1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-10-12
2 Copyright (C) 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 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
13 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
15 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
16 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
18 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
19 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
22 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
23 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
25 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
26 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
28 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
29 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
30 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
31 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
32 necessary changes to unexec.
34 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
35 new display features described below.
37 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
38 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
39 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support.
42 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
44 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
45 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
46 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
48 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
49 be added to the end of the buffer because of `require-final-newline'.
51 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
52 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
53 `auto-compression-mode' command.
55 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
56 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME.
59 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
60 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
62 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs header-line
63 (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window), so that it
64 remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled. This behavior
65 may be disabled by customizing the option `Info-use-header-line'.
68 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
69 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
72 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
78 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
79 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
80 internationalization and mail-fetching.
82 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
83 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
85 If you used procmail like in
87 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
88 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
89 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
90 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
92 this now has changed to
95 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
98 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
99 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
101 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
102 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
103 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, SEMI, mime-compose etc., will
104 probably no longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
106 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
107 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
108 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
109 now just a compatibility layer.
111 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
112 called to position point.
114 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
115 summary buffers and NOV files.
117 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
118 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
120 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
121 subtly different manner.
123 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
124 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
125 ever-changing layouts.
127 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
129 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
131 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
132 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
133 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
134 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
135 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
138 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
139 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
140 file that is already visited under a different name.
142 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
143 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
145 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
146 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
149 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
150 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
151 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
152 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
153 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
154 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
157 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
158 and displays information about that.
160 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
161 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
163 ** Polish and German translations of Emacs' reference card have been
164 added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex' and `de-refcard.tex'.
165 Postscript files are included.
167 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
170 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
171 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
173 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
174 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
175 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
176 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
177 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
178 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
181 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
182 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
183 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
184 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
186 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
187 a version-dependent component.
189 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
190 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
191 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
192 character is still bound as before.
194 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
197 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
198 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
201 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
202 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
203 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
204 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
205 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
206 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
207 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
210 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
211 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
212 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
213 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
214 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
215 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
216 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
217 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
218 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
220 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
221 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
224 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
225 point in a pop-up window.
228 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
229 displays all characters in that character set.
231 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
232 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
235 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
236 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
237 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
238 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
241 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
243 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
244 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
247 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
248 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
249 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
250 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
253 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
254 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
255 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
256 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
259 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
260 on the display using several methods
263 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
264 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
265 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
268 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
269 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
271 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
273 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
274 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
277 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
278 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
279 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
280 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
283 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
284 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
285 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
287 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
288 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
291 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
292 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
295 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
296 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
300 ** New X resources recognized
302 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
303 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
304 is useful for debugging X problems.
308 emacs.synchronous: true
310 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
311 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
312 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
313 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
314 visual class names are
323 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
324 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
327 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
328 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
329 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
334 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
336 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
337 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
338 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
339 resource values are `true' or `on'.
343 emacs.privateColormap: true
345 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
346 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
347 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
349 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
350 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
351 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
355 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
358 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
359 all frames except the selected one.
361 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
362 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
364 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
365 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
366 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
367 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
370 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
371 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
373 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
374 read mail from the menu etc.
377 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
378 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
380 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
382 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
386 -------------------------
392 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
395 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
397 ** Changes in Outline mode.
399 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
400 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
401 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
403 ** Changes to Emacs Server
406 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
407 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
408 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
409 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
410 buffers to kill, as before.
412 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
413 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
416 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
418 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
419 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
420 use. Default is 1000.
423 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
424 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
427 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
428 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
429 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
433 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
434 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
437 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
438 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
440 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
441 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
442 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
444 ** Faces and frame parameters.
446 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
447 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
448 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
449 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
450 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
451 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
452 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
454 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
455 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
456 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
457 `default' face and vice versa.
462 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
463 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
464 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
467 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
469 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
470 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
471 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
472 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
474 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
475 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
476 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
478 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
481 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
483 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
484 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
485 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
486 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
489 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
491 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
492 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
493 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
494 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
497 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
498 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
499 under Lisp changes, below.
501 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
504 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
505 of its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid;
506 otherwise, it is hollow.
508 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
509 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
510 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
511 customizing face `fringe'.
513 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
514 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
516 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
517 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, now defaults to nil,
518 and its use is deprecated.
522 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see <http://www.lesstif.org>).
523 You will need a version 0.88.1 or later.
525 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
527 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
528 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
529 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
530 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
531 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
534 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
535 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
536 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
537 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
538 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
539 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
541 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
542 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
543 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
544 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
545 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
546 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
548 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
549 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
550 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
551 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
552 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
554 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
556 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
557 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
558 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
561 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
563 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
564 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
565 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
566 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
567 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
573 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
574 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
579 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
580 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
581 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
585 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
587 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
588 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
589 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
592 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
593 have to do anything to activate it.
595 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
597 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
598 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
599 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
600 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
602 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
605 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
607 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
609 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
612 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
616 ** Hscrolling in C code.
618 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
619 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
625 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
626 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
627 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
628 displayed and is on by default. To make the tool bar more useful, we
629 need contributions of extra icons for specific modes (with copyright
633 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
635 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
636 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
637 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
638 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
639 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
641 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
643 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
646 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
647 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
649 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
651 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
652 `*') toggles the status.
654 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
656 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
658 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
659 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
662 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
664 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
665 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
666 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
667 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
668 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
669 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
672 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
673 supported on character terminals.
677 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
678 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
679 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
682 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
683 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
684 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
685 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
686 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
687 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
689 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
692 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
694 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
695 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
696 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
699 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
700 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
702 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
703 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
704 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
707 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
709 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
710 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
711 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
712 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
714 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
715 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
716 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
717 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
719 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
720 notably at the end of lines.
722 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
723 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
726 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
728 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
729 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
730 after each match to get the replacement text.
733 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
734 you edit the replacement string.
736 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', lets
737 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
738 lisp-complete-symbol.
741 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
743 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
744 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
745 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
746 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
748 - User option: max-mini-window-height
750 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
751 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
752 specifies a number of lines.
756 - User option: resize-mini-windows
758 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
759 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
760 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
763 Default is `grow-only'.
765 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
767 ** Changes to hideshow.el
769 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
770 selection and traversal, includes more isearch support, and has more
771 conventional keybindings.
773 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
775 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
776 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
777 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
778 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
779 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
780 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
782 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
783 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
784 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
785 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
787 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
789 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
790 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
791 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
792 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
793 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
795 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
796 something like this in your .emacs.
798 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
800 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
802 *** New customization var: `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function'
804 Normally, `hs-hide-all' hides everything, leaving only the
805 header lines of top-level forms (and comments, unless var
806 `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is non-nil). It does this by
807 moving point to each top-level block beginning and hiding the
808 block there. In some major modes (for example, Java), this
809 behavior results in few blocks left visible, which may not be so
812 You can now set var `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' to a
813 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead
814 of the normal block-hiding function. For example, the following
815 code defines a function to hide one level down and move point
816 appropriately, and then tells hideshow to use the new function.
818 (defun ttn-hs-hide-level-1 ()
821 (setq hs-hide-all-non-comment-function 'ttn-hs-hide-level-1)
823 The name `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' was chosen to
824 emphasize that this function is not called for comment blocks,
825 only for code blocks.
827 *** Command deleted: `hs-show-region'
829 Historical Note: This command was added to handle "unbalanced
830 parentheses" emergencies back when hideshow.el used selective
831 display for implementation.
833 *** Commands rebound to more conventional keys
835 The hideshow commands used to be bound to keys of the form "C-c
836 LETTER". This is contrary to the Emacs keybinding convention,
837 which reserves that space for user modification. Here are the
838 new bindings (which includes the addition of `hs-toggle-hiding'):
840 hs-hide-block C-c C-h
841 hs-show-block C-c C-s
842 hs-hide-all C-c C-M-h
843 hs-show-all C-c C-M-s
844 hs-hide-level C-c C-l
845 hs-toggle-hiding C-c C-c
846 hs-mouse-toggle-hiding [(shift button-2)]
848 These were chosen to roughly imitate those used by Outline mode.
850 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
853 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
854 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
855 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
858 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
862 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
866 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
867 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
870 *** Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
871 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
872 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be cutomized.
873 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
875 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
877 ** Changes to cmuscheme
879 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
880 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
882 ** Changes in Font Lock
884 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
885 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
887 *** multiline patterns are now supported.
889 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
890 the face used for each string/comment.
892 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
893 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
895 ** Comint (subshell) changes
897 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
898 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
900 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
901 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
902 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
903 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
904 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
905 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
906 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
907 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
909 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
910 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
912 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
913 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
914 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
916 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
917 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
918 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
920 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
921 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
922 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
924 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
925 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
926 argument, it appends to the file.
928 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
929 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
932 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
935 ** Changes to Rmail mode
937 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
938 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
939 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
940 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
941 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
944 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
945 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
946 regexp matching your mail addresses.
948 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
949 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
950 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
951 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
952 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
954 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
957 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
958 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
961 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
962 in which folder to put messages automatically.
964 ** Changes to TeX mode
966 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
969 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
971 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
973 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
975 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
977 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
978 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
979 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
980 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
981 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
982 can be edited from that buffer.
984 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
985 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
986 `A' to use all marked entries).
988 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
989 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
991 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
992 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
993 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
996 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
997 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
998 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
999 in column 1 are always made leaves.
1001 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
1002 has the following new features:
1004 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
1005 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
1006 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
1007 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
1009 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
1010 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
1011 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
1012 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
1013 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
1016 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
1022 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
1023 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
1024 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
1026 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
1027 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
1028 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
1029 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
1032 ** Customize changes
1034 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
1035 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
1036 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
1038 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
1039 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
1042 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
1043 between custom options. Example:
1045 (defcustom default-input-method nil
1046 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
1047 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
1048 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
1050 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
1051 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
1053 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
1054 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
1055 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
1057 ** New features in evaluation commands
1059 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
1060 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
1061 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
1062 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
1063 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
1065 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
1066 code when called with a prefix argument.
1071 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
1072 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
1073 spell-checks the current buffer.
1076 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
1079 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
1080 correction is made and re-checked.
1082 *** An Italian and a Portuguese dictionary definition has been added.
1084 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
1087 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
1090 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
1095 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
1096 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
1097 is, delete only empty directories.
1099 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
1100 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
1101 copy directories recursively.
1103 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
1104 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
1105 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
1107 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
1108 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
1111 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
1112 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
1113 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
1114 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
1115 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
1117 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
1120 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
1121 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
1122 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
1123 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
1125 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
1126 use the -f option when sending mail.
1130 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
1131 current user setups (although it's believed that these
1132 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
1133 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
1134 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
1135 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
1138 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
1139 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
1140 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
1141 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
1142 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
1145 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
1146 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
1147 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
1148 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
1149 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
1150 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
1152 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
1153 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
1154 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
1155 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
1156 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
1157 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
1158 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
1159 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
1161 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
1162 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
1163 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
1164 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
1167 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
1168 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
1169 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
1170 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
1171 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
1172 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
1173 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
1174 function documentation for more info.
1176 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
1177 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
1178 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
1179 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
1180 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
1181 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
1182 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
1183 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
1185 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
1187 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
1188 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
1190 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
1191 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
1192 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
1193 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
1194 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
1197 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
1198 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
1199 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
1202 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
1203 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
1204 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
1205 chapter about this in the manual.
1207 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
1208 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
1209 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
1210 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
1211 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
1213 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
1214 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
1215 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
1217 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
1218 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
1220 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
1221 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
1222 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
1225 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
1226 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
1227 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
1228 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
1231 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
1232 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
1233 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
1236 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
1237 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
1238 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
1239 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
1242 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
1243 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1244 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1245 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1246 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1248 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1249 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1250 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1252 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1254 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1255 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1256 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1257 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1259 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1260 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1261 the column specified by comment-column.
1263 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1264 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1265 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1266 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1267 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1268 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1270 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1271 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1274 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1276 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1277 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1278 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1279 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1282 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1284 ** Makefile mode changes
1286 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1288 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
1289 Fontlock mode is active.
1293 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1294 so that searches can be resumed.
1296 *** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
1297 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1298 that started the search.
1300 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1301 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1304 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1306 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1307 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1308 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1309 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1310 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1311 `secondary-selection'.
1313 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1314 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1315 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1316 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1317 usual snappy response.
1319 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1320 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1321 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1322 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1325 ** Changes in sort.el
1327 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
1328 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
1329 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
1332 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
1335 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
1336 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1337 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1339 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1340 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1342 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1343 output ^M at the end of lines.
1345 ** Shell script mode changes.
1347 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1348 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
1349 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1353 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1355 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
1356 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1357 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1358 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1359 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
1361 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1362 declarations when given the --declarations option.
1364 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
1365 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
1367 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1370 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
1372 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1374 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1377 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1378 variables are tagged.
1380 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1382 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1386 ** Changes in etags.el
1388 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1389 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1390 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1392 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1393 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1395 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1396 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1397 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1398 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1400 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1402 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1403 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1405 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1407 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1408 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1409 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1411 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1412 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1414 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1415 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1418 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1419 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1420 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1423 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1424 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1425 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1426 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet; there are basic 8859-14 and
1427 8859-15 fonts at <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> and recent X
1428 releases have 8859-15. There are new Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix
1429 (only) and Polish slash input methods in Leim.
1432 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1433 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1434 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1436 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1439 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1442 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
1443 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1444 expression from that list, are not checked.
1446 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1447 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1448 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1449 the buffer, just like for the local files.
1451 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
1454 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
1455 displays local abbrevs, only.
1459 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
1460 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
1461 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
1462 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
1463 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
1464 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of atoms that identify
1465 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
1466 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
1467 file is registered in that backend.
1469 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
1470 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
1471 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
1472 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
1473 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
1474 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
1476 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
1477 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
1478 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
1479 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
1480 where it doesn't make sense.)
1482 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
1483 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
1484 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
1488 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
1489 checks are always done now.
1491 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
1494 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
1495 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
1496 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
1498 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
1499 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
1500 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
1501 the working file (``merge news'').
1503 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
1504 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
1507 *** Multiple Backends
1509 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
1510 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
1511 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
1512 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
1515 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
1516 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
1517 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
1518 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
1520 If you have a file registered in one backend already, you can register
1521 it in a second one by using C-x v i (vc-register) again.
1522 Alternatively, you can commit changes to another backend (say, RCS),
1523 by typing C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a
1524 backend name as a revision number). When using the latter approach,
1525 VC registers the file in the more local backend if that hasn't already
1526 happened, and commits to a branch based on the current revision number
1527 from the more remote backend.
1529 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
1530 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
1531 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
1532 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
1534 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
1535 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
1536 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
1537 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
1541 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
1542 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
1543 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
1544 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
1545 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
1546 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
1547 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
1549 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
1550 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
1551 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
1552 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
1553 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
1554 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
1555 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
1556 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
1557 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
1558 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
1559 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
1562 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
1563 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
1564 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
1565 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
1566 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
1567 entire directory tree.
1569 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
1570 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
1571 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
1572 "watched" by other developers.)
1574 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
1575 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
1576 an empty argument to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
1577 starting at the given directory.
1579 *** Lisp Changes in VC
1581 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
1582 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
1583 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
1584 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
1585 a version system named FOO, you write a library named vc-foo.el, which
1586 provides a number of functions vc-foo-... (see commentary at the end
1587 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
1588 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the atom
1589 `FOO' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
1591 ** New modes and packages
1593 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
1594 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
1595 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
1599 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
1600 drawn, like this: | \ /
1604 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
1605 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
1606 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
1607 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
1608 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
1611 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
1612 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
1614 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
1617 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
1618 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
1619 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
1620 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
1622 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
1623 also do without the mouse.
1625 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
1626 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
1627 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
1628 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
1629 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
1631 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
1633 lines straight-lines
1635 poly-lines straight poly-lines
1637 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
1638 spray-can setting size for spraying
1639 vaporize line vaporize lines
1640 erase characters erase rectangles
1642 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
1643 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
1644 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
1647 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
1648 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
1649 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
1650 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
1652 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
1656 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
1657 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
1658 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
1659 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
1660 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
1661 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
1662 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
1663 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
1664 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
1667 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1668 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1669 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1670 on certain projects.
1673 *** The new package hi-lock.el, text matching interactively entered
1674 regexp's can be highlighted. For example,
1676 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
1678 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1679 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1680 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1681 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1682 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1683 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1684 corresponding file is read.
1687 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
1690 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1691 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1693 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1694 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1695 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1696 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
1697 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
1700 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1701 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1702 separate Texinfo file.
1705 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
1706 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1707 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
1708 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
1709 enter checkin log messages.
1712 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1713 without invoking external programs.
1715 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1716 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1717 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1718 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1719 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1721 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1722 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1725 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1726 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1728 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1729 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1730 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1731 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1732 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1735 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1736 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1737 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1738 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1741 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1742 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1743 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1745 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1748 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1750 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1752 ; comment (until end of line)
1756 $A default non-terminal
1757 $"C" default terminal
1758 $?C? default special
1759 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1760 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1761 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1762 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1763 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1764 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1765 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1766 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1767 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1768 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1769 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1770 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1771 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1772 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1773 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1775 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1777 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1778 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1779 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1780 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1781 equal signs of assignments.
1784 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1785 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1788 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1789 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1790 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1791 customize the package.
1793 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1795 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1796 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1797 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1798 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1799 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1800 which answers different needs.
1803 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1804 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1805 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1806 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1807 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1811 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1812 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1815 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1818 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1820 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1822 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-shell-mode' and
1823 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
1824 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
1825 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
1826 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
1827 and background colors.
1829 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1833 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1836 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1839 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1841 *** whitespace.el ???
1843 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1844 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1845 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1846 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1847 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1848 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1849 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1851 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1853 Here is an example of columns:
1856 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1857 porcupine strawberry airplane
1859 Doing the following settings:
1861 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1862 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1863 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1864 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1867 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1869 M-x delimit-columns-region
1873 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1874 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1875 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1877 delim-col has the following options:
1879 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1882 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1883 between each column.
1885 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1888 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1891 delim-col has the following commands:
1893 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1894 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1897 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1898 were operated on recently.
1900 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1902 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1903 recentf at Emacs startup.
1905 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1906 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1907 file list can be displayed:
1909 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1910 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1911 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1913 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1914 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1916 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1920 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1921 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1922 specific to Message mode.
1925 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1926 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1927 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1930 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1931 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1932 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1934 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1935 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1938 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1940 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1941 minibuffer with completion.
1943 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1944 with the diary features.
1946 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1947 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1949 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1952 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
1955 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
1956 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
1957 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
1958 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
1961 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
1962 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
1965 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
1966 to be visited as images.
1968 ** Withdrawn packages
1970 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1971 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1973 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1975 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1978 * Incompatible Lisp changes
1980 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
1981 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
1983 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
1984 `(format %s foo)' no longer works to remove properties.
1986 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
1987 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
1988 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
1989 these properties are active.
1991 ** The change in the treatment of non_ASCII characters in search
1992 ranges may affect some code.
1994 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
1995 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
1996 make a difference to some code.
1999 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
2000 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
2003 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
2004 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
2006 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum",
2007 currently using the `md5sum' program.
2010 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
2011 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
2015 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
2018 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
2019 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
2020 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
2021 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
2022 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
2026 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
2027 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
2030 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
2031 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
2034 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
2035 with the more general `:mask' property.
2038 ** Image specifications accept more `:algorithm's.
2040 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
2044 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
2045 is running in batch mode. For example,
2047 (message "%s" (read t))
2049 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
2053 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
2054 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
2056 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
2057 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
2061 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
2064 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
2066 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
2067 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
2069 - Function: remq ELT LIST
2071 Return a copy of LIST with all occurences of ELT removed. The
2072 comparison is done with `eq'.
2075 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
2077 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
2081 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
2082 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
2083 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
2086 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
2087 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
2089 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
2090 function was declared obsolete.
2093 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
2094 retained as an alias).
2096 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
2097 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
2098 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
2100 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
2102 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
2104 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
2105 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
2106 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
2107 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
2108 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
2109 means never include the minibuffer window.
2111 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
2113 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
2115 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
2117 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
2118 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
2119 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
2120 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
2123 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
2124 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
2125 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
2126 minibuffer even if it is active.
2128 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
2129 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
2130 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
2131 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
2132 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
2133 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
2135 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
2136 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
2137 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
2138 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
2139 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
2140 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
2141 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
2143 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
2144 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
2145 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
2147 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
2148 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
2149 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
2150 Default value is nil.
2152 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
2155 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
2156 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
2157 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
2160 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
2161 list of a primitive.
2163 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
2166 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
2167 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
2168 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
2169 than replacing the local map.
2171 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
2172 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
2174 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
2177 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
2178 as promised long ago.
2180 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
2182 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
2184 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2185 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2186 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2187 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2189 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
2190 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
2191 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
2192 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
2194 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
2195 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
2196 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
2197 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
2199 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
2200 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
2201 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
2203 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
2204 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
2205 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
2206 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
2207 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
2208 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
2209 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
2212 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
2214 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
2215 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
2216 character set as previously.
2218 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
2219 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
2220 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
2222 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
2223 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
2224 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
2225 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
2227 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
2228 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
2230 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
2231 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
2234 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
2235 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
2237 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
2238 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
2239 buffers and strings.
2241 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
2242 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
2243 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
2244 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
2245 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
2246 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
2247 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
2250 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
2251 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
2252 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
2254 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
2255 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
2256 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
2257 may differ between buffer and string text.
2259 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
2260 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
2262 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
2263 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
2264 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
2265 `composition' from STRING.
2267 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
2268 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
2270 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
2273 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
2274 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' are introduced
2275 for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF, U+2500..U+33FF,
2276 U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
2278 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
2279 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
2280 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
2283 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
2284 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
2285 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
2288 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
2289 that offset in the file before writing.
2291 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
2292 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
2294 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
2295 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
2296 from which the command was issued.
2298 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
2299 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
2300 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
2301 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
2304 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
2305 to `window-buffer-height'.
2307 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
2309 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
2310 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
2311 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
2313 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
2316 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
2317 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
2319 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
2320 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
2321 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
2323 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
2324 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
2325 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
2326 is currently displayed in some window.
2328 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
2329 argument function's results.
2331 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
2332 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
2334 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
2335 header in the list of headers passed to it.
2337 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
2338 ignores differences in case and text representation.
2340 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
2341 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
2344 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
2345 nil don't display a cursor
2346 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
2347 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
2348 others display a box cursor.
2350 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
2351 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
2352 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
2353 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
2355 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
2356 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
2357 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
2358 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
2362 (string-to-syntax "()")
2365 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
2368 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
2369 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
2376 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
2381 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
2386 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
2393 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
2394 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
2397 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
2398 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
2399 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
2400 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
2403 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
2405 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
2406 for a regexp in a string.
2408 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
2409 `mouse-position-function'.
2411 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
2412 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
2414 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
2415 Keywords are now always considered constants.
2418 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
2421 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
2422 returned by function `recent-keys'.
2425 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
2426 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
2427 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
2428 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
2432 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
2433 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
2436 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
2437 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
2438 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
2439 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
2442 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
2443 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
2444 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
2445 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
2448 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
2449 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
2450 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
2453 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
2454 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
2457 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
2459 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
2460 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
2461 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
2465 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
2466 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
2467 Also backreferences like \2 are now considered as an error if the
2468 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
2469 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
2472 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
2473 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
2476 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
2477 instead of being optional.
2480 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
2481 modify read-only text.
2484 ** New functions and variables for locales.
2486 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
2487 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
2488 time functions like strftime. The new variables
2489 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
2490 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
2492 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
2493 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
2494 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
2495 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
2496 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
2497 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
2498 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
2501 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
2502 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
2503 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
2507 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
2508 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
2511 ** New function `propertize'
2513 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
2514 strings with text properties.
2516 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
2518 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
2519 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
2520 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
2521 specified value of that property. Example:
2523 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
2526 ** push and pop macros.
2528 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
2529 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
2530 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
2532 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
2533 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
2534 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
2536 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
2538 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
2539 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
2541 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
2542 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
2543 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
2544 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2546 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
2547 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
2548 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
2549 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2552 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
2553 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
2555 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
2556 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
2557 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
2558 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
2559 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
2561 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
2563 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
2564 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2565 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2566 [:alpha:] matches letters.
2567 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2568 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2569 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
2570 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
2571 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
2572 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
2573 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2574 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
2575 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
2576 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
2577 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
2580 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
2582 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
2584 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
2586 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
2587 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
2591 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
2592 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
2593 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
2597 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
2598 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
2600 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
2602 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
2603 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
2604 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
2605 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
2606 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
2608 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
2610 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
2611 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
2612 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
2616 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
2617 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
2618 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
2619 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
2620 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
2622 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
2624 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
2626 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
2628 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
2630 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
2632 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
2635 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
2637 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
2639 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2641 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
2643 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
2645 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
2647 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2649 Returns the size of TABLE.
2651 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
2653 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
2655 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
2657 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
2659 - Function: clrhash TABLE
2663 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
2665 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
2668 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
2670 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
2671 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
2673 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
2675 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
2677 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
2679 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
2680 arguments KEY and VALUE.
2682 - Function: sxhash OBJ
2684 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
2686 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
2688 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
2689 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
2690 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
2691 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
2692 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
2694 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
2696 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
2697 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
2698 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
2700 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
2701 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2703 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2704 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2706 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2707 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2709 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
2710 'case-fold-string-hash))
2712 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2715 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
2717 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
2718 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
2719 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
2722 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
2724 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
2725 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
2728 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
2729 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
2730 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
2731 is too short to reach that column.
2734 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
2735 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
2736 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
2737 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
2739 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
2740 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
2741 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
2744 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
2745 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
2748 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
2749 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
2752 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
2753 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
2754 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
2755 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
2756 temporary-file-directory instead.
2759 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
2760 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
2761 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
2762 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
2765 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
2766 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
2769 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
2771 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
2772 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
2773 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
2776 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
2778 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
2779 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
2780 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
2781 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
2782 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
2783 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
2785 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
2786 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
2787 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
2788 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2791 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2793 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2794 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2795 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2798 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2799 string where arguments appear in the result string.
2803 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2805 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2806 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
2809 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2812 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2814 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2815 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2818 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2820 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2821 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2827 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2828 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2830 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2831 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2832 to enable sound support.
2834 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2835 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2836 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2837 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2838 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2840 The following sound properties are supported:
2844 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2845 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2849 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2850 may be present, but not both.
2854 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2855 0..1. This property is optional.
2859 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
2860 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
2862 Other properties are ignored.
2864 An alternative interface is called as
2865 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
2867 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2870 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2873 ** Changes to garbage collection
2875 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2876 of live and free strings.
2878 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2879 strings that have been consed so far.
2882 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2886 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
2890 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third argument, FULLY.
2891 If FULLY is non-nil, then locations that are partially obscured aren't
2894 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
2897 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2900 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2903 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2905 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2907 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2908 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2909 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2910 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2911 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2914 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
2917 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
2919 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
2920 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
2921 or omitted means use the selected frame.
2924 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2925 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2928 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2932 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
2936 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2938 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2939 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2940 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2941 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2943 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2944 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2946 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2947 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2948 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2949 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2950 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2951 just display it black instead.
2953 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2956 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2960 ** New face implementation.
2962 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2963 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2968 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2970 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2972 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2973 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2975 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2977 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2979 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2981 6. Foreground color.
2983 7. Background color.
2985 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2987 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2989 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2991 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2993 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2996 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2997 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2999 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
3000 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
3001 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
3002 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
3003 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
3004 attributes mentioned above.
3006 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
3007 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
3010 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
3011 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
3017 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
3018 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
3019 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
3020 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
3021 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
3022 results in a fully-specified face.
3025 *** Face realization.
3027 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
3028 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
3029 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
3030 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
3031 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
3032 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
3034 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
3035 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
3036 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
3037 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
3039 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
3040 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
3041 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
3042 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
3043 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
3045 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
3046 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
3047 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
3048 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
3049 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
3052 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
3053 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
3054 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
3055 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
3058 **** Clearing face caches.
3060 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
3061 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
3067 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
3068 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
3069 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
3071 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
3072 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
3073 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
3074 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
3075 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
3077 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
3078 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
3079 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
3081 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
3083 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
3084 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
3085 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
3086 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
3087 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
3088 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
3089 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
3091 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
3092 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
3093 doesn't exist. Likewise, `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows to
3094 specify alternative font registry names to try.
3099 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
3100 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
3103 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
3104 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
3105 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
3106 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
3107 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
3110 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
3112 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
3115 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
3117 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
3119 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
3120 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
3121 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
3123 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
3124 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
3125 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
3126 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
3127 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
3128 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
3129 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
3130 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
3131 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
3132 of the face font sort order.
3134 - Function: x-font-family-list
3136 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
3137 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
3138 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
3139 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
3141 - Variable: font-list-limit
3143 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
3144 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
3145 matching font. The default is currently 100.
3148 *** Setting face attributes.
3150 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
3151 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
3152 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
3155 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
3156 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
3158 The following attributes are recognized:
3162 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
3163 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
3164 and `?' are allowed.
3168 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
3169 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
3170 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
3171 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
3175 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
3176 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
3177 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
3178 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
3182 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
3183 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
3184 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
3188 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
3189 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
3192 `:foreground', `:background'
3194 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
3198 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
3199 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
3200 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
3205 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
3206 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
3207 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
3212 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
3213 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
3214 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
3215 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
3219 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
3220 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
3221 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
3222 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
3223 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
3224 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
3225 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
3226 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
3227 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
3228 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
3229 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
3230 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
3231 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
3232 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
3233 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
3234 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
3239 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
3240 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
3244 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
3245 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
3246 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
3247 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
3248 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
3249 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
3251 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
3252 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
3256 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
3257 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
3258 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
3261 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
3262 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
3263 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
3265 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
3270 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
3271 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
3272 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
3274 *** Face attributes and X resources
3276 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
3279 Face attribute X resource class
3280 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
3281 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
3282 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
3283 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
3284 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
3285 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
3286 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
3287 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
3288 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
3289 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
3290 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
3291 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
3292 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
3293 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
3294 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
3295 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
3296 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
3297 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
3298 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
3299 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
3302 *** Text property `face'.
3304 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
3305 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
3306 specification can be
3308 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
3310 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
3311 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
3312 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
3313 for face attribute names.
3315 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
3316 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
3317 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
3320 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
3322 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
3323 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
3324 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
3325 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
3326 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
3327 used to clear the mapping table.
3329 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
3331 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
3332 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
3333 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
3334 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
3335 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
3336 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
3337 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
3338 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
3339 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
3340 modify their color-related behavior.
3342 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
3345 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
3347 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
3348 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
3349 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
3350 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
3351 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
3352 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
3353 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
3354 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
3355 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
3358 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
3360 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
3361 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
3362 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
3363 `Inviolable' option.
3365 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
3366 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
3367 Otherwise, it returns zero.
3369 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
3371 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
3372 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
3373 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
3375 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
3376 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
3377 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
3378 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
3379 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
3380 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
3381 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
3384 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
3385 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
3386 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
3388 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
3390 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
3392 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
3394 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3395 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
3396 constrained position if that is is different.
3398 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
3399 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
3400 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
3401 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
3402 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3403 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
3404 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
3405 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
3406 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
3408 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
3409 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
3410 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
3411 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
3412 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
3414 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
3415 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
3417 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
3419 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
3421 Delete the field surrounding POS.
3422 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3423 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3425 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3427 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
3428 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3429 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3430 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
3431 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
3433 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3435 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
3436 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3437 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3438 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
3439 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
3441 - Function: field-string &optional POS
3443 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
3444 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3445 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3447 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
3449 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
3450 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3451 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3456 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
3457 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
3458 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
3459 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
3461 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
3462 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
3463 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
3464 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
3467 IMAGE is an image specification.
3469 *** Image specifications
3471 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
3472 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
3473 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
3474 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
3475 described below are ignored.
3477 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
3481 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
3482 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
3483 to use for its ascent.
3485 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
3486 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
3488 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
3489 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
3490 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
3491 overlays that apply to the image.
3495 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
3496 margin around the image. Default is 0.
3500 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
3505 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
3507 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
3508 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
3510 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
3511 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
3512 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
3513 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
3514 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
3515 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
3516 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
3517 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
3520 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
3522 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
3524 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
3525 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
3526 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
3527 of the factors' absolute values.
3529 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
3535 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
3541 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
3546 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
3547 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
3548 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
3549 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
3550 image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from the corners is
3551 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
3552 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
3555 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
3556 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
3561 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
3562 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
3563 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
3564 may be present in the image specification.
3568 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
3569 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
3570 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
3571 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
3573 *** Supported image types
3575 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
3577 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
3578 properties supported are
3582 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
3583 is the frame's foreground.
3587 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
3588 the frame's background color.
3590 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
3591 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
3592 instead of a `:file' property.
3596 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
3600 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
3606 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
3607 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
3609 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
3611 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
3614 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
3615 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
3618 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
3620 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
3621 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
3622 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
3623 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
3625 Additional image properties supported are:
3627 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
3629 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
3630 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
3633 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
3634 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
3636 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
3637 to display compressed images.
3639 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
3641 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
3642 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
3647 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
3648 is the frame's foreground.
3652 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
3653 the frame's background color.
3655 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
3657 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3658 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
3661 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
3663 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
3664 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3667 **** GIF, image type `gif'
3669 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
3670 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
3672 Additional image properties supported are:
3676 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
3677 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
3679 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
3680 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
3681 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
3684 (defun show-anim (file max)
3685 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
3686 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
3688 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
3691 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
3694 (goto-char (point-min))
3695 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
3696 (insert-image img "x"))
3697 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
3699 **** PNG, image type `png'
3701 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
3702 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3705 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
3707 Additional image properties supported are:
3711 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
3712 integer. This is a required property.
3716 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
3717 must be a integer. This is an required property.
3721 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
3722 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
3723 files. This is an required property.
3725 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
3730 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
3731 which are supported in the current configuration.
3733 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
3734 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
3735 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
3736 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
3737 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
3739 *** Simplified image API, image.el
3741 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
3742 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
3743 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
3744 define an image based on available image types. The functions
3745 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
3751 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
3754 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
3755 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
3756 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
3757 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
3758 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3759 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3760 of the display margins.
3762 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
3763 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
3764 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
3765 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
3771 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
3772 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
3773 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
3774 that have a `help-echo' property.
3776 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
3777 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
3778 the window in which the help was found.
3780 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
3781 `help-echo' text property was found.
3783 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
3784 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
3786 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
3787 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
3790 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
3791 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
3793 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
3794 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
3795 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
3796 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
3797 used as help string.
3799 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
3800 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
3801 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
3804 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
3806 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
3807 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
3809 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
3810 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
3811 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
3812 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
3815 (global-set-key [A-down]
3818 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3819 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
3820 (global-set-key [A-up]
3823 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3824 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
3827 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
3829 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
3830 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
3831 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
3832 is called with one argument, POS.
3834 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
3835 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
3836 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
3837 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
3838 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
3841 ** Tool bar support.
3843 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
3844 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
3845 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
3846 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
3847 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
3848 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
3850 *** Tool bar item definitions
3852 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3853 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
3854 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
3856 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
3857 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
3858 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
3859 property (see below).
3861 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
3862 binding are currently ignored.
3864 The following properties are recognized:
3868 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
3873 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
3877 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
3878 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
3879 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
3881 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
3883 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
3884 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
3888 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3889 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3890 meaning of each of the four elements:
3892 Index Use when item is
3893 ----------------------------------------
3894 0 enabled and selected
3895 1 enabled and deselected
3896 2 disabled and selected
3897 3 disabled and deselected
3899 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3900 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3902 `:help HELP-STRING'.
3904 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3905 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3907 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
3908 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
3909 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
3912 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
3913 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
3914 buffer-locally to override the global map.
3916 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
3918 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3919 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3920 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3922 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3923 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3925 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3926 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3927 pixels. Default is 1.
3929 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3930 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3932 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3934 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3937 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3938 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3939 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3941 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3943 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3945 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3948 ** Mode line changes.
3951 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3953 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3954 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3955 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3957 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3958 a `local-map' text property.
3960 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3961 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3963 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3964 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3965 `local-map' property.
3967 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3968 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3971 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3972 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3975 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3976 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3979 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3981 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3982 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3983 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3984 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3987 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3990 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3991 position in the header-line.
3994 ** Text property `display'
3996 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
3997 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
3998 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
3999 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
4000 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
4002 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
4004 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
4005 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
4007 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
4008 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
4009 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
4010 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
4011 simpler form STRING as property value.
4013 *** Variable width and height spaces
4015 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
4016 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
4017 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
4018 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
4019 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
4020 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
4021 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
4023 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
4024 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
4025 properties described below.
4027 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
4028 characters having the `display' property.
4032 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
4033 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
4035 - :relative-width FACTOR
4037 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
4038 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
4039 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
4040 width of that character by FACTOR.
4044 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
4045 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
4047 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
4051 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
4054 - :relative-height FACTOR
4056 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
4057 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
4061 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
4062 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
4063 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
4066 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
4070 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
4071 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
4072 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
4073 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
4074 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
4075 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
4076 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
4077 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
4078 as display specification.
4080 *** Other display properties
4082 - (space-width FACTOR)
4084 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
4085 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
4090 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
4092 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
4093 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
4094 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
4095 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
4096 a font is available counts as a step.
4098 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
4099 as tall as the frame's default font.
4101 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
4102 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
4104 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
4105 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
4109 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
4110 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
4111 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
4112 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
4113 `height' subproperty.
4115 *** Conditional display properties
4117 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
4118 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
4119 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
4120 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
4121 the text having the `display' property.
4123 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
4127 ** New menu separator types.
4129 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
4130 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
4131 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
4132 to specify other menu separator types.
4134 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
4136 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
4139 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
4141 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
4143 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
4145 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
4147 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
4149 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
4151 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
4153 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
4155 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
4157 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
4158 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
4160 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
4162 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
4164 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
4166 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
4168 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
4170 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
4172 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
4174 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
4176 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
4178 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
4180 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
4182 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
4184 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
4186 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
4188 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
4189 the corresponding single-line separators.
4192 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
4194 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
4195 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
4196 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
4197 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
4198 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
4199 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
4200 default foreground is black.
4202 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
4203 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
4204 `ScrollBarBackground').
4206 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
4207 settings for scroll bar colors.
4210 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
4211 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
4214 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
4215 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
4216 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
4217 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
4218 the original window start.
4221 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
4222 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
4223 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
4226 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
4228 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
4229 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
4230 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
4231 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
4233 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
4234 fixed-width and fixed-height.
4236 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
4238 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
4239 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
4240 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
4241 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
4242 temporarily to nil, for example
4244 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
4245 (enlarge-window 10))
4247 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
4248 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
4250 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
4251 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
4252 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
4253 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
4254 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
4255 support a vertical-bar cursor).
4259 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
4261 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
4264 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
4266 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
4268 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
4269 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
4270 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
4271 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
4272 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
4274 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
4278 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
4280 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
4283 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
4285 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
4286 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
4288 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
4290 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
4292 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
4293 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
4294 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
4296 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
4297 is the one that is used.
4299 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
4300 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
4301 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
4302 separate from the command's regular output.
4303 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
4304 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
4305 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
4308 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
4309 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
4310 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
4311 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
4313 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
4314 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
4315 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
4316 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
4318 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
4319 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
4320 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
4321 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
4323 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
4324 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
4325 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
4326 they never ignore case.
4328 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
4329 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
4330 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
4331 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
4332 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
4333 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
4334 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
4336 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
4337 the same format that was used in the file before.
4339 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
4340 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
4342 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
4343 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
4344 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
4346 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
4347 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
4348 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
4349 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
4350 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
4351 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
4352 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
4354 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
4355 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
4356 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
4357 format. You can now customize these variables.
4359 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
4360 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
4361 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
4362 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
4364 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
4365 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
4366 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
4368 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
4369 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
4370 doesn't have any effect.
4372 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
4375 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
4376 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
4377 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
4379 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
4380 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
4381 `auto-show-mode' command.
4383 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
4384 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
4385 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
4386 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
4387 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
4389 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
4390 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
4392 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
4393 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
4394 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
4396 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
4397 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
4398 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
4399 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
4401 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
4403 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
4404 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
4405 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
4406 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
4407 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
4409 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
4410 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
4412 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
4413 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
4414 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
4415 `?' on other systems.
4417 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
4418 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
4421 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
4422 current codepage when it starts.
4426 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
4427 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
4428 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
4429 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
4430 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
4431 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
4435 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
4436 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
4438 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
4439 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
4440 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
4441 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
4442 buffer-file-coding-system.
4444 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
4445 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
4448 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
4449 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
4450 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
4451 list of possible coding systems.
4455 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
4456 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
4457 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
4458 docstring for details.
4460 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
4461 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
4462 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
4463 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
4464 lineup functions use this feature currently.
4466 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
4467 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
4469 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
4470 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
4472 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
4473 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
4474 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
4475 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
4478 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
4479 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
4481 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
4482 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
4483 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
4484 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
4486 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
4487 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
4488 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
4489 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
4490 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
4492 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
4494 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
4496 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
4497 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
4499 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
4501 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
4502 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
4503 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
4504 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
4505 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
4509 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
4510 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
4511 Gnus manual for the full story.
4513 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
4514 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
4515 group, which is created automatically.
4517 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
4520 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
4522 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
4523 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
4525 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
4528 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
4530 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
4531 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
4533 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
4535 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
4536 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
4538 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
4539 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
4541 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
4542 control over simplification.
4544 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
4546 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
4549 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
4551 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
4553 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
4554 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
4555 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
4557 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
4558 `a' forces normal posting method.
4560 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
4563 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
4566 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
4567 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
4569 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
4572 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
4574 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
4576 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
4577 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
4579 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
4580 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
4582 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
4584 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
4587 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
4588 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
4590 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
4591 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
4593 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
4595 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
4597 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
4599 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
4601 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
4602 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
4603 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
4605 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
4606 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
4607 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
4608 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
4609 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
4611 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
4612 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
4613 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
4614 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
4616 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
4617 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
4618 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
4621 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4623 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
4624 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
4626 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
4627 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
4628 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
4629 removed from the label.
4631 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
4632 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
4634 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
4635 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
4637 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
4638 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
4641 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
4643 ** New/deleted modes and packages
4645 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
4646 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
4648 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
4649 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
4650 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
4652 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
4653 changes with a special face.
4655 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
4656 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
4657 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
4659 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
4661 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
4662 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
4663 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
4664 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
4665 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
4667 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
4668 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
4669 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
4671 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
4672 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
4673 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
4674 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
4675 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
4676 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
4677 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
4678 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
4679 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
4681 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
4682 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
4683 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
4684 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
4685 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
4688 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
4689 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
4690 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
4691 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
4692 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
4693 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
4695 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
4696 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
4697 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
4698 was not documented clearly before.
4700 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
4701 This includes Tetris and Snake.
4703 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
4705 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
4706 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
4707 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
4708 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
4710 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
4711 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
4712 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
4714 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
4716 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
4717 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
4719 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
4720 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
4723 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
4724 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
4725 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
4726 file names and attributes are returned.
4728 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
4729 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
4730 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
4731 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
4734 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
4735 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
4737 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
4739 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
4740 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
4741 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
4744 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
4745 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
4748 The new function process-running-child-p
4749 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
4750 terminal to its own child process.
4752 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
4753 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
4754 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
4755 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
4757 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
4758 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
4760 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
4761 :included is an alias for :visible.
4763 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
4764 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
4765 to move or copy menu entries.
4767 ** Multibyte editing changes
4769 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
4770 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
4771 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
4772 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
4773 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
4774 (setq char (sref str idx)
4775 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
4776 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
4778 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
4779 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
4780 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
4782 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
4783 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
4784 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
4786 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
4788 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
4789 across the boundary.
4791 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
4792 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
4793 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
4794 contains 8-bit characters.
4795 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
4796 contains invalid characters.
4798 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
4799 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
4800 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
4801 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
4804 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
4805 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
4806 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
4807 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
4809 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
4810 compose Thai characters in a string.
4812 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
4813 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
4814 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
4815 menus should always use the third argument.
4817 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
4818 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
4819 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
4820 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
4822 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
4823 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
4824 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
4825 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
4827 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
4828 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
4829 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
4832 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
4834 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
4835 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
4836 requested feature cannot be loaded.
4838 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
4839 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
4840 means to clear out that attribute.
4842 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
4843 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
4845 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
4846 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
4847 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
4848 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
4850 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
4851 the gap of the current buffer.
4853 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
4854 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
4857 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
4858 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
4859 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
4860 it back in after any modifications have been made.
4862 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
4864 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
4865 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
4866 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
4867 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
4868 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
4870 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
4871 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
4872 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
4873 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
4874 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
4876 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
4877 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
4878 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
4880 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
4881 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
4882 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
4883 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
4884 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
4887 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
4888 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
4889 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
4890 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
4892 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
4894 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
4895 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
4896 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
4897 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
4899 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
4900 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
4901 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
4902 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
4903 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
4904 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
4905 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
4908 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
4911 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
4912 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
4913 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
4914 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
4915 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
4917 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
4918 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
4919 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
4920 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
4922 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
4923 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
4924 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
4925 something that most users not do.
4927 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
4928 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
4929 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
4932 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4935 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4936 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4937 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4938 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4941 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4942 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4943 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4944 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4945 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4948 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4949 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4950 to be confused by TeX commands.
4952 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4953 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4954 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4955 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4957 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4958 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4959 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4960 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4961 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4963 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4964 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4966 ** Changes in input method usage.
4968 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4969 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4972 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4974 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4975 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4977 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4978 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4980 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4982 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4984 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4985 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4987 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4988 given in the following case:
4989 o When you are using a complex input method.
4990 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4992 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4993 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4994 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4995 setting it to t is helpful.
4997 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4999 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
5001 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
5002 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
5003 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
5004 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
5007 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
5008 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
5009 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
5012 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
5014 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
5016 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
5017 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
5019 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
5020 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
5021 its owner and group.
5023 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
5024 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
5026 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
5027 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
5029 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
5030 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
5031 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
5032 by the left edge of the rectangle.
5034 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
5035 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
5036 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
5037 for writing keyboard macros.
5039 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
5040 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
5041 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
5042 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
5043 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
5046 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
5048 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
5049 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
5052 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
5053 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
5054 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
5055 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
5057 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
5058 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
5059 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
5061 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
5062 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
5063 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
5064 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
5066 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
5067 failure if the command produces no output.
5069 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
5070 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
5073 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
5074 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
5075 function and variable names.
5077 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
5078 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
5079 file-coding-system-alist.
5081 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
5082 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
5083 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
5084 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
5085 according to the current fontset.
5087 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
5089 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
5090 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
5091 nonascii-insert-offset.
5093 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
5094 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
5095 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
5096 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
5098 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
5099 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
5101 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
5102 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
5104 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
5105 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
5108 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
5109 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
5111 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
5112 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
5113 all variables that have documentation.
5115 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
5116 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
5117 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
5118 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
5119 it should show; the default is 20.
5121 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
5122 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
5125 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
5126 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
5127 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
5128 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
5129 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
5130 Newly added options are included as well.
5132 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
5133 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
5134 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
5136 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
5139 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
5140 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
5142 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
5143 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
5146 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
5147 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
5150 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
5151 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
5152 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
5153 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
5156 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
5158 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
5159 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
5160 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
5162 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
5163 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
5164 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
5169 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
5170 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
5172 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
5173 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
5175 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
5176 read and post multi-lingual articles.
5178 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
5179 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
5180 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
5181 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
5182 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
5183 made invisible again.
5185 ** Mail reading and sending changes
5187 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
5188 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
5189 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
5192 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
5193 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
5194 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
5195 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
5196 rmail-default-body-file.
5198 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
5199 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
5200 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
5202 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
5203 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
5204 is evaluated to insert the signature.
5206 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
5207 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
5208 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
5209 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
5210 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
5211 especially interested in trying feedmail.
5213 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
5214 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
5215 provided by feedmail are:
5217 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
5218 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
5219 there is also a queue for draft messages
5221 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
5222 be prompted for confirmation
5224 **** does smart filling of address headers
5226 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
5227 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
5228 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
5230 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
5231 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
5232 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
5233 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
5237 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
5238 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
5240 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
5241 run Dired on the directory name at point.
5243 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
5244 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
5245 for a specified regexp.
5249 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
5252 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
5253 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
5256 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
5257 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
5258 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
5259 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
5261 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
5262 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
5263 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
5264 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
5265 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
5267 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
5268 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
5269 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
5270 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
5271 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
5273 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
5274 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
5275 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
5276 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
5278 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
5279 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
5280 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
5282 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
5283 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
5284 session to resolve them.
5286 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
5287 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
5288 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
5291 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
5292 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
5293 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
5294 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
5295 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
5296 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
5299 ** Changes in Font Lock
5301 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
5302 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
5303 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
5304 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
5305 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
5307 ** Frame name display changes
5309 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
5310 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
5311 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
5312 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
5314 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
5315 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
5318 ** Comint (subshell) changes
5320 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
5321 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
5322 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
5324 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
5326 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
5327 that is, the line after the last line you got.
5328 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
5330 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
5331 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
5334 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
5335 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
5336 previously sent input.
5338 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
5339 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
5340 as the search string.
5342 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
5343 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
5347 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
5348 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
5349 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
5352 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
5353 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
5354 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
5355 style is still the default however.
5357 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
5359 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
5360 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
5361 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
5363 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
5364 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
5366 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
5367 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
5369 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
5370 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
5372 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
5373 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
5375 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
5376 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
5377 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
5378 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
5380 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
5382 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
5383 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
5384 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
5386 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
5387 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
5388 expanding dynamically.
5390 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
5391 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
5393 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
5394 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
5395 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
5396 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
5398 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
5400 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
5402 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
5403 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
5404 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
5405 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
5406 against the first word in the title.
5408 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
5409 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
5410 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
5411 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
5412 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
5413 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
5415 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
5416 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
5417 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
5418 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
5420 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
5422 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
5423 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
5424 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
5425 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
5426 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
5427 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
5429 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
5430 Editing group once the package is loaded.
5432 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
5433 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
5434 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
5436 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
5437 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
5441 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
5442 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
5443 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
5445 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
5446 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
5447 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
5448 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
5451 o URLs are automatically skipped
5452 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
5454 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
5456 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5458 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
5459 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
5460 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
5461 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
5463 *** New recursive parser.
5465 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
5466 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
5467 recursive parser scans the individual files.
5469 *** Parsing only part of a document.
5471 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
5472 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
5473 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
5475 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
5477 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
5479 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
5481 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
5483 *** Using multiple selection buffers
5485 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
5486 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
5488 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
5490 *** References to external documents.
5492 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
5493 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
5494 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
5495 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
5496 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
5497 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
5498 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
5500 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
5502 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
5503 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
5505 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
5506 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
5508 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
5510 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
5511 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
5513 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
5515 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
5516 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
5517 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
5518 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
5519 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
5520 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
5523 *** Support for the varioref package
5525 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
5529 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
5530 and citations are created. These hooks are
5531 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
5532 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
5534 *** Citations outside LaTeX
5536 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
5537 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
5539 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
5541 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
5542 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
5545 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
5547 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
5548 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
5549 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
5550 directories that contain the same file name.
5552 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
5553 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
5554 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
5555 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
5556 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
5557 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
5558 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
5561 ** New modes and packages
5563 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
5564 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
5565 it, but some do not.
5567 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
5570 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
5571 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
5574 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
5576 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
5577 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
5578 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
5579 established system of notation similar to Chess.
5581 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
5582 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
5583 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
5585 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
5586 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
5587 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
5588 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
5589 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
5592 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
5593 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
5595 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
5596 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
5597 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
5598 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
5600 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
5602 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
5603 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
5604 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
5605 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
5606 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
5607 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
5608 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
5609 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
5610 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
5611 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
5612 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
5614 Platform-specific modes:
5616 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
5617 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
5618 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
5619 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
5620 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
5621 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
5622 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
5623 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
5624 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
5626 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5628 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
5629 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
5630 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
5631 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
5633 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
5634 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
5635 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
5637 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
5638 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
5639 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
5640 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
5642 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
5643 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
5644 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
5647 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
5648 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
5649 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
5650 current input method for reading this one event.
5652 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
5653 now control whether to output certain characters as
5654 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
5655 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
5656 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
5657 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
5659 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5661 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
5662 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
5664 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
5665 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
5666 always increases point by 1.
5668 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
5669 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
5671 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
5673 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
5674 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
5675 default value changed. For example,
5677 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
5682 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
5685 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
5686 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
5687 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
5688 `:version' in the top level group.
5690 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
5692 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
5693 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
5695 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
5696 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
5697 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
5700 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
5701 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
5704 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
5705 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
5706 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
5708 ** Frame-local variables.
5710 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
5711 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
5712 local bindings for that variable.
5714 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
5715 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
5716 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
5719 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
5720 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
5721 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
5722 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
5724 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
5725 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
5726 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
5727 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
5729 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
5730 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
5731 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
5732 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
5733 See the documentation in sregex.el.
5735 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
5736 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
5737 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
5738 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
5740 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
5741 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
5743 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
5744 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
5745 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
5747 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
5748 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
5749 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
5750 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
5752 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
5753 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
5756 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
5757 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
5758 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
5759 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
5760 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
5762 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
5763 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
5764 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
5765 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
5767 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
5768 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
5769 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
5770 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
5771 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
5773 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
5774 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
5775 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
5776 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
5778 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
5779 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
5780 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
5782 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
5783 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
5784 was directed to display this buffer.
5786 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
5787 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
5788 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
5789 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
5790 set-window-configuration.
5792 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
5793 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
5794 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
5795 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
5797 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
5798 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
5799 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
5801 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
5802 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
5803 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
5805 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
5806 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
5808 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
5809 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
5811 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
5812 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
5813 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
5815 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
5816 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
5817 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
5818 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
5822 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
5823 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
5826 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
5827 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
5828 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
5829 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
5830 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
5832 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
5834 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
5835 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
5836 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
5837 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
5840 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
5841 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
5842 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
5843 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
5844 The supported properties include
5846 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5848 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5849 item should appear in the menu.
5851 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
5852 which will be REAL-BINDING.
5853 It should return a binding to use instead.
5855 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
5856 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
5857 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
5858 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
5859 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
5862 This means that the command normally has no
5863 keyboard equivalent.
5864 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
5865 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
5866 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
5867 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
5868 value says whether this button is currently selected.
5870 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
5871 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
5873 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
5877 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
5878 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
5879 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
5880 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
5882 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
5884 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5885 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
5886 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
5887 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
5888 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
5889 forward, away from the user.
5891 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5893 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
5894 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
5895 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
5896 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
5897 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
5899 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
5901 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5902 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
5903 that were dragged and dropped.
5905 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5907 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
5909 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
5910 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
5911 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
5913 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
5914 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
5915 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
5917 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
5918 in Emacs 19 and before.
5920 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
5921 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
5923 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
5924 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
5925 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
5926 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
5928 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
5929 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
5930 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
5931 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
5932 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
5934 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5935 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5936 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5937 consistent with the new representation.
5939 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5940 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5941 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5942 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5944 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5945 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5946 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5948 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5949 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5950 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5952 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5953 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5954 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5956 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5957 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5959 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5960 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5962 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5963 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5964 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5965 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5967 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5968 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5970 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5971 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5972 buffer or string being searched.
5974 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5975 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5976 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5977 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5978 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5979 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5980 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5982 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5984 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5985 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5986 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5987 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5988 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5989 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5990 define-coding-system-alias.
5992 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5993 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5994 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5995 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5996 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5997 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5998 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
6001 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
6002 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
6003 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
6004 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
6006 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
6007 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
6008 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
6009 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
6011 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
6012 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
6013 This function requires a user interaction.
6015 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
6016 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
6017 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
6018 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
6019 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
6020 select-safe-coding-system.
6022 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
6023 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
6024 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
6027 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
6028 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
6029 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
6031 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
6032 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
6033 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
6034 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
6036 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
6037 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
6038 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
6041 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
6042 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
6044 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
6045 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
6046 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
6047 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
6048 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
6049 range of characters.
6051 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
6052 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
6054 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
6055 in the current buffer at position POS.
6057 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
6058 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
6059 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
6060 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
6061 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
6062 binding input-method-function to nil.
6064 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
6065 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
6066 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
6067 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
6068 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
6070 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
6071 subsequent events of a key sequence.
6073 *** You can customize any language environment by using
6074 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
6076 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
6077 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
6078 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
6079 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
6080 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
6082 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
6084 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
6085 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
6086 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
6089 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
6090 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
6092 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
6093 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
6094 in your .emacs file.)
6096 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
6097 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
6099 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
6100 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
6102 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
6103 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
6106 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
6107 delete the character before point, as usual.
6109 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
6110 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
6111 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
6113 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
6114 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
6115 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
6116 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
6117 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
6120 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
6121 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
6122 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
6123 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
6124 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
6126 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
6127 and is an alias for it.
6129 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
6130 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
6132 ** Scrolling changes
6134 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
6135 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
6137 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
6138 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
6141 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
6142 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
6143 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
6144 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
6146 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
6147 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
6148 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
6149 recenters the window.
6151 ** International character set support (MULE)
6153 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
6154 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
6155 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
6156 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
6157 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
6158 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
6160 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
6161 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
6162 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
6163 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
6164 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
6166 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
6167 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
6168 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
6169 language, to make it possible to type them.
6171 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
6172 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
6174 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
6175 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
6177 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
6179 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
6181 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
6182 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
6183 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
6184 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
6185 characters for their work until they want to change.
6189 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
6190 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
6191 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
6192 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
6193 support several input methods.
6195 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
6196 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
6199 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
6200 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
6201 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
6202 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
6203 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
6206 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
6207 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
6208 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
6209 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
6210 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
6212 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
6213 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
6214 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
6215 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
6217 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
6218 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
6219 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
6220 the first guess is wrong.
6222 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
6223 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
6225 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
6226 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
6227 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
6228 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
6230 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
6231 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
6232 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
6233 translate automatically to and from either one.
6235 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
6237 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
6238 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
6239 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
6242 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
6243 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
6244 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
6245 multibyte characters in that buffer.
6247 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
6248 character conversion as well.
6250 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
6252 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
6253 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
6254 requires using many fonts.
6256 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
6257 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
6259 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
6260 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
6261 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
6262 you would use a font.
6264 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
6265 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
6266 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
6268 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
6269 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
6270 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
6271 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
6272 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
6274 *** Defining fontsets.
6276 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
6277 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
6278 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
6280 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
6281 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
6282 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
6283 standard fontset are created automatically.
6285 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
6286 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
6287 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
6288 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
6289 name is `fontset-startup'.
6291 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
6292 The resource value should have this form:
6293 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
6294 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
6295 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
6296 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
6297 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
6298 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
6299 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
6300 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
6301 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
6303 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
6304 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
6305 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
6307 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
6308 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
6310 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
6311 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
6312 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
6313 Here is the substitution rule:
6314 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
6315 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
6316 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
6317 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
6318 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
6320 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
6321 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
6322 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
6324 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
6325 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
6326 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
6327 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
6330 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
6331 defaults for a particular choice of language.
6333 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
6334 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
6335 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
6336 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
6337 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
6338 system for new files that you create.
6340 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
6341 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
6342 whole Emacs session.
6344 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
6345 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
6346 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
6348 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
6349 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
6350 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
6351 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
6352 coding systems that Emacs supports.
6354 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
6355 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
6356 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
6357 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
6358 is used for *the immediately following command*.
6360 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
6361 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
6363 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
6364 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
6366 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
6367 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
6369 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
6370 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
6371 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
6372 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
6375 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
6376 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
6377 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
6378 translated into that character code.
6380 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
6381 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
6383 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
6385 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
6386 the coding system for keyboard input.
6388 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
6389 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
6390 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
6392 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
6394 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
6395 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
6396 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
6397 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
6398 designed to work with terminals.
6400 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
6401 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
6402 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
6403 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
6404 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
6405 in the corresponding buffer.
6407 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
6409 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
6410 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
6411 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
6413 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
6414 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
6415 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
6418 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
6419 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
6421 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
6422 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
6423 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
6424 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
6426 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
6427 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
6428 related information.
6430 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
6431 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
6434 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
6435 information about the support for a particular language.
6436 You specify the language as an argument.
6438 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
6439 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
6442 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
6443 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
6444 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
6445 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
6447 A alternativnyj (Russian)
6449 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
6450 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
6451 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
6452 E euc-japan (Japanese)
6453 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
6454 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
6455 K euc-korea (Korean)
6458 S shift_jis (Japanese)
6461 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
6462 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
6463 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
6467 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
6468 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
6469 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
6470 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
6472 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
6473 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
6475 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
6476 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
6477 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
6478 Rmail files themselves.
6480 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
6481 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
6483 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
6486 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
6487 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
6488 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
6489 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
6490 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
6492 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
6493 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
6494 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
6497 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
6498 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
6499 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
6500 without any conversion.
6502 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
6503 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
6504 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
6505 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
6507 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
6508 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
6510 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
6511 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
6513 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
6514 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
6516 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
6517 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
6518 in the buffer before point.
6520 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
6521 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
6524 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
6525 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
6527 ** File locking works with NFS now.
6529 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
6530 in the same directory as FILENAME.
6532 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
6533 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
6534 can become a bottleneck.
6536 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
6537 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
6538 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
6539 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
6540 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
6541 so useful that the change is worth while.
6543 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
6544 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
6545 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
6546 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
6548 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
6549 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
6552 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
6553 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
6554 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
6556 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
6557 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
6558 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
6560 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
6561 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
6562 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
6564 ** Changes in View mode.
6566 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
6567 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
6569 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
6570 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
6572 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
6575 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
6576 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
6578 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
6579 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
6580 not just the selected window.
6582 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
6583 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
6584 turns View mode on or off.
6586 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
6587 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
6588 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
6590 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
6591 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
6593 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
6594 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
6595 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
6596 which version to compare with.
6598 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
6599 blocks if a match is inside the block.
6601 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
6602 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
6603 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
6604 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
6606 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
6607 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
6608 blocks, all of them or none.
6610 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
6611 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
6614 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
6615 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
6616 However, the mode will not be changed if
6617 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
6618 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
6619 not suitable for ordinary files, or
6620 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
6622 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
6624 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
6625 these commands do not change the major mode.
6627 ** M-x occur changes.
6629 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
6630 it performs a case-sensitive search.
6632 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
6633 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
6634 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
6636 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
6637 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
6638 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
6639 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
6640 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
6642 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
6643 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
6644 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
6645 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
6647 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6648 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
6649 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
6651 ** Outline mode changes.
6653 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
6655 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
6657 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
6658 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
6659 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
6662 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
6663 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
6666 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
6667 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
6669 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
6671 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6672 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
6673 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
6674 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
6676 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
6677 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
6678 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
6680 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
6681 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
6684 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
6685 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
6686 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
6687 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
6689 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
6690 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
6691 can be. The default value is 30.
6693 ** Changes in Mail mode.
6695 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
6696 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
6697 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
6698 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
6699 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
6702 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
6703 compose-mail-other-frame.
6705 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
6706 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
6707 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
6708 buffer that shows the original message.
6710 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
6711 with separator lines around the contents.
6713 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
6714 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
6715 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
6716 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
6718 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
6720 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
6721 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
6722 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
6723 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
6725 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
6726 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
6729 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
6730 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
6733 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
6734 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
6735 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
6736 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
6738 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
6739 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
6740 be taken to be magic.
6742 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
6743 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
6744 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
6746 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
6747 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
6749 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
6750 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
6752 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
6754 new key dired.el binding old key
6755 ------- ---------------- -------
6756 * c dired-change-marks c
6758 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
6759 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
6760 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
6762 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
6763 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
6764 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
6765 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
6766 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
6767 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
6771 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
6772 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
6773 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
6774 each time you run it.
6776 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
6777 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
6779 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
6780 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
6781 means to move in the opposite direction.
6783 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
6784 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
6786 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
6787 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
6788 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
6789 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
6794 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
6796 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
6799 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
6800 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
6802 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
6805 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
6807 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
6809 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
6811 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
6812 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
6813 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
6815 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
6817 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
6819 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
6820 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
6822 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
6823 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
6824 used to pick articles.
6826 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
6827 another have been added.
6829 `M-x gnus-change-server'
6831 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
6832 generating lines in buffers.
6834 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
6837 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
6839 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
6841 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
6843 *** Scores can be decayed.
6845 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
6847 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
6848 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
6850 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
6853 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
6855 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
6856 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
6858 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
6860 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
6861 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
6863 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
6864 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
6866 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
6869 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
6870 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
6872 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
6874 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
6876 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
6878 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
6880 Use the `Y c' command.
6882 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
6884 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
6886 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
6888 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
6889 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
6891 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
6893 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
6895 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
6896 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
6898 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
6900 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
6901 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
6902 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
6903 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
6906 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
6907 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
6908 particular news group. This can be done by:
6910 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
6912 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
6913 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
6914 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
6915 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
6916 for reading and posting).
6918 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
6919 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
6920 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
6921 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
6924 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
6925 default. Here are some of these default settings:
6927 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
6928 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
6929 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
6930 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
6931 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
6933 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
6934 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6938 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6939 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6940 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6941 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6942 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6945 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6946 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6947 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6948 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6949 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6950 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6952 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6953 of the current buffer.
6955 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6956 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6957 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6959 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6960 style that the Python developers like.
6962 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6963 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6964 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6968 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6969 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6970 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6972 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6973 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6976 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6977 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6979 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6980 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6981 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6982 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6984 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6985 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6987 ** Calendar changes.
6989 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6990 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6991 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6995 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6997 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6999 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
7000 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
7001 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
7002 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
7003 It defaults to `letter'.
7004 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
7006 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
7007 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
7008 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
7010 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
7011 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
7014 *** Horizontal layout
7016 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
7017 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
7018 All are measured in points.
7022 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
7023 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
7024 All are measured in points.
7028 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
7029 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
7030 margin above the text.
7032 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
7033 framing box is printed around the header.
7035 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
7036 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
7038 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
7039 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
7040 `ps-header-font-size'.
7044 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
7045 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
7046 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
7047 elements to this alist.
7049 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
7050 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
7052 ** hideshow changes.
7054 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
7057 *** Support for java-mode added.
7059 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
7060 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
7062 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
7063 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
7064 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
7066 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
7067 robust and a lot faster.
7069 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
7071 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
7072 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
7073 documentation for more details.
7075 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
7077 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
7078 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
7079 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
7080 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
7081 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
7083 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
7084 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
7085 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
7086 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
7092 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
7093 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
7094 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
7095 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
7096 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
7097 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
7099 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
7101 *** Maximum decoration
7103 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
7104 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
7105 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
7106 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
7107 to get the old behavior.
7111 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
7113 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
7114 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
7116 *** Configurable support
7118 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
7119 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
7120 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
7121 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
7122 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
7123 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
7124 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
7126 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
7127 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
7128 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
7130 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
7132 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
7133 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
7136 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
7138 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
7144 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
7145 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
7146 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
7147 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
7149 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
7151 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
7152 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
7153 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
7155 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
7157 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
7158 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
7159 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
7160 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
7161 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
7162 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
7163 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
7165 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
7166 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
7167 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
7168 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
7169 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
7170 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
7172 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
7174 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
7175 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
7176 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
7177 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
7179 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
7182 ** Ada mode changes.
7184 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
7185 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
7186 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
7187 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
7190 *** There are two new commands:
7191 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
7192 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
7194 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
7195 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
7196 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
7198 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
7199 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
7200 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
7202 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
7203 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
7204 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
7205 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
7207 ** Scheme mode changes.
7209 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
7210 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
7211 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
7212 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
7215 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
7216 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
7217 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
7218 variables as buffer-local variables.
7220 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
7223 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
7225 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
7226 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
7227 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
7228 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
7230 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
7231 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
7234 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
7235 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
7236 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
7237 option takes precedence.
7239 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
7240 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
7241 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
7243 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
7244 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
7247 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
7248 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
7250 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
7251 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
7254 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
7255 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
7256 these register values no longer become completely useless.
7257 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
7258 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
7259 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
7261 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
7262 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
7263 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
7264 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
7266 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
7267 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
7268 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
7269 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
7270 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
7272 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
7273 since it applies only to the current frame.
7275 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
7276 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
7277 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
7279 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
7280 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
7281 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
7282 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
7283 instead of just the file you are editing.
7287 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
7288 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
7289 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
7290 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
7291 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
7294 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
7295 knows which kind of label is needed.
7297 C-c ) reftex-reference
7298 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
7299 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
7301 C-c [ reftex-citation
7302 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
7303 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
7305 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
7306 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
7309 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
7310 can quickly jump to every section.
7312 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
7313 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
7314 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
7315 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
7316 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
7318 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7320 *** Info documentation is now available.
7322 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
7323 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
7325 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
7326 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
7328 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
7329 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
7331 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
7332 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
7333 appropriate functions.
7335 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
7336 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
7338 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
7341 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
7342 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
7344 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
7347 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
7348 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
7349 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
7351 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
7352 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
7353 prefixed with `ALT'.
7355 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
7356 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
7357 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
7360 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
7361 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
7362 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
7364 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
7365 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
7367 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
7368 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
7369 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
7371 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
7373 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
7375 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
7378 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
7379 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
7382 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
7385 *** Added support for imenu.
7387 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
7388 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
7389 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
7390 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
7392 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
7393 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
7395 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
7397 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
7399 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
7400 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
7401 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
7404 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
7405 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
7407 ** browse-url changes
7409 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
7410 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
7411 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
7412 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
7413 customization variables.
7415 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
7417 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
7418 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
7419 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
7423 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
7424 pops up the Info file for this command.
7426 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
7427 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
7428 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
7431 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
7432 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
7433 files in the same directory.
7435 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
7436 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
7437 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
7441 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
7442 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
7444 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
7445 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
7446 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
7447 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
7448 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
7449 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
7450 color when Viper is in insert state.
7451 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
7452 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
7453 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
7457 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
7458 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
7459 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
7460 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
7461 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
7463 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
7465 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
7466 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
7468 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
7469 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
7470 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
7472 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
7473 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
7474 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
7475 methods and protocols.
7477 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
7478 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
7479 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
7482 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
7483 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
7484 at least M times and as many as N times.
7486 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
7487 in files has changed slightly.
7489 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
7490 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
7491 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
7492 with old time-stamp-format values.
7494 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
7495 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
7496 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
7499 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
7500 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
7501 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
7502 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
7503 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
7504 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
7506 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
7507 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
7508 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
7510 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
7511 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
7512 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
7513 recommended now will continue to work then.
7515 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
7518 ** There are some additional major modes:
7520 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
7521 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
7522 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
7524 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
7525 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
7528 ** New Lisp packages include:
7530 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
7532 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
7533 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
7535 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
7537 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
7540 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
7541 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
7544 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
7545 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
7546 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
7547 strings or comments.
7549 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
7550 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
7551 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
7552 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
7555 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
7556 can visit them by short forms of their names.
7558 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
7559 Emacs Lisp function at point.
7561 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
7563 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
7564 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
7566 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
7568 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
7570 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
7572 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
7573 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
7575 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
7576 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
7577 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
7578 original place after inserting the copy.
7580 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
7583 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
7584 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
7585 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
7587 Enable mouse-drag with:
7588 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
7590 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
7592 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
7593 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
7595 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
7596 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
7600 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
7601 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
7602 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
7603 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
7604 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
7605 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
7606 instance) and vice versa.
7608 To use this package load it using
7609 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
7610 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
7611 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
7612 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
7613 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
7614 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
7616 *** Interface to ph.
7618 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
7620 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
7621 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
7624 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
7626 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
7627 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
7628 while the real cursor does not move.
7630 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
7631 for visiting your favorite web sites.
7633 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
7634 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
7638 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
7639 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
7640 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
7641 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
7643 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
7645 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
7647 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
7649 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
7650 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
7651 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
7652 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
7653 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
7655 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
7656 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
7657 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
7658 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
7659 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
7660 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
7662 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
7664 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
7665 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
7666 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
7667 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
7669 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
7670 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
7672 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
7673 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
7676 ** Basic Lisp changes
7678 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
7679 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
7681 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
7682 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
7685 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
7687 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
7689 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
7690 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
7692 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
7693 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
7696 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
7698 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
7700 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
7702 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
7703 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
7704 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
7707 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
7708 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
7709 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
7711 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
7712 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
7713 adding one of these suffixes.
7715 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
7716 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
7717 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
7719 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
7720 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
7722 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
7724 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
7725 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
7727 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
7728 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
7730 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
7732 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
7733 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
7735 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
7736 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
7737 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
7738 works using `save-current-buffer'.
7740 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
7741 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
7744 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
7745 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
7746 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
7749 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
7750 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
7753 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
7755 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
7756 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
7757 Then it returns that string.
7759 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
7761 (with-output-to-string
7762 (princ "The buffer is ")
7763 (princ (buffer-name)))
7765 returns "The buffer is foo".
7767 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
7770 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
7771 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
7772 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
7774 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
7775 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
7777 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
7778 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
7779 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
7780 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
7781 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
7782 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
7784 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
7785 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
7786 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
7789 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
7790 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
7791 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
7792 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
7793 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
7795 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
7796 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
7797 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
7798 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
7800 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
7801 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
7803 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
7805 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
7806 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
7807 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
7808 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
7811 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
7812 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
7815 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
7817 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
7818 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
7819 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
7820 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
7821 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
7823 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
7825 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
7826 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
7827 more than the number of characters.
7829 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
7830 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
7831 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
7832 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
7833 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
7834 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
7836 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
7837 and returns a string containing those characters.
7839 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
7840 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
7841 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
7842 character, sref signals an error.
7844 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
7845 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
7846 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7848 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
7849 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
7850 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7852 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
7853 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
7854 to a vector of the characters in it.
7856 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
7857 of a string. You call it as follows:
7859 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
7861 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
7862 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
7863 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
7864 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
7865 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
7867 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
7868 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7870 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
7871 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7873 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
7874 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
7875 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
7876 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
7878 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
7880 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
7882 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
7883 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
7884 are not included in the resulting value.
7886 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
7887 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
7888 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
7889 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
7891 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
7892 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
7893 character extends across that column), then the padding character
7894 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
7895 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
7896 column START-COLUMN.
7898 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
7899 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
7900 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
7901 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
7902 changed text, before the change.
7904 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
7905 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
7906 one character set for each script, not for each language.
7908 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
7910 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
7912 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
7913 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
7915 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
7916 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
7917 which identify the character within that character set.
7919 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
7920 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
7921 opposite of split-char.
7923 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
7924 of all the characters between BEG and END.
7926 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
7927 of all the characters in a string.
7929 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
7930 and specifying coding systems.
7932 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
7933 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
7934 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7935 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7936 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7937 as what to do about code conversion.)
7939 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7940 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7942 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7943 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7944 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7946 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7947 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7948 to match against a file name.
7950 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7951 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7952 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7953 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7954 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7955 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7957 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7958 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7960 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7961 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7963 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7964 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7965 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7968 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7969 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7970 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7971 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7972 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7973 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7975 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7976 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7978 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7979 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7980 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7981 start the subprocess.
7983 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7984 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7985 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7986 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7987 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7989 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7990 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7993 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7994 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7995 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7996 connection permanently or until overridden.
7998 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7999 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
8000 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
8001 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
8002 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
8003 system for one operation at a time.
8005 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
8006 files, subprocesses or network connections.
8008 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
8009 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
8010 The value is a cons cell,
8011 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
8012 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
8013 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
8014 input to the subprocess.
8016 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
8017 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
8019 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
8020 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
8021 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
8023 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
8024 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
8025 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
8026 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
8029 Thus, instead of writing
8031 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
8032 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
8034 you would now write this:
8036 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
8037 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
8041 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
8042 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
8043 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
8044 for a description of them.
8046 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
8047 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
8049 (defgroup ispell nil
8050 "Spell checking using Ispell."
8053 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
8054 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
8055 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
8056 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
8057 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
8059 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
8060 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
8061 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
8062 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
8063 first-level subgroups.
8065 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
8067 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
8068 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
8072 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
8073 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
8074 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
8075 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
8076 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
8077 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
8079 ** Text property changes
8081 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
8084 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
8085 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
8086 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
8087 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
8088 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
8090 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
8091 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
8092 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
8093 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
8095 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
8096 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
8097 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
8099 ** Changes in invisibility features
8101 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
8102 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
8103 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
8104 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
8105 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
8106 make the overlay visible.
8108 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
8109 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
8110 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
8111 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
8112 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
8113 t when it should hide it.
8115 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
8117 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
8118 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
8119 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
8120 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
8121 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
8122 Here is an example of how to do this:
8124 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
8125 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
8126 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
8127 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
8130 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
8133 ;; When done with the overlays:
8134 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
8136 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
8138 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
8140 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
8141 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
8142 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
8143 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
8145 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
8146 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
8147 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
8149 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
8150 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
8152 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
8153 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
8155 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
8156 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
8157 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
8159 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
8160 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
8161 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
8162 determine the syntax type of the character.
8164 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
8165 of the current buffer.
8167 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
8168 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
8169 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
8171 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
8172 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
8173 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
8174 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
8175 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
8177 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
8180 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
8181 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
8182 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
8184 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
8185 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
8186 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
8187 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
8188 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
8190 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
8191 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
8192 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
8194 ** Changes in face features
8196 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
8197 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
8199 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
8200 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
8202 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
8203 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
8205 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
8206 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
8208 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
8209 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
8210 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
8211 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
8214 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
8215 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
8217 ** Changes in file-handling functions
8219 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
8220 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
8221 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
8222 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
8224 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
8227 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
8228 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
8230 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
8231 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
8233 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
8234 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
8236 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
8237 character code conversion as well as other things.
8239 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
8240 (formerly it did not).
8242 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
8243 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
8245 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
8246 instead of constant strings.
8248 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
8249 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
8250 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
8252 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
8253 in the same way as before.
8255 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
8256 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
8257 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
8259 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
8260 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
8261 else, and returns nil.
8263 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
8264 directory cannot be listed.
8266 ** Changes in minibuffer input
8268 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
8269 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
8270 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
8271 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
8274 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
8275 It is available through the history command M-n.
8277 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
8278 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
8279 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
8280 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
8281 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
8283 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
8284 argument in this way.
8286 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
8287 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
8288 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
8290 ** Echo area features
8292 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
8293 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
8294 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
8295 after the echo area is cleared.
8297 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
8298 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
8300 ** Keyboard input features
8302 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
8303 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
8305 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
8306 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
8309 ** Frame-related changes
8311 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
8312 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
8313 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
8315 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
8316 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
8317 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
8319 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
8320 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
8321 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
8322 in the selected frame.
8324 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
8325 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
8326 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
8328 ** X Windows features
8330 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
8331 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
8332 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
8334 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
8335 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
8337 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
8338 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
8339 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
8341 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
8342 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
8344 ** Subprocess features
8346 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
8347 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
8350 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
8351 and returns the output from the command as a string.
8353 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
8354 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
8356 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
8357 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
8359 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
8360 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
8361 goes after the other menu items.
8363 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
8364 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
8365 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
8368 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
8369 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
8371 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
8372 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
8375 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
8376 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
8377 but its hook is still run.
8379 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
8380 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
8382 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
8383 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
8384 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
8386 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
8387 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
8388 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
8391 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
8392 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
8394 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
8395 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
8396 functions like display-time.
8398 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
8399 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
8401 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
8402 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
8403 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
8405 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
8406 if there is an error in compilation.
8408 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
8409 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
8410 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
8411 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
8413 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
8414 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
8415 the *scratch* buffer.
8417 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
8418 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
8419 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
8420 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
8422 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
8423 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
8424 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
8426 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
8427 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
8428 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
8429 and compose-mail-other-frame.
8431 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
8432 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
8433 full name of the specified user will be returned.
8435 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
8436 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
8437 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
8438 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
8439 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
8442 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
8443 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
8444 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
8445 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
8447 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
8448 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
8449 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
8450 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
8452 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
8454 ** imenu.el changes.
8456 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
8457 item from menu created by imenu.
8459 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
8460 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
8461 select one of those items.
8463 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
8465 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
8467 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
8468 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
8470 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
8471 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
8472 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
8474 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
8476 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
8477 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
8479 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
8480 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
8481 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
8482 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
8483 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
8486 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
8487 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
8489 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
8490 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
8491 as in previous Emacs versions.
8493 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
8494 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
8495 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
8498 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
8499 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
8500 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
8501 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
8504 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
8505 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
8506 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
8507 line and then executing the macro.
8509 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
8511 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
8512 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
8513 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
8518 *** Font Lock support modes
8520 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
8521 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
8522 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
8523 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
8524 Font Lock mode is enabled.
8526 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
8528 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
8534 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
8535 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
8536 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
8537 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
8538 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
8539 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
8540 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
8542 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
8544 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
8546 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
8548 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8550 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
8553 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
8558 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
8559 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
8560 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
8561 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
8563 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
8564 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
8566 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
8567 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
8570 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
8571 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
8573 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
8575 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
8577 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
8579 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
8582 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
8584 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
8586 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
8588 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
8590 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
8593 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
8595 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
8597 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
8599 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
8601 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
8603 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
8605 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
8607 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
8610 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
8612 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
8615 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
8617 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
8618 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
8620 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
8622 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
8624 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
8626 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
8628 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
8631 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
8633 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
8634 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
8636 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
8637 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
8638 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
8640 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
8641 articles with the `*' command.
8643 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
8645 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
8647 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
8649 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
8651 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
8652 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
8654 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
8657 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
8659 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
8661 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
8663 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
8665 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
8667 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
8669 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
8671 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
8673 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
8675 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
8676 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
8678 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
8681 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
8683 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
8684 buffer to allow easier treatment.
8686 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
8688 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
8690 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
8692 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
8695 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
8697 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
8699 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
8700 cited text to hide is now customizable.
8702 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
8704 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
8706 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
8708 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
8710 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
8712 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
8715 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
8717 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
8718 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
8719 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
8722 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
8725 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
8728 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
8729 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
8732 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
8733 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
8734 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
8735 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
8736 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
8739 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
8741 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
8743 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
8744 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
8745 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
8746 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
8747 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
8749 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
8750 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
8751 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
8753 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
8755 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
8756 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
8757 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
8758 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
8759 chapter of the manual for details.
8761 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
8762 customization variables take effect.
8764 ** Marking with the mouse.
8766 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
8767 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
8768 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
8770 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
8772 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
8774 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
8775 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
8777 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
8778 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
8779 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
8780 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
8781 applications, these problems are significant.
8783 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
8784 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
8785 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
8786 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
8787 other DOS application as a subprocess.
8789 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
8790 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
8792 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
8793 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
8794 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
8795 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
8796 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
8797 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
8799 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
8801 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
8802 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
8803 minibuffer contains.
8805 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
8807 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
8808 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
8809 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
8810 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
8812 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
8813 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
8814 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
8815 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
8817 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
8818 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
8820 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
8821 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
8822 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
8824 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
8825 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
8826 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
8827 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
8829 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
8831 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
8832 to replace the characters it "deletes".
8834 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
8836 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
8837 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
8838 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
8839 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
8840 immediately after the selected one.
8842 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
8843 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
8845 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
8847 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
8848 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
8849 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
8850 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
8853 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
8854 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
8857 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
8858 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
8859 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
8860 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
8861 now that the bug is fixed.
8863 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
8865 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
8866 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
8867 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
8868 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
8870 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
8871 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
8872 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
8873 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
8875 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
8876 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
8877 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
8879 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
8880 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
8881 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
8882 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
8885 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
8886 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
8888 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
8889 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
8890 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
8891 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
8893 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
8894 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
8895 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
8896 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
8897 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
8898 `mail-directory-stream'.)
8900 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
8901 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
8902 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
8903 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
8905 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
8906 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
8907 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
8909 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
8910 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
8911 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
8912 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
8913 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
8914 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
8915 to a limitation in font-lock).
8917 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
8919 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
8920 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
8921 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
8924 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
8925 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
8927 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8929 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
8931 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
8933 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8935 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8936 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8937 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8938 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8939 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8940 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8942 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8945 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8946 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8948 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8953 *** Global Font Lock mode
8955 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8956 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8957 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8958 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8959 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8961 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8963 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8967 *** Local Refontification
8969 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8970 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8971 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8972 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8974 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8975 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8976 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8977 above and below point.
8979 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8983 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8984 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8985 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8986 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8987 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8990 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8992 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8993 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8995 ** hide-show changes.
8997 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8998 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
9001 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
9002 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
9004 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
9005 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
9006 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
9010 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
9011 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
9013 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
9014 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
9016 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
9018 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
9019 pressing both mouse buttons.
9021 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
9022 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
9025 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
9028 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
9030 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
9031 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
9033 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
9035 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
9037 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
9039 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
9041 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
9043 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
9045 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
9046 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
9047 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
9048 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
9049 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
9051 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
9053 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
9054 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
9055 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
9058 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
9061 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
9063 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
9064 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
9066 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
9067 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
9069 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
9070 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
9071 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
9073 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
9074 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
9077 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
9079 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
9080 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
9081 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
9083 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
9084 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
9085 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
9087 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
9088 up if too much time passes.
9090 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
9092 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
9093 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
9094 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
9097 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
9098 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
9099 call looks like this:
9101 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
9103 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
9104 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
9105 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
9108 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
9109 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
9112 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
9113 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
9114 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
9115 each time Emacs becomes idle.
9117 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
9118 idle for SECS seconds.
9120 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
9121 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
9122 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
9125 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
9126 there is no answer within a certain time.
9128 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
9130 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
9131 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
9132 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
9134 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
9135 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
9136 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
9137 arguments in between are ignored.
9139 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
9140 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
9142 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
9143 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
9144 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
9145 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
9148 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
9149 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
9150 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
9151 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
9152 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
9153 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
9155 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
9156 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
9157 systems with limited file name syntax.
9159 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
9160 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
9161 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
9164 (defvar save-completions-file-name
9165 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
9166 "*The filename to save completions to.")
9168 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
9169 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
9170 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
9171 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
9172 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
9174 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
9175 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
9176 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
9178 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
9179 marker from its buffer position.
9181 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
9182 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
9183 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
9185 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
9186 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
9187 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
9188 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
9189 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
9190 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
9192 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
9193 errors that happen often during editing.
9195 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
9196 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
9197 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
9199 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
9200 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
9202 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
9203 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
9204 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
9205 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
9206 and not get-buffer-window.
9208 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
9209 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
9210 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
9212 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
9213 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
9214 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
9215 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
9216 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
9217 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
9218 over and over for the same text.
9220 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
9222 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
9223 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
9225 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
9228 in addition to the normal
9232 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
9233 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
9234 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
9238 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
9240 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
9241 Copyright information:
9243 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9245 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9246 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9247 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9248 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9250 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9251 of this document, or of portions of it,
9252 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9253 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9257 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"