Release Digest: GNU, October 9, 2002 | Linux Today

Release Digest: GNU, October 9, 2002

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Oct 10, 2002

groff 1.18.1

groff 1.18.1 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 bug-groff@gnu.org.

Enjoy!


   Werner


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

VERSION 1.18.1
==============

Troff
-----

o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
  include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a glyph
  (this is, prepending the glyph with `,' and appending `/' to the glyph)
  sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal bounding
  box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the particular
  glyph is used (which can differ considerably).

  Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
  existing documents (provided , and / is used as advertised, namely for
  italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
  grohtml.

  This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.

Tbl
---

o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
  data items.

Grolbp
------

o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
  drivers) to set the default line width.

Grn
---

o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.

Groffer
-------

o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.

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

o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
  compatibility with NetBSD.

o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
  instead.

o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
  and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
  details.

o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.

Miscellaneous
-------------

o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
  It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
  used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.

  Example:

    papersize /etc/papersize a4

o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
  defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font.  Similar to the normal
  font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
  e.g.

    /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO

  for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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