proposed "headline" items for groff 1.24.0

"G. Branden Robinson" <[email protected]> Wed, 28 Jan 2026 02:31:30 -0600
Newsgroups	gmane.comp.printing.groff.general
Message-ID	<20260128083130.v6oret232327sruk@illithid>
Hi folks,

I haven't received feedback on either of my two previous requests[1][2]
for nominations of "headline" items for the groff 1.24.0 release
announcement.  I assume that's because people found it daunting to boil
down ~900 lines of "news".  I know I did!

Here's my stab at it.

Let me know of any issues/gripes/suggestions you have.

---snip---
*  groff's "configure" script now supports a "--without-urw-fonts"
   option to better support systems that don't require full PDF support
   from groff.

*  groff_man(7) and groff_mdoc(7) now support hyperlinks between man
   pages in PDF.  They use the "man:" scheme for URLs, and can prepared
   to use PDF bookmarks internal to the document in a collection of man
   pages if desired.  groff builds a "groff-man-pages.pdf" file that
   illustrates.

*  The groff_man(7) extension macros `SY` and `YS` macros have been
   changed to enable greater user control over vertical spacing and to
   make them convenient for synopsizing C language functions, not just
   commands.  In a "Synopsis" section of a man page, existing synopses
   consisting of a single item require no migration.  This is the most
   common case.

*  groff 1.24.0 includes mom 2.6, a macro package contributed by Peter
   Schaffter.

*  The groff_mm(7) macro package has been adjusted in dozens of minor
   ways to clean up its user interface and more accurately reproduce
   historical mm documents, such as London & Reiser's 1978 paper
   describing Unix/V32, the Unix port to the VAX-11/780.

*  groff 1.24.0 includes "install-font.bash", an example
   script to aid integration of third-party fonts with groff,
   contributed by Peter Schaffter and long available at his web site.

*  The pic(1) preprocessor supports a new "polygon" command, and extends
   reference point syntax to permit selection of objects' vertices and
   midpoints (where applicable).

*  GNU troff's new `hydefault` request permits a distinct hyphenation
   mode default to be configured for each environment.  groff's
   localization macro files configure an appropriate default for the
   selected language.

*  The formatter, GNU troff, has many new features to aid debugging
   of documents and macro files.  All write to the standard error
   stream.  `pchar`, `pcolor`, `pcomposite`, `pfp`, `pftr`, and `phw`
   report the state of data manipulated by requests of the same name
   without the "p" prefix.  `ptr` has been renamed to `pwh` accordingly.
   `pm` now dumps, in JSON encoding, the contents of macros, strings,
   and diversions named as arguments.  `pline` does the same for a
   pending output line.  `pstream` reports the status of open file
   streams.  `pnr` accepts register names as arguments, reporting only
   those requsted, and now discloses the autoincrementation amount and
   interpolation format of each register (if it is not string-valued).

*  GNU troff now implements saturating rather than wrapping integer
   arithmetic.

*  GNU troff now implements a more regular request syntax.  The requests
   `cf`, `hpf`, hpfa`, `lf`, `mso`, msoquiet`, `ns`, pi`, `pso`, `so`,
   `soquiet`, `sy`, and `trf` now handle their arguments as the string-
   populating requests `ds` and `as` do, stripping a leading neutral
   double quote from relevant arguments and thereby permitting leading
   spaces to be embedded in them.  A consequence is that GNU troff
   requests now handle file names with spaces in them as easily as any
   other file name, unlike other troffs.

*  The soelim(1) preprocessor interprets `.so` tokens compatibly with
   the foregoing change to GNU troff(1).

*  Output localizations for Russian and Spanish, including hyphenation
   patterns and macro package string translations, thanks to Nikita
   Ivanov and Eloi Montañés, respectively.

*  A new macro file "koi8-r.tmac" supports the KOI8-R character
   encoding, which in turn supports the new Russian locale for groff.

*  The gropdf(1) output driver has several new features.
   - JFIF/JPEG and JPEG 2000 image files are embeddable in documents.
   - If PerlMagic is installed, many more image formats are as well.
   - It ships a grops(1)-compatible "SS" (slanted symbol) font.
   - It subsets fonts by default, reducing file size.
   - Its output conforms to the ISO 32000/PDF 1.7a standard by default.
   - It permits control of page numbers in a PDF reader's outline pane.
   - It supports characters outside the Unicode Basic Latin subset
     in bookmarks, named destinations, and external hyperlinks.

*  The grops(1) output driver now supports fonts encoded using UTF-16.

Much attention has been given to fixing bugs, improving diagnostic
messages, and correcting and expanding documentation.  The previous
release shipped with 164 automated tests; this one ships with over 300.
---end snip---

Regards,
Branden

[1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2026-01/msg00000.html
[2] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2026-01/msg00106.html
signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, 833 B)