1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
30 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
31 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
34 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
35 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
37 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
38 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
40 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
41 where Emacs is running).
43 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
45 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
48 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
50 ** Changes to image support
52 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
55 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
57 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
59 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
60 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
61 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
63 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
64 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
65 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
66 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
68 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
69 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
71 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
74 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
75 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
77 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
79 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
81 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
83 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
84 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
85 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
87 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
89 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
92 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
94 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
96 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
98 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
100 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
101 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
104 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
105 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
106 you need control over which C compiler is used.
108 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
111 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
112 or any later version.
115 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
116 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
117 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
119 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
121 ** Improved X Window System support
123 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
124 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
125 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
126 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
127 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
129 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
130 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
132 *** Emacs can now start in background, as a daemon when using the
133 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
134 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
135 terminal frames using emacsclient.
137 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
138 --alternate-editor="" is used and emacsclient cannot connect to an
141 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
142 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
144 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
145 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
146 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
147 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
148 for details about XEmbed.
150 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
151 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
152 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
153 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
154 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
156 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
157 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
158 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
159 active frame and INACTIVE is the opactity of non-active frames.
161 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
162 opacity; the default is 20.
164 ** Internationalization changes
166 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
167 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
169 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
170 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. This encoding is backwards
171 compatible with Unicode's UTF-8 encoding. The internal encoding
172 previously used by Emacs, `emacs-mule', is still available.
174 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
175 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
176 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
177 or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule (whether or not they contain
178 multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it may be
179 worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared
182 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
184 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
185 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
186 as tables of unicodes.
188 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
189 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
191 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
192 characters for display.
194 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
195 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
196 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
198 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
199 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
201 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
202 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
203 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
205 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
206 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
207 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
210 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
211 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
212 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
213 the mode-line mouse menu.
217 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
218 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
219 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
220 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
221 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
223 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
224 "Save Options" item is used.
226 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
227 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
228 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
230 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
231 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
232 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
233 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
235 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
236 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
237 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
241 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
242 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
244 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
245 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
247 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
248 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
250 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
252 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
253 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
256 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
257 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
258 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
259 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
262 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
263 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
264 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
265 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
267 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
268 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
269 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
270 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
272 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
275 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
278 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
279 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
280 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
281 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
282 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
284 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
285 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
288 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
289 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
290 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
294 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
296 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
297 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
298 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
299 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
302 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
305 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
306 on the regexp command prefix map.
309 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
310 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
314 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
315 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
316 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
317 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
318 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
319 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
322 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
323 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
324 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
325 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
326 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
327 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
330 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound
331 from `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the
332 global prefix map `M-o' intended for such formatting commands.
335 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
336 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
337 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
338 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
339 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
343 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
346 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
347 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
348 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
349 behavior (motion by logical lines based on buffer contents alone).
352 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
353 invokes `suspend-frame'. This change is for compatibility with the
354 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
358 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
360 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
362 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
365 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
366 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
368 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
369 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
372 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
375 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
376 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
379 ** Temporarily active regions
381 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
382 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
383 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
384 region, similar to mouse-selection.
386 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
387 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
388 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
389 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
390 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
393 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
395 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
396 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
397 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
398 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
399 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
400 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
401 to create the file or buffer.
403 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
404 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
405 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
406 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
408 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
409 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
410 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
411 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
412 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
413 searching minibuffer completion items.
415 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
417 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
418 name of the current buffer.
420 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
421 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
422 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
423 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
424 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
426 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
427 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
428 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
429 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
431 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
432 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
433 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
434 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
435 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
437 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
438 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
439 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
440 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
441 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
442 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
443 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
445 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
446 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
448 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
449 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
451 *** `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your favorite
454 *** The default completion styles include a form of partial-completion.
456 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
457 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
459 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
460 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
461 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
465 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
466 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
467 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
469 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
470 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
471 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
472 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
474 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
475 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
476 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
477 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
479 *** The command `buffer-face-mode' prompts for a face name, and remaps
480 the default face in the current buffer to that specified face. The
481 command `variable-pitch-mode' turns on Buffer Face mode for the
482 `variable-pitch' face.
484 ** Primary selection changes
486 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
487 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
488 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to
489 bind `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
491 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
492 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
495 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
496 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
497 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
498 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
499 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
500 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
501 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
502 New Modes and Packages, below.
504 ** Window management changes
506 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
507 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
508 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
510 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
511 vertically and horizontally.
513 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
514 is on a different frame.
516 ** Miscellaneous changes:
518 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
519 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
520 successive invokations.
522 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
524 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
525 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
526 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
528 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
529 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
530 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
532 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
533 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
534 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
535 run processes remotely.
537 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
540 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
541 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
543 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
544 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
545 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
546 convenience alias for this function.
548 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
549 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
550 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
552 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
553 kill into the password.
555 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
557 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
559 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
560 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
562 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
563 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
564 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
566 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
568 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
569 See http://xkcd.com/378/
571 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
573 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
574 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
575 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
578 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
579 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
580 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
582 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
584 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
587 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
588 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
589 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
590 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
592 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
593 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
596 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
599 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
600 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
601 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
602 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
605 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
609 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
610 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
611 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
613 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
614 any invalid parts of your document.
616 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
617 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
618 allowed by the schema in that context.
620 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
621 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
622 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
623 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
624 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
625 MS-Windows and Solaris.
627 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
628 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
631 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
634 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
637 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
638 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
639 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
640 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
641 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
642 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
644 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
645 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
646 requires D-Bus for communication.
648 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
649 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
650 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
651 which have installed this software.
653 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
654 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
655 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
656 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
657 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
658 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
659 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
660 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
661 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
664 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
666 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
667 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
668 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
669 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
670 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
671 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
672 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
673 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
674 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
675 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
676 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
677 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
678 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
681 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
682 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
685 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
686 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
687 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
692 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
694 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
695 `string', disabled by default.
697 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
698 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
700 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
702 ** Calendar and diary
705 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
706 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
707 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
708 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
711 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
712 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
713 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
714 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
715 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
719 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
721 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
722 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
725 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
726 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
729 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
730 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
733 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
734 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
738 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
739 associated with the current log entry.
741 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
742 source code associated with a log entry.
744 ** Compile and grep modes
746 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
747 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
748 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
750 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
751 the first error encountered during compilations.
753 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
754 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
756 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
757 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
758 C++ sources and headers.
762 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
763 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
764 considered for update.
766 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
767 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
771 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
772 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
776 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
777 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
778 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
780 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
781 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
782 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
784 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
785 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
789 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
790 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
793 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
794 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
795 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
798 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
799 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
800 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
801 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
802 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
803 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
804 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
805 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
807 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
808 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
809 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
811 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
812 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
813 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
814 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
815 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
816 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
817 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
821 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
822 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
825 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
826 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
829 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
833 *** The Gnus package has been updated
834 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
835 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
837 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
838 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
839 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
840 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
842 *** Password are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
843 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
844 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
845 authentication respectively.
848 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
849 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
851 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
852 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
854 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
855 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
859 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
860 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
861 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
862 while Isearch is active.
864 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
865 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
866 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
867 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
868 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
870 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
871 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
872 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
874 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
875 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
876 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
877 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
878 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
880 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
881 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
884 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
887 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
888 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
889 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
890 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
891 and execute their global definitions.
893 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
894 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
899 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.1. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
902 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
903 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
905 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
906 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
907 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
908 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
912 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
913 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
914 corresponding remote host.
918 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
919 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
924 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
925 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
926 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
927 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
933 *** New connection methods.
934 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
935 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
936 "tunnel" and "socks".
939 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
940 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
942 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
943 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
944 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
946 *** More default settings.
947 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
948 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
950 *** Connection information is cached.
951 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
952 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
953 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
955 *** Control of remote processes.
956 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
957 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
959 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
960 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
961 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
963 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
964 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
967 ** VC and related modes
969 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
970 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
971 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
972 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
975 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
976 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
977 directory or a set of files/directories.
979 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
980 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
981 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
982 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
983 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
984 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
985 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
987 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
989 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
991 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
992 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
993 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
994 line" menu entry does the same thing.
996 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
998 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1001 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1002 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1005 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1006 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1007 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1009 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1010 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1011 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1013 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1015 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1017 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of maintainer able
1018 to update it to the new VC.
1022 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1023 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1024 on the corresponding remote system.
1026 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1027 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1029 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1030 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1031 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1033 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1034 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1036 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1037 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1039 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1041 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1042 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1044 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1045 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1047 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1049 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1050 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1052 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1053 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1055 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1057 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1059 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1060 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1061 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1063 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1065 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1066 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1069 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1070 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1071 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1072 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1074 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1075 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1077 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1078 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1081 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1083 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1084 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1085 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1086 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1087 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1090 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1091 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1092 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1093 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1094 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1097 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1098 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1099 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1102 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1103 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1104 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1105 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1106 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1108 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1109 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1110 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1111 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1112 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1114 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1115 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1116 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1117 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1118 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1119 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1121 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1122 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1123 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1124 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1125 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1126 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1127 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1128 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1129 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1132 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1135 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1138 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1139 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1142 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1143 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1144 that range have the same value.
1148 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1150 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1151 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1152 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1156 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1157 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1158 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1159 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1160 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1161 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1162 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1165 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1166 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1169 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1170 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1172 ** Internationalization changes
1174 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1176 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1179 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1180 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1181 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1183 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1184 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1185 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1187 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1188 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1190 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1191 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1193 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1194 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1196 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1197 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1200 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1202 ** New coding system alias `emacs-internal'.
1205 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1206 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1207 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1208 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1209 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1213 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `system-process-attributes'
1214 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1215 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1216 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1217 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1220 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1221 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1224 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1225 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1226 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1229 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1233 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1234 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1235 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1236 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1239 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1242 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1243 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1244 strings on the kill ring.
1247 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1248 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1253 ((debug error) nil))
1256 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1259 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
1260 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
1263 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1264 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1265 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1266 remote connection has been established already.
1269 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1270 undefined functions.
1272 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1275 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1276 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1277 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1280 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1281 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1282 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1285 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1286 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1287 interactive forms to subroutines.
1292 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1293 an active region that they should operate on.
1295 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1296 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
1297 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
1298 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
1299 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
1302 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1303 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1304 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1305 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1306 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1308 ** Emacs session information
1311 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1312 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1315 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1318 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1319 Emacs initialization.
1321 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1324 *** New value nil for split-height-threshold inhibits vertical splitting
1325 unless there's no other window.
1328 *** New option split-width-threshold controls horizontal splitting.
1331 *** A window can be split horizontally even when it's not full-width.
1334 *** New option split-window-preferred-function can be set to a function
1335 to override the default splitting mechanism of display-buffer.
1338 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1339 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1342 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have new optional
1343 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1344 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1346 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1347 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1350 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1351 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1353 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1355 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1356 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1357 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1358 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1359 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1362 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1363 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1364 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1367 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1368 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1371 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
1372 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
1374 ** Search and replacement changes
1376 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1378 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1379 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1382 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1383 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1384 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
1388 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1389 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1390 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1391 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
1392 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
1395 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1396 for search related commands.
1399 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1400 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1403 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1404 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1407 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1408 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1409 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1410 unless it ends in whitespace.
1412 ** File handling changes
1415 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1416 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1418 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1419 variables defined in the current buffer.
1423 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
1424 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
1425 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
1426 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
1427 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
1429 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
1430 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
1431 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
1432 Editing Changes, above).
1436 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
1439 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
1442 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
1444 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
1448 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1449 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1450 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1451 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1452 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1455 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1456 returns its output as a list of lines.
1458 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1461 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
1462 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
1463 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
1466 Generic characters no longer exist.
1469 In buffers and strings, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
1470 sequences in a multibyte buffer/string.
1473 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong
1474 to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1475 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1478 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1479 positional codes instead of just 2.
1482 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1485 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1486 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1489 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1490 priorities of charsets.
1493 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1494 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1495 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1496 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1497 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1500 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1501 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1502 entries in that range of characters.
1505 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
1510 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1511 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1514 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1517 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1520 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1523 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1526 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1529 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1532 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1533 a character code property.
1537 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1538 search for a word boundary.
1541 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1544 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1547 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1548 property on printing a string.
1551 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1553 ** Code conversion changes
1556 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1557 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1560 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1561 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1562 conversion should go.
1565 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1566 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1570 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
1571 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
1572 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
1576 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1581 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1582 coding system priority order.
1585 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1586 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1589 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1592 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1596 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1597 ordered by their priorities.
1600 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1602 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1603 It has three functionalities:
1604 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1605 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1606 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1607 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1609 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1611 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1613 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1617 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1618 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1621 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1623 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
1624 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1626 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1628 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1629 available on your graphic device.
1631 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1632 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1633 currently `x' and `xft'.
1635 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1636 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1641 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1643 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1645 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1647 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1649 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1651 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1653 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1655 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1657 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1658 entity, or font object.
1660 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1662 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1665 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1666 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1669 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1672 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1673 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1674 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1675 takes a frame argument.
1677 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1678 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1680 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1681 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1683 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1686 *** A new `terminal' data type.
1687 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
1688 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
1690 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
1691 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
1692 which is not used directly any more.
1697 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
1698 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
1699 file-local variables.
1701 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
1702 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
1703 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
1704 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1706 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1707 deleting a terminal.
1719 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1721 ** Redisplay changes
1723 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1724 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1726 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
1727 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
1728 Convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer position
1729 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1732 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1734 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
1735 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
1736 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
1737 times the default column width.
1739 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
1740 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
1743 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
1745 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1748 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1749 string of days, hours, etc.
1752 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1755 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
1756 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
1759 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1760 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1762 *** New variable `buffer-swapped-with' lets the modes that use
1763 `buffer-swap-text' arrange to save the file from the proper buffer.
1766 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
1769 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1770 attributes of a given face.
1773 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
1774 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
1775 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
1778 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
1779 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
1780 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
1781 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
1784 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1788 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1789 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1793 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
1794 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
1795 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
1797 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
1798 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
1799 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
1801 ** Miscellaneous new variables
1804 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
1805 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
1807 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
1808 marker used for window-point.
1811 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
1812 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
1815 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
1816 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
1818 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1819 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1822 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1824 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1827 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
1828 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
1830 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1832 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
1833 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
1834 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
1835 of multiple buffers. Top-level commands `multi-isearch-buffers',
1836 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
1837 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
1838 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
1840 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
1841 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
1844 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1845 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1847 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1848 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1849 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1850 (at your option) any later version.
1852 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1853 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1854 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1855 GNU General Public License for more details.
1857 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1858 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1863 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
1866 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2