This section describes recent user-visible changes in
groff. Bug fixes are not described. There are more details
in the man pages.
Please
read the changes below regarding
grotty, groff's tty
frontend.
Troff
- Color support has been added
to troff and pic (and to the device drivers grops, grodvi,
grotty, and grohtml – other preprocessors and drivers
will follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the
escape sequence `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape
sequence `\M' specifies the background color for closed
objects created with \D'...' commands. `\m[]' and `\M[]'
switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M' correspond
to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
`DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default'
and can't be redefined.
Use the
`color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is
on); the read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are
not active, and non-zero otherwise.
The old
`Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
commands don't change the current font position
(consequently, `Df' doesn't either).
Outputting
color can be disabled in troff and groff with the
option -c (it is always disabled in compatibility
mode). See the section on grotty for the
GROFF_NO_SGR environment
variable also.
For
defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1,
a new scaling indicator `f' has been defined:
1f = 65536u. For testing whether a color is
defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m'
is available.
More
details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
groff.texinfo.
- Similar
to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
(and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards
compatibility.
- The
new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to
previous family – \F[P] selects family `P'.
- Two
new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro
symbol; `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
- The
new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual
variants of `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
- Latin-1
character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN)
has got the troff glyph name `mc'.
- -Tutf8
is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
- Strings
can take arguments, using this syntax:
\*[foo arg1 arg2 ...]. Example:
.ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
\*[xxx nice]
It
is now possible to have whitespace between the first and
second dot (or the name of the ending macro) to end a macro
definition. Example:
.de !
..
.
.de foo
. nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
. nop I will now define `bar'.
. de bar !
. nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
. !
..
`.fn'
is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal)
real font name; styles and families are properly
concatenated.
Three
new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours'
contain the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the
`af' request to control their output format.
The
new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback
characters. It has the same syntax as the `char' request;
the only difference is that a character defined with `.char'
hides the glyph with the same name in the current font,
whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This
test happens before checking special fonts.
In
analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as
`.write' but doesn't emit a final newline.
The
new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line
interrupted with \c counts as one input line.
Two
new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and
`as' but with compatibility mode disabled during expansion
of strings defined by them.
The
syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The
first character in a string now has index 0, the last
character has index -1. Note that this is an
incompatible change.
To
emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new
`output' request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used
at the top level.
`.hpf'
has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands
\patterns, \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized.
Please refer to groff_diff.7 for more
information.
`hpfcode'
is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for
the `hpf' request.
The
new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf'
replaces already existing patterns).
A
new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added.
The first and second parameter of `ami' are taken from
string registers rather than directly; this very special
request is needed to make `trace.tmac' independent from the
escape character (which might even be disabled).
The
new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in
DESC files. It expects the same syntax; the data must be on
a single line, and the final `0' can be omitted.
`trin'
(translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr'
with the exception that the `asciify' request uses the
character code (if any) before the character translation.
Example:
.trin ax
.di xxx
a
.br
.di
.xxx
.trin aa
.asciify xxx
.xxx
The result
is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be
`x x'.
The
request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before.
It adds vertical space after a line has been output. This
makes it an alternative to the `ls' request to produce
double-spaced documents. The read-only register `.pvs' holds
the current amount of the post-vertical line
space.
For
compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests
are supported:
.pi foo
.pi bar
is now
equivalent to
.pi
foo | bar
A
new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable
glyph output. Please see groff_diff.man and groff.texinfo
for more details.
The
escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an
error in \X; they are ignored now. Additionally `\ '
and `\~' are converted to single space
characters.
The
default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be
compatible with UNIX troff.
Using
the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to
`\%', and the default hyphenation character is again \[hy].
Note that the glyph \[shc] is not useful for typographic
purposes; it only exists to have glyph names for all latin-1
characters.
Macro Packages
- Peter Schaffter
has contributed a new major macro package called `mom',
mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of many
typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in
HTML format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to
format documents for PostScript output only.
- Two
macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have
been added to the man macros for compatibility with older
BSD releases.
- Both
the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT
registers for setting the line and title length,
respectively (similar to those registers in the ms macro
package). If not set on the command line or in a macro file
loaded before the macro package itself, they default to 78n
in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
- The
`-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been
removed. Its functionality is now integrated directly into
`-width'. Similarly, `-column' has been extended to has this
functionality also.
- A
new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to
document an exit status.
- `troff.man'
has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
in the new man page `groff_diff.man'.
- The
PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output
(`pspic.tmac' is now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using
a dvips special to load the EPS file.
- The
trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also.
Additionally, it works in compatibility mode.
- `troff.1'
has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
- `groff_mwww.7'
has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac has
been removed.
- `groff_ms.7'
has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
reference to the ms macros.
- `groff_trace.7'
documents the trace macro package.
- Changes
in www.tmac
Note that
HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather
likely that both macro names and macro syntax will change.
Some of the macros mentioned below aren't really new but
haven't been documented properly before.
- The following macros have been
renamed:
MAILTO
-> MTO
IMAGE -> IMG
LINE -> HR
- For
consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have
the address as the first parameter followed by the
description.
- By
default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at
the top of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a
different place.
- For
specifying the background color and a background image, use
the new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
- The
macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of
top and bottom rules which grohtml emits by
default.
- The
new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic
link generation to headings.
- The
image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to
`-L', `-R', and `-C'.
- New
macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is
used).
- New
macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right
margin (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not
-Thtml is used).
- New
macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line
block.
- New
macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
- New
macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1
heading.
- New
macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list.
The new macro `LI' inserts a list item.
groff
Nroff
- Two new command line options
`-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to grotty (switching
to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to groff
(enabling compatibility mode).
pic
- New keywords `color' (or
`colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or `outlined'),
and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both.
Example:
circle
shaded "green" outline "black"
;
Filled
arrows always use the outline color for filling.
Color
support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
Pic2graph
- A new script contributed by
Eric S. Raymond. It
converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses
gs and the PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are
available for output.
Eqn2graph
- A new script contributed by
Eric S. Raymond. It
converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses
gs and the PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are
available for output.
Groffer
- A new script contributed by
Bernd Warken.
It displays groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking
care of most parameters automatically.
Grog
grops
- Color support has been
added.
- A
new option `-p' is available to select the output paper
size. It has the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword
in the DESC file.
Grodvi
- By default, font sizes are now
available in the range 5-10000pt, similar to PS fonts. If
you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
values only), insert the following at the start of your
document:
.if '\*[.T]'dvi' \
. sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
A
new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans
serif bold extended) has been added.
Two
font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
EC
and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the
file ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much
better coverage of the symbols defined by groff than the CM
fonts.
Note that
ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files;
it doesn't take care of hcode values.
Color
support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are
translated to gray values currently.
Grotty
- Color support has been added,
using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called ANSI color)
escape sequences.
- SGR
escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and
bold printing also, no longer using the backspace character
trick. To revert to the old behaviour, use the `-c'
switch.
Note that
you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR
escapes display correctly. On the other hand, terminal
programs and consoles like `xterm' which support SGR
sequences natively can directly display the output of
grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently
otherwise.
For the
`man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
`less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER,
depending on the used version of `man'); alternatively, you
can use `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file
accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
- If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set,
SGR output is disabled, reverting to the old
behaviour.
- A
new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is
non-zero or missing, enable SGR output (the
default).
- If
the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends
escape sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of
the underline attribute for italic fonts. Note that many
terminals don't have support for this (including xterm).
grohtml
- Color support for glyphs has
been added.
- New
option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML
output.
- New
option `-b' to set the background colour to
white.
- New
options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for
anti-aliasing used for text and graphics, respectively.
Default value is 4; 0 means no
anti-aliasing.
- groff
character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character
entities.
Grolbp
- Valid paper sizes are now
specified as with the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC
file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
`custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
Miscellaneous
- A new manual page `ditroff.7'
is available.
- The
groff texinfo manual is now installed, together with a bunch
of examples.
- A
new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file
format. Its argument is either
- a predefined paper format
(e.g. `A4' or `letter')
- a
file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
specification in its first line (e.g.
`/etc/papersize')
- a
custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
See
groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects
the physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4,
and grolbp use it currently. troff completely ignores it.
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