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1899 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1900 when the diversion is reread.
1902 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1905 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1906 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1907 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1908 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1909 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1910 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1911 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1913 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1916 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1919 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1921 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1922 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1924 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1926 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1927 of end of sentence recognition.
1929 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1930 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1932 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1933 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1935 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1937 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1938 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1939 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1944 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1945 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1947 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1948 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1951 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1952 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1954 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1956 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1957 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1959 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1960 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1963 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1964 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1966 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1967 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1968 of the `textht' variable.
1970 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1971 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1976 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1977 has been applied to a table.
1982 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1984 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1985 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1990 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1991 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1992 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1993 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1994 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1995 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1996 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1998 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1999 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2000 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
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