EQN(1)                     OpenBSD Reference Manual                     EQN(1)



NAME
       eqn - format equations for troff or MathML

SYNOPSIS
       eqn [-rvCNR] [-d xy] [-T name] [-M dir] [-f F] [-s n] [-p n] [-m n]
           [files...]

       It is possible to have whitespace between a command line option and its
       parameter.

DESCRIPTION
       This manual page describes the GNU version of eqn, which is part of the
       groff document formatting system.  eqn compiles descriptions of
       equations embedded within troff input files into commands that are
       understood by troff.  Normally, it should be invoked using the -e
       option of groff.  The syntax is quite compatible with Unix eqn.  The
       output of GNU eqn cannot be processed with Unix troff; it must be
       processed with GNU troff.  If no files are given on the command line,
       the standard input is read.  A filename of - causes the standard input
       to be read.

       eqn searches for the file eqnrc in the directories given with the -M
       option first, then in /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac,
       /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac, and finally in the standard macro
       directory /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/tmac.  If it exists, eqn
       processes it before the other input files.  The -R option prevents
       this.

       GNU eqn does not provide the functionality of neqn: it does not support
       low-resolution, typewriter-like devices (although it may work
       adequately for very simple input).

OPTIONS
       -dxy   Specify delimiters x and y for the left and right end,
              respectively, of in-line equations.  Any delim statements in the
              source file overrides this.

       -C     Recognize .EQ and .EN even when followed by a character other
              than space or newline.

       -N     Don't allow newlines within delimiters.  This option allows eqn
              to recover better from missing closing delimiters.

       -v     Print the version number.

       -r     Only one size reduction.

       -mn    The minimum point-size is n.  eqn does not reduce the size of
              subscripts or superscripts to a smaller size than n.

       -Tname The output is for device name.  Normally, the only effect of
              this is to define a macro name with a value of 1; eqnrc uses
              this to provide definitions appropriate for the output device.
              However, if the specified device is "MathML", the output is
              MathML markup rather than troff commands, and eqnrc is not
              loaded at all.  The default output device is ps.

       -Mdir  Search dir for eqnrc before the default directories.

       -R     Don't load eqnrc.

       -fF    This is equivalent to a gfont F command.

       -sn    This is equivalent to a gsize n command.  This option is
              deprecated.  eqn normally sets equations at whatever the current
              point size is when the equation is encountered.

       -pn    This says that subscripts and superscripts should be n points
              smaller than the surrounding text.  This option is deprecated.
              Normally eqn sets subscripts and superscripts at 70% of the size
              of the surrounding text.

USAGE
       Only the differences between GNU eqn and Unix eqn are described here.

       GNU eqn emits Presentation MathML output when invoked with the
       -T MathML option.

       GNU eqn sets the input token "..."  as three periods or low dots,
       rather than the three centered dots of classic eqn.  To get three
       centered dots, write cdots or cdot cdot cdot.

       Most of the new features of the GNU eqn input language are based on
       TeX.  There are some references to the differences between TeX and GNU
       eqn below; these may safely be ignored if you do not know TeX.

   Automatic spacing
       eqn gives each component of an equation a type, and adjusts the spacing
       between components using that type.  Possible types are:

              ordinary     an ordinary character such as `1' or `x';

              operator     a large operator such as the summation operator;

              binary       a binary operator such as `+';

              relation     a relation such as `=';

              opening      a opening bracket such as `(';

              closing      a closing bracket such as `)';

              punctuation  a punctuation character such as `,';

              inner        a subformula contained within brackets;

              suppress     spacing that suppresses automatic spacing
                           adjustment.

       Components of an equation get a type in one of two ways.

       type t e
              This yields an equation component that contains e but that has
              type t, where t is one of the types mentioned above.  For
              example, times is defined as

                     type "binary" \(mu

              The name of the type doesn't have to be quoted, but quoting
              protects from macro expansion.

       chartype t text
              Unquoted groups of characters are split up into individual
              characters, and the type of each character is looked up; this
              changes the type that is stored for each character; it says that
              the characters in text from now on have type t.  For example,

                     chartype "punctuation" .,;:

              would make the characters `.,;:' have type punctuation whenever
              they subsequently appeared in an equation.  The type t can also
              be letter or digit; in these cases chartype changes the font
              type of the characters.  See the Fonts subsection.

   New primitives
       big e  Enlarges the expression it modifies; intended to have semantics
              like CSS `large'.  In troff output, the point size is increased
              by 5; in MathML output, the expression uses

                     <mstyle mathsize='big'>

       e1 smallover e2
              This is similar to over; smallover reduces the size of e1 and
              e2; it also puts less vertical space between e1 or e2 and the
              fraction bar.  The over primitive corresponds to the TeX \over
              primitive in display styles; smallover corresponds to \over in
              non-display styles.

       vcenter e
              This vertically centers e about the math axis.  The math axis is
              the vertical position about which characters such as `+' and `-'
              are centered; also it is the vertical position used for the bar
              of fractions.  For example, sum is defined as

                     { type "operator" vcenter size +5 \(*S }

              (Note that vcenter is silently ignored when generating MathML.)

       e1 accent e2
              This sets e2 as an accent over e1.  e2 is assumed to be at the
              correct height for a lowercase letter; e2 is moved down
              according to whether e1 is taller or shorter than a lowercase
              letter.  For example, hat is defined as

                     accent { "^" }

              dotdot, dot, tilde, vec, and dyad are also defined using the
              accent primitive.

       e1 uaccent e2
              This sets e2 as an accent under e1.  e2 is assumed to be at the
              correct height for a character without a descender; e2 is moved
              down if e1 has a descender.  utilde is pre-defined using uaccent
              as a tilde accent below the baseline.

       split "text"
              This has the same effect as simply

                     text

              but text is not subject to macro expansion because it is quoted;
              text is split up and the spacing between individual characters
              is adjusted.

       nosplit text
              This has the same effect as

                     "text"

              but because text is not quoted it is subject to macro expansion;
              text is not split up and the spacing between individual
              characters is not adjusted.

       e opprime
              This is a variant of prime that acts as an operator on e.  It
              produces a different result from prime in a case such as
              A opprime sub 1: with opprime the 1 is tucked under the prime as
              a subscript to the A (as is conventional in mathematical
              typesetting), whereas with prime the 1 is a subscript to the
              prime character.  The precedence of opprime is the same as that
              of bar and under, which is higher than that of everything except
              accent and uaccent.  In unquoted text a ' that is not the first
              character is treated like opprime.

       special text e
              This constructs a new object from e using a troff(1) macro named
              text.  When the macro is called, the string 0s contains the
              output for e, and the number registers 0w, 0h, 0d, 0skern, and
              0skew contain the width, height, depth, subscript kern, and skew
              of e.  (The subscript kern of an object says how much a
              subscript on that object should be tucked in; the skew of an
              object says how far to the right of the center of the object an
              accent over the object should be placed.)  The macro must modify
              0s so that it outputs the desired result with its origin at the
              current point, and increase the current horizontal position by
              the width of the object.  The number registers must also be
              modified so that they correspond to the result.

              For example, suppose you wanted a construct that `cancels' an
              expression by drawing a diagonal line through it.

                     .EQ
                     define cancel 'special Ca'
                     .EN
                     .de Ca
                     .  ds 0s \
                     \Z'\\*(0s'\
                     \v'\\n(0du'\
                     \D'l \\n(0wu -\\n(0hu-\\n(0du'\
                     \v'\\n(0hu'
                     ..

              Then you could cancel an expression e with cancel { e }

              Here's a more complicated construct that draws a box round an
              expression:

                     .EQ
                     define box 'special Bx'
                     .EN
                     .de Bx
                     .  ds 0s \
                     \Z'\h'1n'\\*(0s'\
                     \Z'\
                     \v'\\n(0du+1n'\
                     \D'l \\n(0wu+2n 0'\
                     \D'l 0 -\\n(0hu-\\n(0du-2n'\
                     \D'l -\\n(0wu-2n 0'\
                     \D'l 0 \\n(0hu+\\n(0du+2n'\
                     '\
                     \h'\\n(0wu+2n'
                     .  nr 0w +2n
                     .  nr 0d +1n
                     .  nr 0h +1n
                     ..

       space n
              A positive value of the integer n (in hundredths of an em) sets
              the vertical spacing before the equation, a negative value sets
              the spacing after the equation, replacing the default values.
              This primitive provides an interface to groff's \x escape (but
              with opposite sign).

              This keyword has no effect if the equation is part of a pic
              picture.

   Extended primitives
       col n { ... }
       ccol n { ... }
       lcol n { ... }
       rcol n { ... }
       pile n { ... }
       cpile n { ... }
       lpile n { ... }
       rpile n { ... }
              The integer value n (in hundredths of an em) increases the
              vertical spacing between rows, using groff's \x escape (the
              value has no effect in MathML mode).  Negative values are
              possible but have no effect.  If there is more than a single
              value given in a matrix, the biggest one is used.

   Customization
       When eqn is generating troff markup, the appearance of equations is
       controlled by a large number of parameters.  They have no effect when
       generating MathML mode, which pushes typesetting and fine motions
       downstream to a MathML rendering engine.  These parameters can be set
       using the set command.

       set p n
              This sets parameter p to value n; n is an integer.  For example,

                     set x_height 45

              says that eqn should assume an x height of 0.45 ems.

              Possible parameters are as follows.  Values are in units of
              hundredths of an em unless otherwise stated.  These descriptions
              are intended to be expository rather than definitive.

              minimum_size
                     eqn doesn't set anything at a smaller point-size than
                     this.  The value is in points.

              fat_offset
                     The fat primitive emboldens an equation by overprinting
                     two copies of the equation horizontally offset by this
                     amount.  This parameter is not used in MathML mode;
                     instead, fat text uses

                            <mstyle mathvariant='double-struck'>

              over_hang
                     A fraction bar is longer by twice this amount than the
                     maximum of the widths of the numerator and denominator;
                     in other words, it overhangs the numerator and
                     denominator by at least this amount.

              accent_width
                     When bar or under is applied to a single character, the
                     line is this long.  Normally, bar or under produces a
                     line whose length is the width of the object to which it
                     applies; in the case of a single character, this tends to
                     produce a line that looks too long.

              delimiter_factor
                     Extensible delimiters produced with the left and right
                     primitives have a combined height and depth of at least
                     this many thousandths of twice the maximum amount by
                     which the sub-equation that the delimiters enclose
                     extends away from the axis.

              delimiter_shortfall
                     Extensible delimiters produced with the left and right
                     primitives have a combined height and depth not less than
                     the difference of twice the maximum amount by which the
                     sub-equation that the delimiters enclose extends away
                     from the axis and this amount.

              null_delimiter_space
                     This much horizontal space is inserted on each side of a
                     fraction.

              script_space
                     The width of subscripts and superscripts is increased by
                     this amount.

              thin_space
                     This amount of space is automatically inserted after
                     punctuation characters.

              medium_space
                     This amount of space is automatically inserted on either
                     side of binary operators.

              thick_space
                     This amount of space is automatically inserted on either
                     side of relations.

              x_height
                     The height of lowercase letters without ascenders such as
                     `x'.

              axis_height
                     The height above the baseline of the center of characters
                     such as `+' and `-'.  It is important that this value is
                     correct for the font you are using.

              default_rule_thickness
                     This should set to the thickness of the \(ru character,
                     or the thickness of horizontal lines produced with the \D
                     escape sequence.

              num1   The over command shifts up the numerator by at least this
                     amount.

              num2   The smallover command shifts up the numerator by at least
                     this amount.

              denom1 The over command shifts down the denominator by at least
                     this amount.

              denom2 The smallover command shifts down the denominator by at
                     least this amount.

              sup1   Normally superscripts are shifted up by at least this
                     amount.

              sup2   Superscripts within superscripts or upper limits or
                     numerators of smallover fractions are shifted up by at
                     least this amount.  This is usually less than sup1.

              sup3   Superscripts within denominators or square roots or
                     subscripts or lower limits are shifted up by at least
                     this amount.  This is usually less than sup2.

              sub1   Subscripts are normally shifted down by at least this
                     amount.

              sub2   When there is both a subscript and a superscript, the
                     subscript is shifted down by at least this amount.

              sup_drop
                     The baseline of a superscript is no more than this much
                     amount below the top of the object on which the
                     superscript is set.

              sub_drop
                     The baseline of a subscript is at least this much below
                     the bottom of the object on which the subscript is set.

              big_op_spacing1
                     The baseline of an upper limit is at least this much
                     above the top of the object on which the limit is set.

              big_op_spacing2
                     The baseline of a lower limit is at least this much below
                     the bottom of the object on which the limit is set.

              big_op_spacing3
                     The bottom of an upper limit is at least this much above
                     the top of the object on which the limit is set.

              big_op_spacing4
                     The top of a lower limit is at least this much below the
                     bottom of the object on which the limit is set.

              big_op_spacing5
                     This much vertical space is added above and below limits.

              baseline_sep
                     The baselines of the rows in a pile or matrix are
                     normally this far apart.  In most cases this should be
                     equal to the sum of num1 and denom1.

              shift_down
                     The midpoint between the top baseline and the bottom
                     baseline in a matrix or pile is shifted down by this much
                     from the axis.  In most cases this should be equal to
                     axis_height.

              column_sep
                     This much space is added between columns in a matrix.

              matrix_side_sep
                     This much space is added at each side of a matrix.

              draw_lines
                     If this is non-zero, lines are drawn using the \D escape
                     sequence, rather than with the \l escape sequence and the
                     \(ru character.

              body_height
                     The amount by which the height of the equation exceeds
                     this is added as extra space before the line containing
                     the equation (using \x).  The default value is 85.

              body_depth
                     The amount by which the depth of the equation exceeds
                     this is added as extra space after the line containing
                     the equation (using \x).  The default value is 35.

              nroff  If this is non-zero, then ndefine behaves like define and
                     tdefine is ignored, otherwise tdefine behaves like define
                     and ndefine is ignored.  The default value is 0 (This is
                     typically changed to 1 by the eqnrc file for the ascii,
                     latin1, utf8, and cp1047 devices.)

              A more precise description of the role of many of these
              parameters can be found in Appendix H of The TeXbook.

   Macros
       Macros can take arguments.  In a macro body, $n where n is between 1
       and 9, is replaced by the n-th argument if the macro is called with
       arguments; if there are fewer than n arguments, it is replaced by
       nothing.  A word containing a left parenthesis where the part of the
       word before the left parenthesis has been defined using the define
       command is recognized as a macro call with arguments; characters
       following the left parenthesis up to a matching right parenthesis are
       treated as comma-separated arguments; commas inside nested parentheses
       do not terminate an argument.

       sdefine name X anything X
              This is like the define command, but name is not recognized if
              called with arguments.

       include "file"
       copy "file"
              Include the contents of file (include and copy are synonyms).
              Lines of file beginning with .EQ or .EN are ignored.

       ifdef name X anything X
              If name has been defined by define (or has been automatically
              defined because name is the output device) process anything;
              otherwise ignore anything.  X can be any character not appearing
              in anything.

       undef name
              Remove definition of name, making it undefined.

       Besides the macros mentioned above, the following definitions are
       available: Alpha, Beta, ..., Omega (this is the same as ALPHA, BETA,
       ..., OMEGA), ldots (three dots on the base line), and dollar.

   Fonts
       eqn normally uses at least two fonts to set an equation: an italic font
       for letters, and a roman font for everything else.  The existing gfont
       command changes the font that is used as the italic font.  By default
       this is I.  The font that is used as the roman font can be changed
       using the new grfont command.

       grfont f
              Set the roman font to f.

       The italic primitive uses the current italic font set by gfont; the
       roman primitive uses the current roman font set by grfont.  There is
       also a new gbfont command, which changes the font used by the bold
       primitive.  If you only use the roman, italic and bold primitives to
       changes fonts within an equation, you can change all the fonts used by
       your equations just by using gfont, grfont and gbfont commands.

       You can control which characters are treated as letters (and therefore
       set in italics) by using the chartype command described above.  A type
       of letter causes a character to be set in italic type.  A type of digit
       causes a character to be set in roman type.

INTERACTION WITH TBL
       It is not advisable to use the hash character (#) as a delimiter for
       in-line equations in eqn since tbl(1) uses a macro called .T#, causing
       a clash.

FILES
       /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/tmac/eqnrc
              Initialization file.

MATHML MODE LIMITATIONS
       MathML is designed on the assumption that it cannot know the exact
       physical characteristics of the media and devices on which it will be
       rendered.  It does not support fine control of motions and sizes to the
       same degree troff does.  Thus:

       *      eqn parameters have no effect on the generated MathML.

       *      The special, up, down, fwd, and back operations cannot be
              implemented, and yield a MathML `<merror>' message instead.

       *      The vcenter keyword is silently ignored, as centering on the
              math axis is the MathML default.

       *      Characters that eqn over troff sets extra large - notably the
              integral sign - may appear too small and need to have their
              `<mstyle>' wrappers adjusted by hand.

       As in its troff mode, eqn in MathML mode leaves the .EQ and .EN
       delimiters in place for displayed equations, but emits no explicit
       delimiters around inline equations.  They can, however, be recognized
       as strings that begin with `<math>' and end with `</math>' and do not
       cross line boundaries.

       See the BUGS section for translation limits specific to eqn.

BUGS
       Inline equations are set at the point size that is current at the
       beginning of the input line.

       In MathML mode, the mark and lineup features don't work.  These could,
       in theory, be implemented with `<maligngroup>' elements.

       In MathML mode, each digit of a numeric literal gets a separate `<mn>
       </mn>' pair, and decimal points are tagged with `<mo></mo>'.  This is
       allowed by the specification, but inefficient.

SEE ALSO
       groff(1), troff(1), pic(1), groff_font(5), The TeXbook



Groff Version 1.21             31 December 2010                         EQN(1)
