[Groff] Announcing groff 1.19

[Werner LEMBERG]

groff 1.19 has been released.

It is available from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/ and mirrors of that site
(see list of mirror sites at http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html).  Current
snapshots are available from ftp://ftp.ffii.org/pub/groff/devel/.

groff is the GNU implementation of troff, a document formatting system.
Included in this release are implementations of troff, pic, eqn, tbl, grn,
refer, -man, -mdoc, -mom, and -ms macros, and drivers for PostScript, TeX dvi
format, HP LaserJet 4 printers, Canon CAPSL printers, HTML format (still
alpha), and typewriter-like devices.  Also included is a modified version of
the Berkeley -me macros, an enhanced version of the X11 xditview previewer,
and an implementation of the -mm macros.

See below for the relevant snippet from the NEWS file.

Bug reports should go to address@hidden

Enjoy!


   Werner


======================================================================


VERSION 1.19
============

Troff
-----

o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
  latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added.  Example use:

    groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi

  You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs.  Out of the box,
  the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
  and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.

o Composite glyphs are now supported.  To do this, a subset of the Adobe
  Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in 

    http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/typeforum/unicodegn.html

  is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes.  The
  existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
  constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.

  The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
  components.  Example:

    \[A ho]

  this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.

  Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
  code points.  For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
  ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
  glyphs.  The new request

    .composite from to

  will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
  To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,

    .composite ho u0328

  is needed.  [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
  contains proper calls to `.composite'.]

  Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
  for more details.

o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
  characters.  They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
  `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.

o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
  new `rfschar' request.

o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
  characters.  They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
  `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.

o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
  point horizontally.  Despite of being silly, this change has been
  reverted for backwards compatibility.  Consequently, the intermediate
  output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.

  \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
  the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
  Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.

o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
  available:

    \D'Fr ...' (rgb)
    \D'Fc ...' (cmy)
    \D'Fg ...' (gray)
    \D'Fk ...' (cmyk)
    \D'Fd'     (default color)

  The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request.  The current
  position is *not* changed.

o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
  \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.

o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
  It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.

o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.

o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
  (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
  grolj4.)  The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
  changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
  same glyph shape as with other devices.

Grops
-----

o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
  shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.

o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
  (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries).  grops
  constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.

o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
  mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
  about the paper size.  The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
  (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
  extension).  Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <address@hidden>.

o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
  contain negative left italic correction values.  This assures correct
  spacing with eqn.

Grodvi
------

o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
  It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.

o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
  grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
  like dvips.

  Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.

o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
  \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.

o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
  respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
  which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).

Grolj4
------

o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
  all other devices.

o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=].  Similar to other devices, \[~=]
  is now another name for glyph \[~~].

Grotty
------

o New option `-r'.  It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
  use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.

Pic
---

o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
  mode.

Refer
-----

o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
  database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.

Soelim
------

o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.

o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
  line number) instead of `.lf' lines.

Afmtodit
--------

o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
  multiple encoding vectors for a single font).

o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.

o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
  in the default font directory also.  Please refer to the man page of
  afmtodit for more details.

Macro Packages
--------------

o Larry Kollar <address@hidden> and others made the man macros more
  customizable.

  . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
    location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
    sub-subheading indentation.

  . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
    hyphenation.

  . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
    They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.

  . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
    subheadings.

  . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
    explicitly specified on the command line.

o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
  the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.

  Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
  values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
  except a7-d7.  An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
  orientation.  Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.

  Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
  `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
  the driver specific DESC file.

  For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
  orientation:

    groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps