1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS.
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
11 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
12 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
14 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
16 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
17 all frames except the selected one.
19 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
20 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
22 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
23 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X either in the echo
24 area or with tooltips.
26 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
27 read mail from the menu etc.
29 ** Changes in Outline mode.
31 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
32 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
33 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
35 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
36 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
38 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
39 or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
40 several other special buffers.
42 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
43 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
46 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
47 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
49 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
50 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
51 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
53 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
54 is running in batch mode. For example,
56 (message "%s" (read t))
58 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
61 ** Faces and frame parameters.
63 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
64 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
65 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
66 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
67 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
68 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
69 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
71 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
72 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
73 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
74 `default' face and vice versa.
78 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
79 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
80 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
82 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
84 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
85 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
86 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
87 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
89 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
90 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
91 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
93 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
96 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
98 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
99 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
100 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
101 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
104 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
106 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
107 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
108 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
109 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
112 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
113 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
114 under Lisp changes, below.
116 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
118 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
119 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
122 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
123 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
124 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
125 customizing face `fringe'.
127 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
128 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
132 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
133 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
135 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
137 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
138 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
139 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
140 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
141 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
144 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
145 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
146 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
147 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
148 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
149 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
151 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
152 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
153 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
154 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
155 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
156 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
158 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
159 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
160 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
161 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
162 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
164 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
166 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
167 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
168 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
170 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
172 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
173 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
174 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
175 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
176 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
181 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
182 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
186 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
187 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
188 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
191 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
193 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
194 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
195 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
198 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
199 have to do anything to activate it.
201 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
203 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
204 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
205 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
206 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
208 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
210 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
212 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
214 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the Motif
217 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, like in
220 ** Hscrolling in C code.
222 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically.
226 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
227 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
229 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
231 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
232 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
233 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
234 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
235 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
237 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
239 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
242 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
243 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
245 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
247 - Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
248 toggles the read-only status.
250 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
252 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
254 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
255 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
258 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
260 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
261 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
262 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
263 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
264 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
265 attributes like overlines, strike-throught, box are ignored.
269 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
270 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
271 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
272 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
273 to enable sound support.
275 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
276 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
277 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
278 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
279 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
280 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
282 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
284 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
286 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
287 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
288 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
290 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
291 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
293 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
294 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
295 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
297 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
299 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
300 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
301 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
302 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
304 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
305 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
306 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
307 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
309 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
310 notably at the end of lines.
312 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
313 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
315 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
316 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
317 after each match to get the replacement text.
319 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
321 If a message is longer than one line, or mini-buffer contents are
322 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the mini-window unless it is
323 on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum mini-window size
324 by setting the following variable:
326 - User option: max-mini-window-height
328 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
329 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
330 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
334 ** Changes to hideshow.el
336 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
337 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
339 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
341 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
342 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
343 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
344 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
345 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
346 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
348 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
349 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
350 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
351 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
353 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
355 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
356 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
357 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
358 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
359 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
361 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
362 something like this in your .emacs.
364 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
366 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
368 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
370 If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
371 entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
372 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
374 New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
375 buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
377 Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
378 if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
380 The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
381 expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
382 cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
385 ** Changes in Font Lock
387 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
388 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
391 ** Comint (subshell) changes
393 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
394 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
396 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
397 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
398 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
400 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
401 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
402 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
404 ** Changes to Rmail mode
406 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
409 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
410 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
413 ** Changes to TeX mode
415 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
418 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
420 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
421 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
422 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
423 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
424 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
425 can be edited from that buffer.
427 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
428 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
429 `A' to use all marked entries).
431 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
432 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
434 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
435 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
436 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
439 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
440 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
441 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
442 in column 1 are always made leaves.
444 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
445 has the following new features:
447 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
448 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
449 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
450 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
452 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
453 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
454 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
455 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
456 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
461 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
462 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
463 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
465 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
466 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
467 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
468 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
472 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
473 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
474 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
476 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
477 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
480 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
481 between custom options. Example:
483 (defcustom default-input-method nil
484 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
485 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
486 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
488 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
489 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
491 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
492 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
493 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
495 ** New features in evaluation commands
497 The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
498 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
499 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
500 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
501 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
505 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
506 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
507 is, delete only empty directories.
509 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
510 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
511 copy directories recursively.
513 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
514 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
515 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
517 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
518 use the -f option when sending mail.
522 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
523 current user setups (although it's believed that these
524 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
525 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
526 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
527 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
530 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
531 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
532 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
533 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
534 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
535 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
536 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
537 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
539 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
540 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
541 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
542 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
545 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
546 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
547 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
548 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
549 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
550 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
551 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
552 function documentation for more info.
554 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
555 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
556 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
557 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
558 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
559 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
560 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
561 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
563 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
565 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
566 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
568 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
569 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
570 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
571 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
572 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
575 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
576 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
577 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
580 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
581 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
582 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
583 chapter about this in the manual.
585 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
586 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
587 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
588 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
589 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
591 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
592 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
593 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
595 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
596 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
598 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
599 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
600 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
603 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
604 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
605 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
606 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
609 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
610 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
611 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
614 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
615 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
616 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
617 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
620 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
621 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
622 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
623 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
626 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
627 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
628 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
630 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
632 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
633 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
634 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
635 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
637 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
638 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
639 the column specified by comment-column.
641 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
642 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
643 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
644 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
645 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
646 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
648 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
649 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
652 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
654 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
655 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
656 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
657 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
660 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
664 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
665 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
667 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
669 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
670 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
671 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
672 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
673 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
674 `secondary-selection'.
676 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
677 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
678 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
679 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
680 usual snappy response.
682 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
683 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
684 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
685 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
687 ** Changes in sort.el
689 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
690 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
691 new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
694 ** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
695 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
696 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
698 ** Shell script mode changes.
700 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
701 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
702 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
706 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
708 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
709 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
710 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
711 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
712 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
714 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
715 declarations when given the --declarations option.
717 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
718 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
720 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
723 *** In Fortran, procedure is no more tagged.
725 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
727 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
730 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
731 variables are tagged.
733 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
735 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
738 ** Changes in etags.el
740 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
741 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
743 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
744 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
745 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
746 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
748 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
750 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
751 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
753 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
755 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
756 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
757 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
759 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
760 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
762 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
763 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
765 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
766 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
767 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
769 ** New language environments `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
770 These correspond respectively to the ISO character sets 8859-14
771 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign). There is
772 currently no specific input method support for them.
774 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sqeuence-nos' to
775 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
776 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
778 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
780 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
782 ** New modes and packages
784 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
785 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
786 actually modifying content of a buffer.
788 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
791 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
793 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
795 ; comment (until end of line)
799 $A default non-terminal
800 $"C" default terminal
802 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
803 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
804 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
805 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
806 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
807 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
808 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
809 C+ one or more occurrences of C
810 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
811 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
812 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
813 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
814 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
815 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
816 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
818 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
820 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
821 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
822 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
823 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
824 equal signs of assignments.
826 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
827 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
829 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
830 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
831 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
832 customize the package.
834 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
835 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
836 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
837 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
838 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
841 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
842 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
844 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
846 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
848 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
850 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
853 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
856 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
858 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
860 *** whitespace.el ???
862 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
863 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
864 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
865 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
866 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
867 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
868 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
870 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
872 Here is an example of columns:
875 dog pineapple car EXTRA
876 porcupine strawberry airplane
878 Doing the following settings:
880 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
881 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
882 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
883 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
886 Selecting the lines above and typing:
888 M-x delimit-columns-region
892 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
893 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
894 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
896 delim-col has the following options:
898 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
901 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
904 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
907 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
910 delim-col has the following commands:
912 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
913 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
915 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
916 were operated on recently. When enabled, a new "Open Recent" submenu
917 is displayed in the "Files" menu.
919 The recent files list is automatically saved across Emacs sessions.
921 To enable/disable recentf use M-x recentf-mode.
923 To enable recentf at Emacs startup use
924 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET.
926 To change the number of recent files displayed and others options use
927 M-x customize-group RET recentf RET.
929 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
932 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
933 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
934 specific to Message mode.
936 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
937 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
938 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
940 ** Withdrawn packages
942 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
943 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
945 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
947 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
949 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
951 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
952 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
953 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
954 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
956 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
957 returned by function `recent-keys'.
960 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
961 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
962 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
963 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
967 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
968 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
971 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
972 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
973 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
974 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
977 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
978 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
979 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
980 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
983 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
984 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
985 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
988 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
989 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
992 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
994 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
995 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
996 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1000 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
1001 Perl's non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
1004 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1005 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1008 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1009 instead of being optional.
1012 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1013 modify read-only text.
1016 ** New functions and variables for locales.
1018 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1019 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
1020 time functions like strftime. The new variables
1021 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1022 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
1024 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1025 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1026 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
1027 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1028 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1029 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1030 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
1033 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1034 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1035 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1039 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1040 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1043 ** New function `propertize'
1045 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1046 strings with text properties.
1048 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1050 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1051 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1052 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1053 specified value of that property. Example:
1055 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1058 ** push and pop macros.
1060 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1061 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
1062 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1064 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1065 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1066 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1068 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1070 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1071 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
1073 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1074 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1075 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1076 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1078 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1079 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1080 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1081 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1084 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1085 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1087 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1088 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1089 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1090 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
1091 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1093 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1095 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1096 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1097 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1098 [:alpha:] matches letters.
1099 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1100 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1101 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1102 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1103 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1104 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
1105 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1106 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1107 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1108 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1109 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1112 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1114 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1116 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1118 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1119 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1123 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1124 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1125 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1129 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1130 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1132 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1134 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1135 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1136 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
1137 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1138 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1140 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1142 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1143 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1144 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1148 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
1149 Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
1150 their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
1151 hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1153 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
1155 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1157 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1159 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1161 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1163 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1166 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1168 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1170 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1172 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1174 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1176 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1178 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1180 Returns the size of TABLE.
1182 - Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1184 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1186 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1188 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1190 - Function: clrhash TABLE
1194 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1196 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1199 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
1201 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1202 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1204 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1206 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1208 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1210 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1211 arguments KEY and VALUE.
1213 - Function: sxhash OBJ
1215 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1217 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1219 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1220 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
1221 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
1222 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1223 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1225 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1227 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1228 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1229 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1231 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1232 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
1234 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
1235 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
1237 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
1238 (sxhash (upcase a)))
1240 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
1241 'case-fold-string-hash))
1243 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
1246 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
1248 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
1249 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
1250 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
1253 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
1255 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
1256 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
1259 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
1260 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
1261 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
1262 is too short to reach that column.
1265 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
1266 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
1267 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
1268 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
1270 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
1271 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
1272 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
1275 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
1276 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
1279 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
1280 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
1283 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
1284 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
1285 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
1286 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
1287 temporary-file-directory instead.
1290 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
1291 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
1292 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
1293 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
1296 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
1297 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
1300 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
1302 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
1303 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
1304 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
1307 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
1309 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
1310 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
1311 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
1312 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
1313 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
1314 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
1316 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
1317 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
1318 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
1319 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
1322 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
1324 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
1325 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
1326 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
1329 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
1330 string where arguments appear in the result string.
1334 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
1336 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
1337 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
1340 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
1343 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
1345 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
1346 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
1349 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
1351 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
1352 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
1358 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
1359 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
1361 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
1362 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
1363 to enable sound support.
1365 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
1366 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
1367 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
1368 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
1369 sound to play, before playing the sound.
1371 The following sound properties are supported:
1375 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
1376 searched relative to `data-directory'.
1380 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
1381 may be present, but not both.
1385 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
1386 0..1. This property is optional.
1388 Other properties are ignored.
1390 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
1392 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
1395 ** Changes to garbage collection
1397 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
1398 of live and free strings.
1400 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
1401 strings that have been consed so far.
1404 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
1406 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1407 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1408 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1409 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1411 ** New face implementation.
1413 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
1414 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
1419 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
1421 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
1423 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
1424 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
1426 3. Font height in 1/10pt
1428 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
1430 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
1432 6. Foreground color.
1434 7. Background color.
1436 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
1438 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
1440 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
1442 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
1444 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
1447 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
1448 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
1450 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
1451 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
1452 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
1453 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
1454 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
1455 attributes mentioned above.
1457 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
1458 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
1461 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
1462 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
1468 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
1469 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
1470 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
1471 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
1472 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
1473 results in a fully-specified face.
1476 *** Face realization.
1478 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
1479 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
1480 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
1481 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
1482 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
1483 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
1485 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
1486 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
1487 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
1488 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
1490 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
1491 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
1492 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
1493 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
1494 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
1496 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
1497 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
1498 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
1499 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
1500 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
1503 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
1504 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
1505 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
1506 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
1509 **** Clearing face caches.
1511 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
1512 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
1518 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
1519 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
1520 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
1522 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
1523 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
1524 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
1525 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
1526 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
1528 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
1529 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
1530 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
1532 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
1534 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
1535 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
1536 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
1537 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
1538 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
1539 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
1540 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
1542 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
1543 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
1549 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
1550 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
1553 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
1554 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
1555 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
1556 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
1557 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
1560 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
1562 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
1565 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
1567 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
1569 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
1570 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
1571 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
1573 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
1574 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
1575 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
1576 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
1577 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
1578 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
1579 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
1580 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
1581 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
1582 of the face font sort order.
1584 - Function: x-font-family-list
1586 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
1587 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
1588 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
1589 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
1591 - Variable: font-list-limit
1593 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
1594 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
1595 matching font. The default is currently 100.
1598 *** Setting face attributes.
1600 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
1601 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
1602 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
1605 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
1606 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
1608 The following attributes are recognized:
1612 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
1613 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
1614 and `?' are allowed.
1618 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
1619 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
1620 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
1621 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
1625 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
1630 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
1631 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
1632 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
1636 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
1637 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
1640 `:foreground', `:background'
1642 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
1646 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
1647 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
1648 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
1653 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
1654 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
1655 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
1660 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
1661 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
1662 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
1663 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
1667 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
1668 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
1669 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
1670 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
1671 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
1672 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
1673 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
1674 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
1675 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
1676 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
1677 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
1678 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
1679 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
1680 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
1681 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
1682 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
1687 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
1688 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
1692 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
1693 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
1694 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
1695 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
1696 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
1697 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
1699 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
1700 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
1704 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
1705 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
1706 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
1709 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
1710 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
1711 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
1713 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
1716 *** Face attributes and X resources
1718 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
1721 Face attribute X resource class
1722 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
1723 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
1724 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
1725 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
1726 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
1727 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
1728 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
1729 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
1730 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
1731 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
1732 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
1733 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
1734 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
1735 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
1736 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
1737 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
1738 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1739 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
1740 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
1741 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1744 *** Text property `face'.
1746 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
1747 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
1748 specification can be
1750 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
1752 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
1753 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
1754 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
1755 for face attribute names.
1757 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
1758 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
1759 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
1762 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
1764 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
1765 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
1766 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
1767 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
1768 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
1769 used to clear the mapping table.
1771 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
1773 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
1774 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
1775 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
1776 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
1777 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
1778 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
1779 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
1780 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
1781 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
1782 modify their color-related behavior.
1784 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
1787 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
1789 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
1790 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
1791 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
1792 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
1793 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
1794 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
1795 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
1796 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
1797 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
1800 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
1802 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
1804 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
1805 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
1806 Otherwise, it returns zero.
1808 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
1810 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
1811 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
1814 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
1815 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
1816 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
1817 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
1818 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
1819 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
1820 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
1823 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
1824 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
1825 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
1827 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
1829 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
1831 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
1832 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1833 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
1834 constrained position if that is is different.
1836 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
1837 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
1838 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
1839 constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
1840 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1841 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
1844 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
1845 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
1846 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
1847 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
1848 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
1850 - Function: erase-field &optional POS
1852 Erases the field surrounding POS.
1853 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1854 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1856 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1858 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
1859 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1860 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1861 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
1862 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
1864 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1866 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
1867 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1868 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1869 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
1870 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
1872 - Function: field-string &optional POS
1874 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
1875 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1876 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1878 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
1880 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
1881 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1882 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1887 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
1888 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
1889 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
1890 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
1892 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
1893 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
1894 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
1895 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
1898 IMAGE is an image specification.
1900 *** Image specifications
1902 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
1903 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
1904 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
1905 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
1906 described below are ignored.
1908 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
1912 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, and specifies the percentage
1913 of the image's height to use for its ascent. Default is 50.
1917 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
1918 margin around the image. Default is 0.
1922 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
1927 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
1928 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
1929 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
1930 which is intended to display images "disabled."
1932 `:heuristic-mask BG'
1934 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
1935 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
1936 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
1937 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
1938 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
1939 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
1940 background of the image.
1944 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
1945 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
1946 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
1947 may be present in the image specification.
1951 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
1952 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
1953 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
1954 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
1956 *** Supported image types
1958 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
1960 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
1961 properties supported are
1965 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
1966 is the frame's foreground.
1970 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
1971 the frame's background color.
1973 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
1974 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
1975 instead of a `:file' property.
1979 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
1983 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
1989 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
1990 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
1992 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
1994 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
1997 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
1999 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2000 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2001 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2002 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2004 Additional image properties supported are:
2006 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2008 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2009 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2012 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2013 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2015 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2016 to display compressed images.
2018 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
2020 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2021 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2024 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2026 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
2027 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2030 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2032 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2033 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2036 **** GIF, image type `gif'
2038 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2039 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2041 Additional image properties supported are:
2045 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2046 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2048 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2049 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2050 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2053 (defun show-anim (file max)
2054 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2055 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2057 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2060 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
2063 (goto-char (point-min))
2064 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2065 (insert-image img "x"))
2066 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2068 **** PNG, image type `png'
2070 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2071 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2074 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2076 Additional image properties supported are:
2080 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
2081 integer. This is a required property.
2085 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
2086 must be a integer. This is an required property.
2090 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2091 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2092 files. This is an required property.
2094 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2099 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2100 which are supported in the current configuration.
2102 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2103 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2104 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2107 *** Simplified image API, image.el
2109 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2110 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2111 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2112 define an image based on available image types. The functions
2113 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2119 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2122 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2123 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2124 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2125 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2126 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2127 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2128 of the display margins.
2130 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2131 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2132 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2133 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2139 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2140 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2141 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2142 that have a `help-echo' property.
2144 The value of the `help-echo' property must be a string. For tool-bar
2145 items, their key definition is used to determine the help to display.
2146 If their definition contains a property `:help FORM', FORM is
2147 evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the caption of the
2148 tool-bar item is used.
2150 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
2151 help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
2152 help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
2155 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
2157 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
2158 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
2160 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
2161 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
2162 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
2163 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
2166 (global-set-key [A-down]
2169 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
2170 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
2171 (global-set-key [A-up]
2174 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
2175 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
2178 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
2180 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
2181 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
2182 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
2183 is called with one argument, POS.
2185 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
2186 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
2187 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
2188 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
2189 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
2192 ** Tool bar support.
2194 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
2195 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
2196 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
2197 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
2198 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
2199 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
2201 *** Tool bar item definitions
2203 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2204 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
2205 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
2207 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
2208 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
2209 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
2210 property (see below).
2212 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
2213 binding are currently ignored.
2215 The following properties are recognized:
2219 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
2224 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
2228 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
2229 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
2230 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
2232 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
2234 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
2235 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
2239 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
2240 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
2241 meaning of each of the four elements:
2243 Index Use when item is
2244 ----------------------------------------
2245 0 enabled and selected
2246 1 enabled and deselected
2247 2 disabled and selected
2248 3 disabled and deselected
2250 `:help HELP-STRING'.
2252 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
2253 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
2255 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
2257 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
2258 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
2259 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
2261 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
2262 raised when the mouse moves over them.
2264 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
2265 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
2266 pixels. Default is 1.
2268 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
2269 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
2271 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
2273 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
2276 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
2277 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
2278 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
2280 is the original tool bar item definition, then
2282 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
2284 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
2287 ** Mode line changes.
2290 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
2292 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
2293 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
2294 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
2296 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
2297 a `local-map' text property.
2299 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
2300 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
2302 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
2303 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
2304 `local-map' property.
2306 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
2307 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
2310 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
2311 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
2314 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
2315 variable mode-line-format to nil.
2318 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
2320 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
2321 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
2322 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
2323 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
2326 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
2329 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
2330 position in the header-line.
2333 ** Text property `display'
2335 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
2336 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
2337 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
2338 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
2340 *** Variable width and height spaces
2342 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
2343 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
2344 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
2345 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
2346 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
2347 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
2348 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
2350 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
2351 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
2352 properties described below.
2354 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
2355 characters having the `display' property.
2359 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
2360 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
2362 - :relative-width FACTOR
2364 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
2365 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
2366 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
2367 width of that character by FACTOR.
2371 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
2372 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
2374 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
2378 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
2381 - :relative-height FACTOR
2383 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
2384 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
2388 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
2389 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
2390 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
2393 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
2397 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
2398 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
2399 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
2400 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
2401 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
2402 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
2403 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
2404 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
2405 as display specification.
2407 *** Other display properties
2409 - :space-width FACTOR
2411 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
2412 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
2417 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
2419 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
2420 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
2421 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
2422 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
2423 a font is available counts as a step.
2425 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
2426 as tall as the frame's default font.
2428 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
2429 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
2431 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
2432 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
2436 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
2437 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
2438 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
2439 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
2440 `:height' subproperty.
2442 *** Conditional display properties
2444 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
2445 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
2446 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
2447 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
2448 the text having the `display' property.
2450 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
2454 ** New menu separator types.
2456 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
2457 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
2458 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
2459 to specify other menu separator types.
2461 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
2463 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
2466 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
2468 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
2470 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
2472 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
2474 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
2476 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2478 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
2480 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2482 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
2484 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
2485 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
2487 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
2489 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
2491 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
2493 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
2495 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
2497 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
2499 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
2501 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2503 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
2505 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
2507 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
2509 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2511 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
2513 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
2515 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
2516 the corresponding single-line separators.
2519 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
2521 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
2522 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
2523 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
2524 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
2525 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
2526 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
2527 default foreground is black.
2529 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
2530 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
2531 `ScrollBarBackground').
2533 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
2534 settings for scroll bar colors.
2537 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
2538 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
2541 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
2542 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
2543 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
2544 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
2545 the original window start.
2548 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
2549 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
2550 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
2553 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
2555 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
2556 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
2557 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
2558 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
2560 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
2561 fixed-width and fixed-height.
2563 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
2565 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
2566 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
2567 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
2568 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
2569 temporarily to nil, for example
2571 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
2572 (enlarge-window 10))
2574 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
2575 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
2577 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
2579 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
2580 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
2582 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
2584 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
2586 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
2587 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
2588 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
2590 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
2591 is the one that is used.
2593 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
2594 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
2595 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
2596 separate from the command's regular output.
2597 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
2598 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
2599 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
2602 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
2603 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
2604 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
2605 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
2607 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
2608 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
2609 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
2610 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
2612 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
2613 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
2614 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
2615 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
2617 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
2618 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
2619 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
2620 they never ignore case.
2622 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
2623 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
2624 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
2625 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
2626 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
2627 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
2628 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
2630 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
2631 the same format that was used in the file before.
2633 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
2634 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
2636 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
2637 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
2638 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
2640 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
2641 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
2642 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
2643 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
2644 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
2645 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
2646 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
2648 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
2649 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
2650 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
2651 format. You can now customize these variables.
2653 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
2654 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
2655 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
2656 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
2658 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
2659 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
2660 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
2662 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
2663 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
2664 doesn't have any effect.
2666 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
2669 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
2670 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
2671 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
2673 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
2674 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
2675 `auto-show-mode' command.
2677 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
2678 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
2679 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
2680 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
2681 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
2683 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
2684 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
2686 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
2687 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
2688 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
2690 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
2691 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
2692 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
2693 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
2695 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
2697 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
2698 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
2699 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
2700 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
2701 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
2703 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
2704 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
2706 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
2707 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
2708 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
2709 `?' on other systems.
2711 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
2712 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
2715 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
2716 current codepage when it starts.
2720 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
2721 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
2722 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
2723 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
2724 buffer-file-coding-system.
2726 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
2727 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
2730 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
2731 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
2732 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
2733 list of possible coding systems.
2737 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
2738 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
2739 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
2740 docstring for details.
2742 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
2743 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
2744 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
2745 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
2746 lineup functions use this feature currently.
2748 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
2749 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
2751 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
2752 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
2754 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
2755 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
2756 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
2757 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
2760 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
2761 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
2763 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
2764 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
2765 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
2766 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
2768 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
2769 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
2770 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
2771 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
2772 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
2774 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
2776 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
2778 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
2779 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
2781 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
2783 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
2784 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
2785 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
2786 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
2787 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
2791 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
2792 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
2793 Gnus manual for the full story.
2795 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
2796 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
2797 group, which is created automatically.
2799 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
2802 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
2804 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
2805 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
2807 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
2810 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
2812 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
2813 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
2815 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
2817 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
2818 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
2820 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
2821 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
2823 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
2824 control over simplification.
2826 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
2828 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
2831 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
2833 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
2835 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
2836 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
2837 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
2839 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
2840 `a' forces normal posting method.
2842 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
2845 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
2848 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
2849 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
2851 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
2854 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
2856 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
2858 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
2859 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
2861 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
2862 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
2864 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
2866 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
2869 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
2870 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
2872 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
2873 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
2875 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
2877 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
2879 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
2881 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
2883 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
2884 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
2885 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
2887 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
2888 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
2889 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
2890 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
2891 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
2893 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
2894 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
2895 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
2896 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
2898 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
2899 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
2900 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
2903 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
2905 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
2906 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
2908 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
2909 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
2910 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
2911 removed from the label.
2913 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
2914 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
2916 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
2917 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
2919 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
2920 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
2923 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
2925 ** New/deleted modes and packages
2927 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
2928 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
2930 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
2931 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
2932 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
2934 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
2935 changes with a special face.
2937 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
2938 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
2939 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
2941 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
2943 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
2944 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
2945 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
2946 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
2947 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
2949 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
2950 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
2951 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
2953 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
2954 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
2955 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
2956 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
2957 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
2958 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
2959 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
2960 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
2961 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
2963 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
2964 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
2965 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
2966 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
2967 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
2970 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
2971 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
2972 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
2973 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
2974 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
2975 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
2977 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
2978 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
2979 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
2980 was not documented clearly before.
2982 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
2983 This includes Tetris and Snake.
2985 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
2987 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
2988 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
2989 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
2990 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
2992 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
2993 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
2994 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
2996 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
2998 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
2999 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3001 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3002 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3005 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3006 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3007 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3008 file names and attributes are returned.
3010 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3011 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3012 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3013 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3016 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3017 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3019 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
3021 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3022 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3023 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3026 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3027 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3030 The new function process-running-child-p
3031 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3032 terminal to its own child process.
3034 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3035 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3036 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3037 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3039 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3040 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3042 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3043 :included is an alias for :visible.
3045 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3046 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3047 to move or copy menu entries.
3049 ** Multibyte editing changes
3051 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3052 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3053 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3054 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3055 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3056 (setq char (sref str idx)
3057 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3058 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3060 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3061 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3062 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3064 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3065 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3066 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3068 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3070 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3071 across the boundary.
3073 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3074 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3075 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3076 contains 8-bit characters.
3077 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
3078 contains invalid characters.
3080 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
3081 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
3082 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
3083 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
3086 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
3087 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
3088 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
3089 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
3091 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
3092 compose Thai characters in a string.
3094 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
3095 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
3096 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
3097 menus should always use the third argument.
3099 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
3100 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
3101 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
3102 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
3104 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
3105 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
3106 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
3107 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
3109 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
3110 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
3111 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
3114 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
3116 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
3117 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
3118 requested feature cannot be loaded.
3120 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
3121 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
3122 means to clear out that attribute.
3124 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
3125 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
3127 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
3128 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
3129 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
3130 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
3132 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
3133 the gap of the current buffer.
3135 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
3136 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
3139 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
3140 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
3141 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
3142 it back in after any modifications have been made.
3144 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
3146 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
3147 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
3148 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
3149 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
3150 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
3152 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
3153 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
3154 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
3155 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
3156 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
3158 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
3159 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
3160 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
3162 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
3163 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
3164 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
3165 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
3166 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
3169 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
3170 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
3171 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
3172 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
3174 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
3176 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
3177 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
3178 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
3179 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
3181 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
3182 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
3183 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
3184 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
3185 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
3186 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
3187 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
3190 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
3193 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
3194 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
3195 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
3196 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
3197 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
3199 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
3200 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
3201 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
3202 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
3204 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
3205 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
3206 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
3207 something that most users not do.
3209 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
3210 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
3211 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
3214 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
3217 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
3218 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
3219 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
3220 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
3223 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
3224 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
3225 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
3226 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
3227 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
3230 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
3231 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
3232 to be confused by TeX commands.
3234 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
3235 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
3236 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
3237 of various alternative replacements and actions.
3239 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
3240 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
3241 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
3242 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
3243 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
3245 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
3246 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
3248 ** Changes in input method usage.
3250 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
3251 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
3254 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
3256 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
3257 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
3259 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
3260 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
3262 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
3264 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
3266 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
3267 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
3269 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
3270 given in the following case:
3271 o When you are using a complex input method.
3272 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
3274 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
3275 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
3276 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
3277 setting it to t is helpful.
3279 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
3281 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
3283 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
3284 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
3285 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
3286 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
3289 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
3290 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
3291 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
3294 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
3296 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
3298 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
3299 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
3301 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
3302 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
3303 its owner and group.
3305 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
3306 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
3308 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
3309 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
3311 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
3312 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
3313 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
3314 by the left edge of the rectangle.
3316 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
3317 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
3318 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
3319 for writing keyboard macros.
3321 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
3322 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
3323 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
3324 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
3325 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
3328 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
3330 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
3331 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
3334 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
3335 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
3336 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
3337 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
3339 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
3340 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
3341 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
3343 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
3344 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
3345 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
3346 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
3348 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
3349 failure if the command produces no output.
3351 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
3352 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
3355 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
3356 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
3357 function and variable names.
3359 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
3360 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
3361 file-coding-system-alist.
3363 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
3364 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
3365 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
3366 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
3367 according to the current fontset.
3369 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
3371 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
3372 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
3373 nonascii-insert-offset.
3375 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
3376 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
3377 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
3378 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
3380 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
3381 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
3383 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
3384 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
3386 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
3387 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
3390 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
3391 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
3393 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
3394 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
3395 all variables that have documentation.
3397 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
3398 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
3399 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
3400 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
3401 it should show; the default is 20.
3403 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
3404 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
3407 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
3408 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
3409 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
3410 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
3411 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
3412 Newly added options are included as well.
3414 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
3415 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
3416 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
3418 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
3421 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
3422 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
3424 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
3425 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
3428 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
3429 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
3432 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
3433 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
3434 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
3435 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
3438 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
3440 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
3441 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
3442 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
3444 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
3445 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
3446 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
3449 ** All you need to do, to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
3450 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
3452 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
3453 read and post multi-lingual articles.
3455 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
3456 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
3457 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
3458 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
3459 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
3460 made invisible again.
3462 ** Mail reading and sending changes
3464 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
3465 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
3466 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
3469 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
3470 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
3471 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
3472 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
3473 rmail-default-body-file.
3475 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
3476 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
3477 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
3479 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
3480 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
3481 is evaluated to insert the signature.
3483 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
3484 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
3485 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
3486 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
3487 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
3488 especially interested in trying feedmail.
3490 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
3491 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
3492 provided by feedmail are:
3494 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
3495 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
3496 there is also a queue for draft messages
3498 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
3499 be prompted for confirmation
3501 **** does smart filling of address headers
3503 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
3504 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
3505 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
3507 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
3508 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
3509 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
3510 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
3514 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
3515 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
3517 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
3518 run Dired on the directory name at point.
3520 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
3521 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
3522 for a specified regexp.
3526 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
3529 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
3530 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
3533 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
3534 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
3535 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
3536 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
3538 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
3539 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
3540 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
3541 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
3542 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
3544 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
3545 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
3546 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
3547 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
3548 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
3550 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
3551 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
3552 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
3553 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
3555 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
3556 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
3557 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
3559 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
3560 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
3561 session to resolve them.
3563 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
3564 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
3565 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
3568 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
3569 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
3570 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
3571 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
3572 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
3573 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
3576 ** Changes in Font Lock
3578 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
3579 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
3580 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
3581 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
3582 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
3584 ** Frame name display changes
3586 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
3587 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
3588 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
3589 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
3591 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
3592 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
3595 ** Comint (subshell) changes
3597 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
3598 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
3599 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
3601 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
3603 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
3604 that is, the line after the last line you got.
3605 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
3607 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
3608 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
3611 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
3612 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
3613 previously sent input.
3615 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
3616 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
3617 as the search string.
3619 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
3620 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
3624 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
3625 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
3626 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
3629 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
3630 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
3631 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
3632 style is still the default however.
3634 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
3636 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
3637 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
3638 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
3640 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
3641 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
3643 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
3644 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
3646 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
3647 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
3649 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
3650 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
3652 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
3653 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
3654 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
3655 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
3657 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
3659 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
3660 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
3661 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
3663 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
3664 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
3665 expanding dynamically.
3667 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
3668 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
3670 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
3671 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
3672 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
3673 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
3675 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
3677 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
3679 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
3680 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
3681 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
3682 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
3683 against the first word in the title.
3685 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
3686 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
3687 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
3688 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
3689 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
3690 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
3692 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
3693 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
3694 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
3695 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
3697 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
3699 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
3700 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
3701 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
3702 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
3703 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
3704 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
3706 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
3707 Editing group once the package is loaded.
3709 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
3710 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
3711 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
3713 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
3714 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
3718 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
3719 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
3720 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
3722 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
3723 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
3724 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
3725 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
3728 o URLs are automatically skipped
3729 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
3731 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
3733 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3735 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
3736 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
3737 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
3738 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
3740 *** New recursive parser.
3742 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
3743 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
3744 recursive parser scans the individual files.
3746 *** Parsing only part of a document.
3748 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
3749 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
3750 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
3752 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
3754 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
3756 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
3758 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
3760 *** Using multiple selection buffers
3762 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
3763 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
3765 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
3767 *** References to external documents.
3769 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
3770 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
3771 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
3772 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
3773 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
3774 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
3775 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
3777 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
3779 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
3780 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
3782 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
3783 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
3785 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
3787 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
3788 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
3790 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
3792 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
3793 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
3794 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
3795 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
3796 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
3797 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
3800 *** Support for the varioref package
3802 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
3806 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
3807 and citations are created. These hooks are
3808 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
3809 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
3811 *** Citations outside LaTeX
3813 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
3814 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
3816 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
3818 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
3819 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
3822 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
3824 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
3825 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
3826 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
3827 directories that contain the same file name.
3829 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
3830 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
3831 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
3832 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
3833 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
3834 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
3835 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
3838 ** New modes and packages
3840 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
3841 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
3842 it, but some do not.
3844 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
3847 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
3848 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
3851 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
3853 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
3854 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
3855 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
3856 established system of notation similar to Chess.
3858 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
3859 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
3860 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
3862 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
3863 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
3864 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
3865 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
3866 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
3869 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
3870 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
3872 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
3873 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
3874 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
3875 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
3877 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
3879 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
3880 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
3881 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
3882 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
3883 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
3884 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
3885 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
3886 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
3887 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
3888 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
3889 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
3891 Platform-specific modes:
3893 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
3894 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
3895 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
3896 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
3897 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
3898 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
3899 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
3900 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
3901 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
3903 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3905 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
3906 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
3907 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
3908 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
3910 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
3911 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
3912 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
3914 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
3915 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
3916 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
3917 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
3919 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
3920 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
3921 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
3924 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
3925 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
3926 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
3927 current input method for reading this one event.
3929 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
3930 now control whether to output certain characters as
3931 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
3932 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
3933 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
3934 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
3936 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3938 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
3939 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
3941 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
3942 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
3943 always increases point by 1.
3945 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
3946 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
3948 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
3950 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
3951 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
3952 default value changed. For example,
3954 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
3959 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
3962 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
3963 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
3964 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
3965 `:version' in the top level group.
3967 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
3969 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
3970 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
3972 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
3973 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
3974 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
3977 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
3978 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
3981 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
3982 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
3983 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
3985 ** Frame-local variables.
3987 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
3988 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
3989 local bindings for that variable.
3991 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
3992 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
3993 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
3996 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
3997 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
3998 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
3999 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4001 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4002 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4003 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4004 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4006 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4007 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4008 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4009 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4010 See the documentation in sregex.el.
4012 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4013 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4014 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4015 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4017 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4018 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4020 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4021 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4022 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4024 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4025 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4026 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4027 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4029 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4030 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4033 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4034 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4035 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4036 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4037 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4039 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4040 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4041 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4042 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4044 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4045 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4046 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4047 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4048 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4050 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4051 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4052 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4053 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4055 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4056 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4057 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4059 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4060 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4061 was directed to display this buffer.
4063 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4064 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4065 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4066 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4067 set-window-configuration.
4069 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4070 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4071 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
4072 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
4074 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
4075 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
4076 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
4078 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
4079 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
4080 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
4082 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
4083 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
4085 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
4086 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
4088 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
4089 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
4090 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
4092 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
4093 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
4094 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
4095 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
4099 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
4100 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
4103 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
4104 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
4105 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
4106 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
4107 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
4109 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
4111 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
4112 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
4113 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
4114 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
4117 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
4118 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
4119 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
4120 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
4121 The supported properties include
4123 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4125 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4126 item should appear in the menu.
4128 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
4129 which will be REAL-BINDING.
4130 It should return a binding to use instead.
4132 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
4133 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
4134 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
4135 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
4136 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
4139 This means that the command normally has no
4140 keyboard equivalent.
4141 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
4142 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
4143 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
4144 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
4145 value says whether this button is currently selected.
4147 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
4148 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
4150 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
4154 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
4155 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
4156 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
4157 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
4159 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
4161 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4162 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
4163 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
4164 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
4165 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
4166 forward, away from the user.
4168 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4170 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
4171 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
4172 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
4173 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
4174 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
4176 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
4178 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4179 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
4180 that were dragged and dropped.
4182 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4184 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
4186 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
4187 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
4188 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
4190 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
4191 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
4192 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
4194 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
4195 in Emacs 19 and before.
4197 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
4198 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
4200 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
4201 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
4202 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
4203 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
4205 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
4206 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
4207 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
4208 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
4209 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
4211 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
4212 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
4213 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
4214 consistent with the new representation.
4216 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
4217 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
4218 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
4219 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4221 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
4222 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
4223 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
4225 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
4226 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
4227 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4229 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
4230 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
4231 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
4233 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4234 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
4236 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4237 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
4239 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
4240 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
4241 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
4242 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
4244 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
4245 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
4247 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
4248 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
4249 buffer or string being searched.
4251 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
4252 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
4253 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
4254 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
4255 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
4256 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
4257 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
4259 *** Structure of coding system changed.
4261 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
4262 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
4263 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
4264 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
4265 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
4266 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
4267 define-coding-system-alias.
4269 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
4270 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
4271 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
4272 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
4273 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
4274 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
4275 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
4278 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
4279 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
4280 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
4281 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
4283 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
4284 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
4285 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
4286 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
4288 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
4289 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
4290 This function requires a user interaction.
4292 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
4293 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
4294 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
4295 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
4296 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
4297 select-safe-coding-system.
4299 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
4300 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
4301 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
4304 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
4305 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
4306 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
4308 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
4309 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
4310 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
4311 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
4313 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
4314 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
4315 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
4318 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
4319 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
4321 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
4322 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
4323 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
4324 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
4325 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
4326 range of characters.
4328 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
4329 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
4331 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
4332 in the current buffer at position POS.
4334 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
4335 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
4336 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
4337 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
4338 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
4339 binding input-method-function to nil.
4341 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
4342 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
4343 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
4344 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
4345 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
4347 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
4348 subsequent events of a key sequence.
4350 *** You can customize any language environment by using
4351 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
4353 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
4354 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
4355 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
4356 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
4357 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
4359 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
4361 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
4362 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
4363 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
4366 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
4367 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
4369 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
4370 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
4371 in your .emacs file.)
4373 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
4374 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
4376 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
4377 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
4379 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
4380 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
4383 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
4384 delete the character before point, as usual.
4386 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
4387 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
4388 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
4390 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
4391 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
4392 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
4393 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
4394 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
4397 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
4398 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
4399 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
4400 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
4401 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
4403 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
4404 and is an alias for it.
4406 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
4407 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
4409 ** Scrolling changes
4411 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
4412 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
4414 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
4415 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
4418 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
4419 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
4420 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
4421 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
4423 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
4424 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
4425 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
4426 recenters the window.
4428 ** International character set support (MULE)
4430 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
4431 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
4432 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
4433 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
4434 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
4435 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
4437 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
4438 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
4439 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
4440 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
4441 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
4443 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
4444 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
4445 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
4446 language, to make it possible to type them.
4448 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
4449 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
4451 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
4452 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
4454 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
4456 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
4458 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
4459 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
4460 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
4461 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
4462 characters for their work until they want to change.
4466 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
4467 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
4468 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
4469 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
4470 support several input methods.
4472 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
4473 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
4476 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
4477 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
4478 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
4479 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
4480 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
4483 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
4484 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
4485 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
4486 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
4487 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
4489 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
4490 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
4491 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
4492 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
4494 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
4495 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
4496 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
4497 the first guess is wrong.
4499 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
4500 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
4502 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
4503 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
4504 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
4505 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
4507 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
4508 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
4509 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
4510 translate automatically to and from either one.
4512 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
4514 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
4515 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
4516 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
4519 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
4520 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
4521 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
4522 multibyte characters in that buffer.
4524 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
4525 character conversion as well.
4527 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
4529 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
4530 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
4531 requires using many fonts.
4533 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
4534 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
4536 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
4537 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
4538 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
4539 you would use a font.
4541 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
4542 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
4543 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
4545 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
4546 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
4547 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
4548 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
4549 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
4551 *** Defining fontsets.
4553 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
4554 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
4555 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
4557 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
4558 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
4559 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
4560 standard fontset are created automatically.
4562 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
4563 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
4564 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
4565 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
4566 name is `fontset-startup'.
4568 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
4569 The resource value should have this form:
4570 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
4571 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
4572 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
4573 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
4574 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
4575 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
4576 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
4577 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
4578 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
4580 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
4581 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
4582 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
4584 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
4585 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
4587 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
4588 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
4589 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
4590 Here is the substitution rule:
4591 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
4592 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
4593 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
4594 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
4595 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
4597 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
4598 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
4599 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
4601 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
4602 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
4603 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
4604 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
4607 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
4608 defaults for a particular choice of language.
4610 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
4611 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
4612 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
4613 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
4614 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
4615 system for new files that you create.
4617 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
4618 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
4619 whole Emacs session.
4621 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
4622 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
4623 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
4625 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
4626 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
4627 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
4628 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
4629 coding systems that Emacs supports.
4631 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
4632 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
4633 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
4634 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
4635 is used for *the immediately following command*.
4637 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
4638 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
4640 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
4641 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
4643 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
4644 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
4646 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
4647 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
4648 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
4649 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
4652 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
4653 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
4654 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
4655 translated into that character code.
4657 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
4658 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
4660 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
4662 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
4663 the coding system for keyboard input.
4665 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
4666 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
4667 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
4669 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
4671 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
4672 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
4673 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
4674 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
4675 designed to work with terminals.
4677 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
4678 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
4679 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
4680 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
4681 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
4682 in the corresponding buffer.
4684 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
4686 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
4687 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
4688 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
4690 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
4691 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
4692 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
4695 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
4696 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
4698 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
4699 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
4700 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
4701 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
4703 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
4704 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
4705 related information.
4707 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
4708 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
4711 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
4712 information about the support for a particular language.
4713 You specify the language as an argument.
4715 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
4716 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
4719 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
4720 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
4721 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
4722 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
4724 A alternativnyj (Russian)
4726 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
4727 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
4728 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
4729 E euc-japan (Japanese)
4730 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4731 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
4732 K euc-korea (Korean)
4735 S shift_jis (Japanese)
4738 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
4739 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4740 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
4744 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
4745 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
4746 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
4747 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
4749 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
4750 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
4752 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
4753 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
4754 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
4755 Rmail files themselves.
4757 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
4758 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
4760 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
4763 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
4764 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
4765 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
4766 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
4767 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
4769 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
4770 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
4771 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
4774 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
4775 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
4776 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
4777 without any conversion.
4779 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
4780 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
4781 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
4782 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
4784 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
4785 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
4787 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
4788 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
4790 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
4791 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
4793 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
4794 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
4795 in the buffer before point.
4797 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
4798 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
4801 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
4802 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
4804 ** File locking works with NFS now.
4806 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
4807 in the same directory as FILENAME.
4809 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
4810 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
4811 can become a bottleneck.
4813 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
4814 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
4815 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
4816 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
4817 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
4818 so useful that the change is worth while.
4820 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
4821 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
4822 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
4823 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
4825 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
4826 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
4829 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
4830 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
4831 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
4833 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
4834 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
4835 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
4837 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
4838 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
4839 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
4841 ** Changes in View mode.
4843 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
4844 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
4846 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
4847 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
4849 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
4852 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
4853 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
4855 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
4856 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
4857 not just the selected window.
4859 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
4860 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
4861 turns View mode on or off.
4863 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
4864 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
4865 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
4867 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
4868 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
4870 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
4871 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
4872 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
4873 which version to compare with.
4875 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
4876 blocks if a match is inside the block.
4878 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
4879 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
4880 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
4881 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
4883 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
4884 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
4885 blocks, all of them or none.
4887 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
4888 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
4891 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
4892 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
4893 However, the mode will not be changed if
4894 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
4895 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
4896 not suitable for ordinary files, or
4897 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
4899 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
4901 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
4902 these commands do not change the major mode.
4904 ** M-x occur changes.
4906 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
4907 it performs a case-sensitive search.
4909 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
4910 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
4911 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
4913 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
4914 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
4915 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
4916 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
4917 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
4919 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
4920 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
4921 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
4922 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
4924 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
4925 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
4926 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
4928 ** Outline mode changes.
4930 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
4932 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
4934 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
4935 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
4936 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
4939 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
4940 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
4943 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
4944 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
4946 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
4948 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
4949 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
4950 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
4951 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
4953 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
4954 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
4955 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
4957 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
4958 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
4961 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
4962 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
4963 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
4964 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
4966 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
4967 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
4968 can be. The default value is 30.
4970 ** Changes in Mail mode.
4972 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
4973 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
4974 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
4975 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
4976 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
4979 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
4980 compose-mail-other-frame.
4982 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
4983 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
4984 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
4985 buffer that shows the original message.
4987 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
4988 with separator lines around the contents.
4990 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
4991 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
4992 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
4993 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
4995 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
4997 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
4998 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
4999 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5000 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5002 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5003 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5006 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5007 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5010 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5011 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5012 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5013 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5015 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5016 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5017 be taken to be magic.
5019 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5020 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5021 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5023 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5024 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5026 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5027 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5029 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5031 new key dired.el binding old key
5032 ------- ---------------- -------
5033 * c dired-change-marks c
5035 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5036 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5037 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5039 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5040 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5041 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5042 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5043 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5044 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5048 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5049 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5050 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5051 each time you run it.
5053 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5054 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5056 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5057 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5058 means to move in the opposite direction.
5060 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5061 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5063 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5064 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5065 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5066 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5071 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
5073 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
5076 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
5077 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
5079 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
5082 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
5084 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
5086 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
5088 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
5089 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
5090 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
5092 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
5094 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
5096 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
5097 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
5099 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
5100 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
5101 used to pick articles.
5103 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
5104 another have been added.
5106 `M-x gnus-change-server'
5108 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
5109 generating lines in buffers.
5111 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
5114 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
5116 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
5118 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
5120 *** Scores can be decayed.
5122 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
5124 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
5125 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
5127 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
5130 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
5132 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
5133 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
5135 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
5137 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
5138 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
5140 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
5141 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
5143 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
5146 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
5147 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
5149 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
5151 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
5153 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
5155 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
5157 Use the `Y c' command.
5159 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
5161 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
5163 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
5165 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
5166 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
5168 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
5170 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
5172 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
5173 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
5175 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
5177 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
5178 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
5179 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
5180 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
5183 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
5184 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
5185 particular news group. This can be done by:
5187 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
5189 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
5190 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
5191 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
5192 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
5193 for reading and posting).
5195 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
5196 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
5197 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
5198 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
5201 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
5202 default. Here are some of these default settings:
5204 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
5205 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
5206 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
5207 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
5208 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
5210 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
5211 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
5215 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
5216 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
5217 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
5218 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
5219 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
5222 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
5223 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
5224 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
5225 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
5226 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
5227 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
5229 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
5230 of the current buffer.
5232 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
5233 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
5234 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
5236 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
5237 style that the Python developers like.
5239 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
5240 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
5241 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
5245 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
5246 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
5247 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
5249 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
5250 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
5253 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
5254 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
5256 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
5257 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
5258 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
5259 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
5261 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
5262 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
5264 ** Calendar changes.
5266 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
5267 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
5268 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
5272 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
5274 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
5276 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
5277 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
5278 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
5279 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
5280 It defaults to `letter'.
5281 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
5283 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
5284 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
5285 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
5287 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
5288 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
5291 *** Horizontal layout
5293 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
5294 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
5295 All are measured in points.
5299 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
5300 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
5301 All are measured in points.
5305 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
5306 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
5307 margin above the text.
5309 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
5310 framing box is printed around the header.
5312 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
5313 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
5315 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
5316 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
5317 `ps-header-font-size'.
5321 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
5322 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
5323 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
5324 elements to this alist.
5326 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
5327 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
5329 ** hideshow changes.
5331 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
5334 *** Support for java-mode added.
5336 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
5337 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
5339 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
5340 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
5341 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
5343 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
5344 robust and a lot faster.
5346 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
5348 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
5349 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
5350 documentation for more details.
5352 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
5354 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
5355 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
5356 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
5357 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
5358 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
5360 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
5361 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
5362 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
5363 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
5369 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
5370 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
5371 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
5372 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
5373 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
5374 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
5376 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
5378 *** Maximum decoration
5380 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
5381 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
5382 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
5383 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
5384 to get the old behavior.
5388 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
5390 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
5391 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
5393 *** Configurable support
5395 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
5396 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
5397 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
5398 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
5399 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
5400 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
5401 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
5403 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
5404 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
5405 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
5407 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
5409 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
5410 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
5413 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
5415 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
5421 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
5422 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
5423 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
5424 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
5426 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
5428 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
5429 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
5430 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
5432 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
5434 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
5435 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
5436 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
5437 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
5438 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
5439 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
5440 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
5442 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
5443 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
5444 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
5445 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
5446 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
5447 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
5449 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
5451 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
5452 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
5453 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
5454 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
5456 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
5459 ** Ada mode changes.
5461 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
5462 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
5463 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
5464 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
5467 *** There are two new commands:
5468 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
5469 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
5471 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
5472 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
5473 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
5475 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
5476 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
5477 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
5479 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
5480 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
5481 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
5482 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
5484 ** Scheme mode changes.
5486 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
5487 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
5488 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
5489 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
5492 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
5493 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
5494 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
5495 variables as buffer-local variables.
5497 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
5500 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
5502 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
5503 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
5504 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
5505 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
5507 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
5508 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
5511 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
5512 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
5513 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
5514 option takes precedence.
5516 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
5517 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
5518 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
5520 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
5521 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
5524 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
5525 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
5527 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
5528 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
5531 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
5532 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
5533 these register values no longer become completely useless.
5534 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
5535 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
5536 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
5538 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
5539 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
5540 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
5541 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
5543 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
5544 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
5545 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
5546 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
5547 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
5549 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
5550 since it applies only to the current frame.
5552 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
5553 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
5554 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
5556 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
5557 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
5558 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
5559 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
5560 instead of just the file you are editing.
5564 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
5565 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
5566 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
5567 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
5568 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
5571 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
5572 knows which kind of label is needed.
5574 C-c ) reftex-reference
5575 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
5576 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
5578 C-c [ reftex-citation
5579 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
5580 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
5582 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
5583 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
5586 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
5587 can quickly jump to every section.
5589 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
5590 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
5591 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
5592 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
5593 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
5595 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
5597 *** Info documentation is now available.
5599 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
5600 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
5602 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
5603 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
5605 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
5606 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
5608 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
5609 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
5610 appropriate functions.
5612 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
5613 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
5615 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
5618 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
5619 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
5621 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
5624 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
5625 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
5626 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
5628 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
5629 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
5630 prefixed with `ALT'.
5632 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
5633 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
5634 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
5637 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
5638 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
5639 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
5641 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
5642 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
5644 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
5645 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
5646 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
5648 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
5650 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
5652 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
5655 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
5656 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
5659 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
5662 *** Added support for imenu.
5664 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
5665 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
5666 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
5667 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
5669 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
5670 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
5672 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
5674 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
5676 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
5677 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
5678 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
5681 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
5682 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
5684 ** browse-url changes
5686 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
5687 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
5688 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
5689 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
5690 customization variables.
5692 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
5694 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
5695 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
5696 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
5700 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
5701 pops up the Info file for this command.
5703 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
5704 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
5705 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
5708 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
5709 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
5710 files in the same directory.
5712 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
5713 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
5714 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
5718 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
5719 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
5721 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
5722 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
5723 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
5724 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
5725 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
5726 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
5727 color when Viper is in insert state.
5728 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
5729 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
5730 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
5734 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
5735 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
5736 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
5737 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
5738 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
5740 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
5742 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
5743 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
5745 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
5746 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
5747 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
5749 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
5750 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
5751 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
5752 methods and protocols.
5754 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
5755 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
5756 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
5759 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
5760 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
5761 at least M times and as many as N times.
5763 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
5764 in files has changed slightly.
5766 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
5767 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
5768 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
5769 with old time-stamp-format values.
5771 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
5772 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
5773 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
5776 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
5777 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
5778 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
5779 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
5780 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
5781 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
5783 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
5784 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
5785 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
5787 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
5788 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
5789 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
5790 recommended now will continue to work then.
5792 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
5795 ** There are some additional major modes:
5797 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
5798 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
5799 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
5801 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
5802 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
5805 ** New Lisp packages include:
5807 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
5809 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
5810 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
5812 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
5814 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
5817 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
5818 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
5821 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
5822 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
5823 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
5824 strings or comments.
5826 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
5827 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
5828 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
5829 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
5832 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
5833 can visit them by short forms of their names.
5835 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
5836 Emacs Lisp function at point.
5838 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
5840 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
5841 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
5843 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
5845 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
5847 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
5849 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
5850 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
5852 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
5853 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
5854 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
5855 original place after inserting the copy.
5857 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
5860 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
5861 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
5862 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
5864 Enable mouse-drag with:
5865 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
5867 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
5869 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
5870 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
5872 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
5873 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
5877 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
5878 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
5879 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
5880 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
5881 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
5882 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
5883 instance) and vice versa.
5885 To use this package load it using
5886 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
5887 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
5888 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
5889 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
5890 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
5891 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
5893 *** Interface to ph.
5895 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
5897 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
5898 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
5901 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
5903 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
5904 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
5905 while the real cursor does not move.
5907 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
5908 for visiting your favorite web sites.
5910 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
5911 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
5915 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
5916 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
5917 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
5918 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
5920 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
5922 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
5924 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
5926 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
5927 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
5928 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
5929 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
5930 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
5932 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
5933 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
5934 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
5935 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
5936 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
5937 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
5939 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
5941 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
5942 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
5943 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
5944 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
5946 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
5947 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
5949 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
5950 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
5953 ** Basic Lisp changes
5955 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
5956 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
5958 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
5959 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
5962 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
5964 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
5966 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
5967 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
5969 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
5970 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
5973 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
5975 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
5977 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
5979 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
5980 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
5981 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
5984 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
5985 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
5986 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
5988 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
5989 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
5990 adding one of these suffixes.
5992 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
5993 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
5994 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
5996 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
5997 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
5999 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6001 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6002 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6004 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6005 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6007 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6009 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6010 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6012 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6013 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6014 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6015 works using `save-current-buffer'.
6017 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6018 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6021 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6022 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6023 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6026 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6027 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6030 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6032 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6033 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6034 Then it returns that string.
6036 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6038 (with-output-to-string
6039 (princ "The buffer is ")
6040 (princ (buffer-name)))
6042 returns "The buffer is foo".
6044 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6047 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6048 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6049 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6051 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6052 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6054 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6055 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6056 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6057 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6058 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6059 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6061 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6062 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6063 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6066 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6067 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6068 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6069 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6070 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
6072 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
6073 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
6074 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
6075 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
6077 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
6078 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
6080 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
6082 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
6083 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
6084 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
6085 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
6088 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
6089 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
6092 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
6094 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
6095 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
6096 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
6097 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
6098 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
6100 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
6102 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
6103 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
6104 more than the number of characters.
6106 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
6107 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
6108 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
6109 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
6110 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
6111 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
6113 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
6114 and returns a string containing those characters.
6116 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
6117 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
6118 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
6119 character, sref signals an error.
6121 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
6122 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
6123 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6125 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
6126 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
6127 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6129 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
6130 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
6131 to a vector of the characters in it.
6133 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
6134 of a string. You call it as follows:
6136 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
6138 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
6139 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
6140 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
6141 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
6142 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
6144 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
6145 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6147 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
6148 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6150 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
6151 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
6152 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
6153 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
6155 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
6157 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
6159 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
6160 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
6161 are not included in the resulting value.
6163 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
6164 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
6165 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
6166 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
6168 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
6169 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
6170 character extends across that column), then the padding character
6171 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
6172 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
6173 column START-COLUMN.
6175 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
6176 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
6177 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
6178 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
6179 changed text, before the change.
6181 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
6182 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
6183 one character set for each script, not for each language.
6185 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
6187 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
6189 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
6190 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
6192 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
6193 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
6194 which identify the character within that character set.
6196 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
6197 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
6198 opposite of split-char.
6200 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
6201 of all the characters between BEG and END.
6203 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
6204 of all the characters in a string.
6206 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
6207 and specifying coding systems.
6209 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
6210 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
6211 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
6212 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
6213 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
6214 as what to do about code conversion.)
6216 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
6217 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
6219 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6220 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6221 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
6223 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6224 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
6225 to match against a file name.
6227 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6228 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6229 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6230 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6231 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6232 specifies the coding system for encoding.
6234 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6235 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6237 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
6238 the coding system to use for network sockets.
6240 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6241 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
6242 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
6245 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6246 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6247 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6248 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6249 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6250 specifies the coding system for encoding.
6252 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6253 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6255 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6256 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6257 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
6258 start the subprocess.
6260 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
6261 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
6262 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
6263 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
6264 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
6266 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
6267 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
6270 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
6271 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
6272 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
6273 connection permanently or until overridden.
6275 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
6276 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
6277 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
6278 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
6279 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
6280 system for one operation at a time.
6282 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
6283 files, subprocesses or network connections.
6285 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
6286 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
6287 The value is a cons cell,
6288 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
6289 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
6290 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
6291 input to the subprocess.
6293 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
6294 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
6296 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
6297 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
6298 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
6300 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
6301 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
6302 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
6303 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
6306 Thus, instead of writing
6308 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
6309 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
6311 you would now write this:
6313 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
6314 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
6318 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
6319 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
6320 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
6321 for a description of them.
6323 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
6324 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
6326 (defgroup ispell nil
6327 "Spell checking using Ispell."
6330 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
6331 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
6332 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
6333 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
6334 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
6336 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
6337 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
6338 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
6339 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
6340 first-level subgroups.
6342 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
6344 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
6345 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
6349 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
6350 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
6351 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
6352 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
6353 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
6354 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
6356 ** Text property changes
6358 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
6361 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
6362 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
6363 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
6364 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
6365 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
6367 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
6368 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
6369 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
6370 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
6372 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
6373 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
6374 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
6376 ** Changes in invisibility features
6378 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
6379 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
6380 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
6381 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
6382 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
6383 make the overlay visible.
6385 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
6386 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
6387 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
6388 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
6389 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
6390 t when it should hide it.
6392 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
6394 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
6395 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
6396 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
6397 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
6398 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
6399 Here is an example of how to do this:
6401 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
6402 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
6403 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
6404 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
6407 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
6410 ;; When done with the overlays:
6411 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
6413 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
6415 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
6417 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
6418 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
6419 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
6420 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
6422 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
6423 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
6424 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
6426 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
6427 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
6429 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
6430 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
6432 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
6433 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
6434 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
6436 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
6437 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
6438 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
6439 determine the syntax type of the character.
6441 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
6442 of the current buffer.
6444 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
6445 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
6446 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
6448 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
6449 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
6450 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
6451 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
6452 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
6454 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
6457 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
6458 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
6459 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
6461 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
6462 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
6463 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
6464 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
6465 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
6467 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
6468 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
6469 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
6471 ** Changes in face features
6473 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
6474 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
6476 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
6477 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
6479 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
6480 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
6482 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
6483 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
6485 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
6486 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
6487 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
6488 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
6491 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
6492 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
6494 ** Changes in file-handling functions
6496 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
6497 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
6498 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
6499 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
6501 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
6504 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
6505 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
6507 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6508 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
6510 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
6511 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
6513 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
6514 character code conversion as well as other things.
6516 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
6517 (formerly it did not).
6519 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
6520 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
6522 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
6523 instead of constant strings.
6525 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
6526 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
6527 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
6529 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
6530 in the same way as before.
6532 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
6533 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
6534 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
6536 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
6537 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
6538 else, and returns nil.
6540 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
6541 directory cannot be listed.
6543 ** Changes in minibuffer input
6545 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
6546 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
6547 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
6548 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
6551 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
6552 It is available through the history command M-n.
6554 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
6555 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
6556 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
6557 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
6558 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
6560 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
6561 argument in this way.
6563 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
6564 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
6565 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
6567 ** Echo area features
6569 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
6570 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
6571 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
6572 after the echo area is cleared.
6574 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
6575 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
6577 ** Keyboard input features
6579 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
6580 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
6582 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
6583 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
6586 ** Frame-related changes
6588 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
6589 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
6590 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
6592 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
6593 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
6594 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
6596 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6597 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
6598 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
6599 in the selected frame.
6601 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
6602 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
6603 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
6605 ** X Windows features
6607 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
6608 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
6609 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
6611 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
6612 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
6614 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
6615 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
6616 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
6618 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
6619 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
6621 ** Subprocess features
6623 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
6624 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
6627 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
6628 and returns the output from the command as a string.
6630 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
6631 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
6633 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
6634 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
6636 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
6637 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
6638 goes after the other menu items.
6640 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
6641 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
6642 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
6645 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
6646 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
6648 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
6649 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
6652 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
6653 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
6654 but its hook is still run.
6656 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
6657 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
6659 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
6660 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
6661 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
6663 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
6664 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
6665 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
6668 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
6669 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
6671 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
6672 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
6673 functions like display-time.
6675 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
6676 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
6678 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
6679 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
6680 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
6682 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
6683 if there is an error in compilation.
6685 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
6686 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
6687 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
6688 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
6690 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
6691 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
6692 the *scratch* buffer.
6694 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
6695 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
6696 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
6697 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
6699 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
6700 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
6701 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
6703 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
6704 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
6705 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
6706 and compose-mail-other-frame.
6708 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
6709 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
6710 full name of the specified user will be returned.
6712 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
6713 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
6714 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
6715 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
6716 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
6719 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
6720 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
6721 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
6722 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
6724 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
6725 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
6726 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
6727 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
6729 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
6731 ** imenu.el changes.
6733 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
6734 item from menu created by imenu.
6736 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
6737 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
6738 select one of those items.
6740 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
6742 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
6744 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
6745 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
6747 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
6748 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
6749 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
6751 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
6753 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
6754 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
6756 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6757 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
6758 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
6759 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
6760 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
6763 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
6764 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
6766 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
6767 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
6768 as in previous Emacs versions.
6770 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
6771 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
6772 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
6775 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
6776 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
6777 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
6778 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
6781 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
6782 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
6783 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
6784 line and then executing the macro.
6786 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
6788 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
6789 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
6790 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
6795 *** Font Lock support modes
6797 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
6798 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
6799 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
6800 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
6801 Font Lock mode is enabled.
6803 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
6805 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
6811 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
6812 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
6813 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
6814 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
6815 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
6816 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
6817 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
6819 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
6821 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
6823 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
6825 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6827 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
6830 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
6835 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
6836 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
6837 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
6838 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
6840 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
6841 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
6843 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
6844 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
6847 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
6848 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
6850 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
6852 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
6854 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
6856 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
6859 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
6861 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
6863 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
6865 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
6867 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
6870 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
6872 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
6874 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
6876 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
6878 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
6880 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
6882 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
6884 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
6887 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
6889 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
6892 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
6894 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
6895 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
6897 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
6899 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
6901 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
6903 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
6905 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
6908 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
6910 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
6911 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
6913 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
6914 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
6915 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
6917 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
6918 articles with the `*' command.
6920 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
6922 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
6924 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
6926 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
6928 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
6929 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
6931 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
6934 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
6936 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
6938 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
6940 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
6942 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
6944 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
6946 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
6948 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
6950 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
6952 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6953 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6955 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
6958 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
6960 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
6961 buffer to allow easier treatment.
6963 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
6965 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
6967 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
6969 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
6972 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
6974 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
6976 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
6977 cited text to hide is now customizable.
6979 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
6981 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
6983 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
6985 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
6987 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
6989 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
6992 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
6994 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
6995 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
6996 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
6999 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7002 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7005 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7006 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7009 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7010 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7011 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7012 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7013 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7016 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7018 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7020 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7021 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7022 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7023 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7024 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7026 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7027 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7028 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
7030 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7032 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7033 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7034 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7035 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7036 chapter of the manual for details.
7038 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7039 customization variables take effect.
7041 ** Marking with the mouse.
7043 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7044 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7045 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7047 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7049 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7051 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7052 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7054 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7055 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7056 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7057 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7058 applications, these problems are significant.
7060 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7061 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7062 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7063 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7064 other DOS application as a subprocess.
7066 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7067 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7069 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7070 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7071 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
7072 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
7073 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
7074 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
7076 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
7078 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
7079 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
7080 minibuffer contains.
7082 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
7084 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
7085 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
7086 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
7087 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
7089 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
7090 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
7091 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
7092 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
7094 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
7095 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
7097 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
7098 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
7099 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
7101 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
7102 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
7103 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
7104 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
7106 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
7108 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
7109 to replace the characters it "deletes".
7111 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
7113 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
7114 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
7115 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
7116 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
7117 immediately after the selected one.
7119 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
7120 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
7122 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
7124 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
7125 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
7126 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
7127 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
7130 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
7131 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
7134 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
7135 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
7136 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
7137 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
7138 now that the bug is fixed.
7140 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
7142 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
7143 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
7144 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
7145 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
7147 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
7148 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
7149 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
7150 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
7152 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
7153 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
7154 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
7156 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
7157 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
7158 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
7159 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
7162 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
7163 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
7165 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
7166 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
7167 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
7168 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
7170 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
7171 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
7172 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
7173 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
7174 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
7175 `mail-directory-stream'.)
7177 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
7178 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
7179 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
7180 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
7182 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
7183 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
7184 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
7186 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
7187 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
7188 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
7189 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
7190 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
7191 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
7192 to a limitation in font-lock).
7194 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
7196 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
7197 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
7198 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
7201 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
7202 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
7204 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7206 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
7208 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
7210 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
7212 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
7213 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
7214 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
7215 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
7216 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
7217 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
7219 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
7222 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
7223 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
7225 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
7230 *** Global Font Lock mode
7232 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
7233 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
7234 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
7235 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
7236 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
7238 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
7240 (global-font-lock-mode t)
7244 *** Local Refontification
7246 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
7247 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
7248 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
7249 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
7251 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
7252 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
7253 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
7254 above and below point.
7256 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
7260 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
7261 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
7262 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
7263 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
7264 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
7267 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
7269 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
7270 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
7272 ** hide-show changes.
7274 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
7275 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
7278 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
7279 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
7281 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
7282 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
7283 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
7287 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
7288 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
7290 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
7291 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
7293 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
7295 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
7296 pressing both mouse buttons.
7298 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
7299 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
7302 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
7305 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
7307 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
7308 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
7310 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
7312 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
7314 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
7316 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
7318 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
7320 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
7322 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
7323 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
7324 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
7325 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
7326 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
7328 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
7330 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
7331 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
7332 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
7335 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
7338 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
7340 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
7341 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
7343 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
7344 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
7346 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
7347 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
7348 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
7350 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
7351 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
7354 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7356 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
7357 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
7358 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
7360 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
7361 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
7362 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
7364 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
7365 up if too much time passes.
7367 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
7369 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
7370 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
7371 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
7374 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
7375 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
7376 call looks like this:
7378 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7380 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
7381 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
7382 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
7385 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
7386 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
7389 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
7390 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
7391 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
7392 each time Emacs becomes idle.
7394 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
7395 idle for SECS seconds.
7397 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
7398 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
7399 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
7402 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
7403 there is no answer within a certain time.
7405 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
7407 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
7408 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
7409 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
7411 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
7412 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
7413 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
7414 arguments in between are ignored.
7416 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
7417 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
7419 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
7420 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
7421 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
7422 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
7425 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
7426 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
7427 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
7428 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
7429 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
7430 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
7432 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
7433 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
7434 systems with limited file name syntax.
7436 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
7437 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
7438 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
7441 (defvar save-completions-file-name
7442 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
7443 "*The filename to save completions to.")
7445 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
7446 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
7447 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
7448 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
7449 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
7451 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
7452 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
7453 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
7455 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
7456 marker from its buffer position.
7458 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
7459 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
7460 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
7462 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
7463 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
7464 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
7465 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
7466 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
7467 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
7469 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
7470 errors that happen often during editing.
7472 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
7473 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
7474 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
7476 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
7477 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
7479 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
7480 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
7481 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
7482 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
7483 and not get-buffer-window.
7485 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
7486 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
7487 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
7489 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
7490 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
7491 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
7492 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
7493 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
7494 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
7495 over and over for the same text.
7497 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
7499 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
7500 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
7502 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
7505 in addition to the normal
7509 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
7510 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
7511 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
7513 * For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7515 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
7516 Copyright information:
7518 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7520 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7521 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7522 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7523 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7525 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7526 of this document, or of portions of it,
7527 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7528 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7532 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"