1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.2
28 ** New configure options for Emacs developers
29 These are not new features; only the configure flags are new.
31 *** --enable-profiling builds Emacs with profiling enabled.
32 This might not work on all platforms.
34 *** --enable-checking[=OPTIONS] builds emacs with extra runtime checks.
37 ** `make install' now consistently ignores umask, creating a
38 world-readable install.
40 ** Emacs compiles with Gconf support, if it is detected.
41 Use the configure option --without-gconf to disable this.
43 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.2
45 ** The command-line option -Q (--quick) also inhibits loading X resources.
46 However, if Emacs is compiled with the Lucid or Motif toolkit, X
47 resource settings for the graphical widgets are still applied.
48 On Windows, the -Q option causes Emacs to ignore Registry settings,
49 but environment variables set on the Registry are still honored.
51 *** The new variable `inhibit-x-resources' shows whether X resources
55 ** New command-line option -mm (--maximized) maximizes the initial frame.
57 * Changes in Emacs 23.2
60 ** The maximum size of buffers (and the largest fixnum) is doubled.
61 On typical 32bit systems, buffers can now be up to 512MB.
64 ** The default value of `trash-directory' is now nil.
65 This means that `move-file-to-trash' trashes files according to
66 freedesktop.org specifications, the same method used by the Gnome,
67 KDE, and XFCE desktops. (This change has no effect on Windows, which
68 uses `system-move-file-to-trash' for trashing.)
71 ** The pointer now becomes invisible when typing.
72 Customize `make-pointer-invisible' to disable this feature.
76 *** Emacs can use the system default monospaced font in Gnome.
77 To enable this feature, set `font-use-system-font' to non-nil (it is
78 nil by default). If the system default changes, Emacs changes also.
79 This feature requires Gconf support, which is automatically included
80 at compile-time if configure detects the gconf libraries (you can
81 disable this with the configure option --without-gconf).
83 *** On X11, Emacs reacts to Xft changes made by configuration tools,
84 via the XSETTINGS mechanism. This includes antialias, hinting,
85 hintstyle, RGBA, DPI and lcdfilter changes.
88 ** Killing a buffer with a running process now asks for confirmation.
89 To remove this query, remove `process-kill-buffer-query-function' from
90 `kill-buffer-query-functions', or set the appropriate process flag
91 with `set-process-query-on-exit-flag'.
93 ** File-local variable changes
95 *** Specifying a minor mode as a local variables enables that mode,
96 unconditionally. The previous behavior, toggling the mode, was
97 neither reliable nor generally desirable.
100 *** There are new commands for adding and removing file-local variables:
101 `add-file-local-variable', `delete-file-local-variable',
102 `add-file-local-variable-prop-line', and
103 `delete-file-local-variable-prop-line'.
106 *** There are new commands for adding and removing directory-local variables,
107 and copying them to and from file-local variable lists:
108 `add-dir-local-variable', `delete-dir-local-variable',
109 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals',
110 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals-prop-line' and
111 `copy-file-locals-to-dir-locals'.
113 ** Internationalization changes
115 *** Unibyte sessions are now considered obsolete.
116 This refers to the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable as well as the
117 --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte command line
118 arguments. Customizing enable-multibyte-characters and setting
119 default-enable-multibyte-characters are also deprecated.
121 *** New coding system `utf-8-hfs'.
122 This is suitable for default-file-name-coding-system on Mac OS X; see
123 international/ucs-normalize.el.
126 ** Function arguments in *Help* buffers are now shown in upper-case.
127 Customize `help-downcase-arguments' to t to show them in lower-case.
130 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.2
132 ** Kill-ring and selection changes
134 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, any active region automatically
135 becomes the primary selection (for interaction with other window
136 applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
137 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
139 *** When `save-interprogram-paste-before-kill' is non-nil, the kill
140 commands save the interprogram-paste selection into the kill ring
141 before doing anything else. This avoids losing the selection.
143 *** When `kill-do-not-save-duplicates' is non-nil, identical
144 subsequent kills are not duplicated in the `kill-ring'.
146 ** Completion changes
148 *** The new command `completion-at-point' provides mode-sensitive completion.
150 *** tab-always-indent set to `complete' lets TAB do completion as well.
152 *** The new completion-style `initials' is available.
153 For instance, this can complete M-x lch to list-command-history.
155 *** The new variable `completions-format' determines how completions
156 are displayed in the *Completions* buffer. If you set it to
157 `vertical', completions are sorted vertically in columns.
160 ** The default value of `blink-matching-paren-distance' is increased.
163 ** M-n provides more default values in the minibuffer for commands
164 that read file names. These include the file name at point (when ffap
165 is loaded without ffap-bindings), the file name on the current line
166 (in Dired buffers), and the directory names of adjacent Dired windows
167 (for Dired commands that operate on several directories, such as copy,
171 ** M-r is bound to the new `move-to-window-line-top-bottom'.
172 This moves point to the window center, top and bottom on successive
173 invocations, in the same spirit as the C-l (recenter-top-bottom)
177 ** The new variable `recenter-positions' determines the default
178 cycling order of C-l (`recenter-top-bottom').
181 ** The abbrevs file is now a file named abbrev_defs in
182 user-emacs-directory; but the old location, ~/.abbrev_defs, is used if
185 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
188 ** The bookmark menu has a narrowing search via bookmark-bmenu-search.
190 ** LaTeX mode now provides completion (via completion-at-point).
193 ** sym-comp.el is now declared obsolete, superseded by completion-at-point.
196 ** lucid.el and levents.el are now declared obsolete.
199 ** pcomplete provides a new command `pcomplete-std-completion' which
200 is similar to `pcomplete' but using the standard completion UI code.
204 *** The Calc settings file is now a file named calc.el in
205 user-emacs-directory; but the old location, ~/.calc.el, is used if
208 *** Graphing commands (`g f' etc.) now work on MS-Windows, if you have
209 the native Windows port of Gnuplot version 3.8 or later installed.
211 ** Calendar and diary
213 *** Fancy diary display is now the default.
214 If you prefer the simple display, customize `diary-display-function'.
216 *** The diary's fancy display now enables view-mode.
218 *** The command `calendar-current-date' accepts an optional argument
219 giving an offset from today.
223 *** The default value for `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is nil.
224 This means Desktop will try restoring all buffers, when you restart
225 your Emacs session. Also, `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is only
226 effective for buffers that have no associated file. If you want to
227 exempt buffers that do correspond to files, customize the value of
228 `desktop-files-not-to-save' instead.
232 *** The new variable `dired-auto-revert-buffer', if non-nil, causes
233 Dired buffers to be reverted automatically on revisiting them.
237 *** When `doc-view-continuous' is non-nil, scrolling a line
238 on the page edge advances to the next/previous page.
243 *** Toolbar functionality for reverse debugging. Display of STL
244 collections as watch expressions. These features require GDB 7.0 or later.
248 *** A new command `zrgrep' searches recursively in gzipped files.
253 *** The new command `Info-virtual-index' bound to "I" displays a menu of
254 matched topics found in the index.
257 *** The new command `info-finder' replaces finder.el with a virtual Info
258 manual that generates an Info file which gives the same information
259 through a menu structure.
262 ** Message mode is now the default mode for composing mail.
264 The default for `mail-user-agent' is now message-user-agent, so the
265 C-x m (`compose-mail') command uses Message mode instead of Mail mode.
267 Message mode has been included in Emacs, as part of the Gnus package,
268 for several years. It provides several features that are absent in
269 Mail mode, such as MIME handling.
272 *** If the user has not customized mail-user-agent, `compose-mail'
273 checks for Mail mode customizations, and issues a warning if these
274 customizations are found. This alerts users who may otherwise be
275 unaware that their mail configuration has changed.
277 To disable this check, set compose-mail-user-agent-warnings to nil.
280 ** The default value of mail-interactive is t, since Emacs 23.1.
281 (This was not announced at the time.) It means that when sending mail,
282 Emacs will wait for the process sending mail to return. If you
283 experience delays when sending mail, you may wish to set this to nil.
286 ** nXML mode is now the default for editing XML files.
288 ** Shell (and other comint modes)
290 *** M-s is no longer bound to `comint-next-matching-input'.
292 *** M-r is now bound to `comint-history-isearch-backward-regexp'.
293 This starts an incremental search of the comint/shell input history.
295 *** ansi-color is now enabled by default in Shell mode.
296 To disable it, set ansi-color-for-comint-mode to nil.
300 *** New connection methods "rsyncc", "imap" and "imaps".
301 On systems which support GVFS-Fuse, Tramp offers also the new
302 connection methods "dav", "davs", "obex" and "synce".
304 ** VC and related modes
306 *** When using C-x v v or C-x v i on a unregistered file that is in a
307 directory not controlled by any VCS, ask the user what VC backend to
308 use to create a repository, create a new repository and register the
311 *** New command `vc-root-print-log', bound to `C-x v L'.
312 This displays a `*vc-change-log*' buffer showing the history of the
313 version-controlled directory tree as a whole.
315 *** New command `vc-root-diff', bound to `C-x v D'.
316 This is similar to `vc-diff', but compares the entire directory tree
317 of the current VC directory with its working revision.
319 *** `C-x v l' and `C-x v L' do not show the full log by default.
320 The number of entries shown can be chosen interactively with a prefix
321 argument, or by customizing vc-log-show-limit. The `*vc-change-log*'
322 buffer now contains buttons at the end of the buffer, which can be
323 used to increase the number of entries shown. RCS, SCCS, and CVS do
324 not support this feature.
326 *** vc-annotate supports annotations through file copies and renames,
327 it displays the old names for the files and it can show logs/diffs for
328 the corresponding lines. Currently only Git and Mercurial take
329 advantage of this feature.
331 *** The log command in vc-annotate can display a single log entry
332 instead of redisplaying the full log. The RCS, CVS and SCCS VC
333 backends do not support this.
335 *** When a file is not found, VC will not try to check it out of RCS anymore.
337 *** Diff and log operations can be used from Dired buffers.
341 **** The short log format for git makes use of the graph display, so
342 it's not supported on git versions earlier than 1.5.
344 **** Support for operating with stashes has been added to vc-dir:
345 the stash list is displayed in the *vc-dir* header, stashes can be
346 created, removed, applied and their content displayed.
348 **** vc-dir displays the stash status
350 **** vc-dir requires at least git-1.5.5.
352 *** vc-bzr supports operating with shelves: the shelve list is
353 displayed in the *vc-dir* header, shelves can be created, removed and applied.
355 *** log-edit-strip-single-file-name controls whether or not single filenames
356 are stripped when copying text from the ChangeLog to the *VC-Log* buffer.
360 *** Elint now uses compilation-mode.
362 *** Elint can now scan individual files and whole directories,
363 and can be run in batch mode.
365 *** Elint does a more thorough initialization, and recognizes more built-in
366 functions and variables. Customize `elint-scan-preloaded' if you want
367 to sacrifice some accuracy for a faster startup.
369 *** Elint attempts some basic understanding of featurep and (f)boundp tests.
371 *** Customize `elint-ignored-warnings' to suppress some warnings.
375 *** The new command `async-shell-command' bound globally to `M-&' executes
376 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand to
377 the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
380 *** Interactively `multi-isearch-buffers' and `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp'
381 read buffer names to search, one by one, ended with RET. With a prefix
382 argument, they ask for a regexp, and search in buffers whose names match
383 the specified regexp. Interactively `multi-isearch-files' and
384 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' read file names to search, one by one,
385 ended with RET. With a prefix argument, they ask for a wildcard, and
386 search in file buffers whose file names match the specified wildcard.
388 *** Autorevert Tail mode now works also for remote files.
390 *** The new built-in commands `su' and `sudo' support Tramp.
391 That means, they change `default-directory' to the new users value,
392 and let commands run under that user permissions. It works even when
393 `default-directory' is already remote. Calling the external commands
394 is possible by `*su' or `*sudo', respectively.
396 *** When running in a new enough xterm (newer than version 242), Emacs
397 asks xterm what the background color is and it sets up faces
398 accordingly for a dark background if needed (the current default is to
399 consider the background light).
402 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
404 ** CEDET (the Collection of Emacs Development Tools) is now in Emacs.
405 This is a collection of packages to aid with using Emacs as an IDE
406 (integrated development environment):
409 *** The Semantic package allows the use of parsers to intelligently
410 edit and navigate source code. Parsers for C/C++, Java, Javascript,
411 and several other languages are included by default, and Semantic can
412 also interface with external tools such as GNU Global and GNU Idutils.
414 To enable Semantic, use the global minor mode `semantic-mode'.
415 See the Semantic manual for details.
418 *** EDE (Emacs Development Environment) is a package for managing code
419 projects, including features such as automatic Makefile generation.
421 To enable EDE, use the minor mode `global-ede-mode'.
422 See the EDE manual for details.
424 *** SRecode is a library for recoding Semantic tags back into source
425 code. It is currently used by some parts of Semantic and EDE; in the
426 future, it may be used for code generation features.
429 *** The EIEIO library implements a subset of the Common Lisp Object
430 System (CLOS). It is used by the other CEDET packages.
433 ** mpc.el is a front end for the Music Player Daemon. Run it with M-x mpc.
435 ** htmlfontify.el turns a fontified Emacs buffer into an HTML page.
438 ** js.el is a new major mode for JavaScript files.
440 ** imap-hash.el is a new library to address IMAP mailboxes as hashtables.
443 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.2
446 ** The Lisp reader turns integers that are too large/small into floats.
447 For instance, on machines where `536870911' is the largest integer,
448 reading `536870912' gives the floating-point object `536870912.0'.
450 This change only concerns the Lisp reader; it does not affect how
451 actual integer objects overflow.
454 ** Several obsolete functions removed.
455 The functions have been obsolete since Emacs 19, and are unlikely to
458 time-stamp-month-dd-yyyy, time-stamp-dd/mm/yyyy, time-stamp-mon-dd-yyyy
459 time-stamp-dd-mon-yy, time-stamp-yy/mm/dd, time-stamp-yyyy/mm/dd,
460 time-stamp-yyyy-mm-dd, time-stamp-yymmdd, time-stamp-hh:mm:ss,
461 time-stamp-hhmm, baud-rate
464 ** Support for generating Emacs 18 compatible bytecode (by setting
465 the variable `byte-compile-compatibility') has been removed.
468 ** In image-mode.el `image-mode-maybe' is obsolete.
469 Instead, you can either use `image-mode' (which displays an image file
470 as the actual image initially), or `image-mode-as-text' (when you want
471 to display an image file as text initially). `image-mode-as-text' is a
472 combination of a non-image mode from `auto-mode-alist' (or Fundamental
473 mode) and `image-minor-mode'. `image-minor-mode' provides a `C-c C-c'
474 key binding to toggle image display.
475 `image-toggle-display-text' removes image properties.
476 `image-toggle-display-image' adds image properties.
477 `image-toggle-display' toggles between `image-mode-as-text' and `image-mode'.
480 * Lisp changes in Emacs 23.2
482 ** All the default-FOO variables that hold the default value of the FOO
483 variable, are now declared obsolete.
485 ** read-key is a function halfway between read-event and read-key-sequence.
486 It reads a single key, but obeys input and escape sequence decoding.
488 ** Frame parameter changes
490 *** You can give the `fullscreen' frame parameter the value `maximized'.
491 This maximizes the frame.
493 *** The new frame parameter `sticky' makes Emacs frames sticky in
496 ** Completion changes
498 *** completion-base-size is obsoleted by completion-base-position.
499 This change causes a few backward incompatibilities, mostly with
500 choose-completion-string-functions where the `mini-p' argument has
501 been replaced by a `base-position' argument, and where the `base-size'
502 argument is now always nil.
504 *** New function `completion-in-region' to use the standard completion
505 facilities on a particular region of text.
507 *** The 4th arg to all-completions (aka hide-spaces) is declared obsolete.
509 *** completion-annotate-function specifies how to compute annotations
510 for completions displayed in *Completions*.
512 ** Minibuffer changes
514 *** read-file-name-predicate is obsolete. It was used to pass the predicate
515 to read-file-name-internal because read-file-name-internal abused its `pred'
516 argument to pass the current directory, but this hack is not needed
519 ** Changes to file-manipulation functions
521 *** `delete-directory' has an optional parameter RECURSIVE.
523 *** New function `copy-directory', which copies a directory recursively.
525 ** called-interactively-p now takes one argument and replaces interactive-p
526 which is now marked obsolete.
528 ** New function set-advertised-calling-convention makes it possible
529 to obsolete arguments as well as make some arguments mandatory.
531 ** You can control which binding is preferentially shown in menus and
532 docstrings by adding a `:advertised-binding' property to the corresponding
533 command's symbol. That property can hold a single binding or a list
536 ** Network and process changes
538 *** start-process-shell-command and start-file-process-shell-command
539 now only take a single `command' argument.
541 *** The new variable `process-file-side-effects' should be set to nil
542 if a `process-file' call does not change a remote file. This allows
543 file name handlers such as Tramp to optimizations.
545 *** make-network-process can now also create `seqpacket' Unix sockets.
549 *** eval-next-after-load is obsolete.
551 *** New hook `after-load-functions' run after loading an Elisp file.
553 ** Byte compilation changes
555 *** Changing the file-names generated by byte-compilation by redefining
556 the function `byte-compile-dest-file' before loading bytecomp.el is obsolete.
557 Instead, customize byte-compile-dest-file-function.
559 *** `byte-compile-warnings' has new members, `constants' and `suspicious'.
561 ** New macro with-silent-modifications to tweak text properties without
562 affecting the buffer's modification state.
565 ** Hash tables have a new printed representation that is readable.
566 The feature `hashtable-print-readable' identifies this new
569 ** New functions for performing Unicode normalization:
570 ucs-normalize-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-NFD-string,
571 ucs-normalize-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-NFC-string,
572 ucs-normalize-NFKD-region, ucs-normalize-NFKD-string,
573 ucs-normalize-NFKC-region, ucs-normalize-NFKC-string,
574 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-string,
575 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-string.
578 ** Face aliases can now be marked as obsolete, using the macro
579 `define-obsolete-face-alias'.
582 ** New function `window-full-height-p', analogous to the full-width version.
585 * Changes in Emacs 23.2 on non-free operating systems
588 ** On MS-Windows, `display-time' now displays the system load average
589 as well as the time, as it does on GNU and Unix.
592 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
594 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
595 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
596 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
599 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
600 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
602 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
603 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
605 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
606 where Emacs is running).
608 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
610 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
613 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
615 ** Changes to image support
617 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
620 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
622 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
624 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port.
625 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
626 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
628 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
629 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
630 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
631 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
633 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
634 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
636 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
639 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
640 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
642 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
644 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
646 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
648 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
649 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
650 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
652 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
654 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
657 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
659 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
661 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
663 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
665 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
666 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
668 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
669 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
670 you need control over which C compiler is used.
672 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
674 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
675 or any later version.
677 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
678 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
679 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
681 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
683 ** Improved X Window System support
685 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
686 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
687 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
688 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
689 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
690 There may be problems if a display exits unexpectedly and Emacs is compiled
691 with Gtk+, see etc/PROBLEMS.
693 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
694 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
696 *** Emacs starts in the background, as a daemon, when given the
697 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
698 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
699 terminal frames using emacsclient.
701 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
702 --alternate-editor="" is used (or when the evironment variable
703 ALTERNATE_EDITOR is set to "") and emacsclient cannot connect to an
706 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
707 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
709 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
710 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
711 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
712 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
713 for details about XEmbed.
715 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
716 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
717 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
718 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
719 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
721 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
722 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
723 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
724 active frame and INACTIVE is the opacity of non-active frames.
726 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
727 opacity; the default is 20.
729 ** Internationalization changes
731 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
732 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
734 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
735 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs' (`emacs-internal' is an alias
736 for this). This encoding is backward-compatible with Unicode's UTF-8
737 encoding. The internal encoding previously used by Emacs,
738 `emacs-mule', is still available for reading and writing files.
740 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
741 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
742 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
743 or 22 are loaded correctly as `emacs-mule' (whether or not they
744 contain multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it
745 may be worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be
746 shared with older Emacsen.
748 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
750 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
751 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
752 as tables of unicodes.
754 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
755 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
756 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
758 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
759 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
761 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
762 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
763 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
765 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
766 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
767 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
770 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
771 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
772 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
773 the mode-line mouse menu.
777 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
778 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
779 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
780 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
781 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
783 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
784 "Save Options" item is used.
786 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
787 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
788 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
790 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
791 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
792 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
793 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
795 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
796 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
797 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
801 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
802 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
804 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
805 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
807 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
808 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
810 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
812 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
813 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
815 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
816 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
817 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
818 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
820 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
821 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
822 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
823 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
825 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
826 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
827 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
828 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
830 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
833 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
835 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
836 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
837 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
838 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
839 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
841 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
842 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
845 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
846 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
847 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
850 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
852 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
853 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
854 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
855 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
858 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
860 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
861 on the regexp command prefix map.
863 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
864 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
867 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
868 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
869 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
870 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
871 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
872 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
874 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
875 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
876 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
877 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
878 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
879 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
881 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound from
882 `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the global
883 prefix map `M-o', which is intended for such formatting commands.
885 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
886 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
887 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
888 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
889 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
893 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
895 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
896 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
897 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
898 behavior (i.e., motion by logical lines based on buffer contents
901 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
902 invokes `suspend-frame'. These changes are for compatibility with the
903 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
907 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
909 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
911 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
914 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
915 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
917 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
918 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
921 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
924 *** The variable `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty
925 active region in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on
928 ** Temporarily active regions
930 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
931 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
932 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
933 region, similar to mouse-selection.
935 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
936 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
937 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
938 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
939 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
942 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
944 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
945 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
946 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
947 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
948 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
949 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
950 to create the file or buffer.
952 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
953 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
954 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
955 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
957 *** The rules for performing completion have been changed.
958 When generating completion alternatives, Emacs now takes the
959 minibuffer text after point, if any, into account: this text is
960 treated as a substring of the remaining part of the completion
961 alternative (i.e., the part not matched by the minibuffer text before
962 point). If no completion alternatives are found this way, Emacs
963 attempts to perform partial-completion. If still no completion
964 alternatives are found, we fall back on the Emacs 22 rules for
965 performing completion.
967 The new variable `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your
968 favorite completion style.
970 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
971 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
972 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
973 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
974 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
975 searching minibuffer completion items.
977 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
979 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
980 name of the current buffer.
982 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
983 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
984 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
985 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
986 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
988 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
989 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
990 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
991 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
993 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
994 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
995 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
996 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
997 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
999 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
1000 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
1001 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
1002 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
1003 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
1004 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
1005 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
1007 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
1008 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
1010 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
1011 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
1013 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
1014 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
1016 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
1017 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
1018 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
1022 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
1023 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
1024 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
1026 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
1027 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
1028 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
1029 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
1031 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
1032 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
1033 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
1034 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
1036 *** The commands buffer-face-mode and buffer-face-set can be used to
1037 remap the default face in the current buffer. See "Buffer Face mode",
1038 under New Modes and Packages.
1040 ** Primary selection changes
1042 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
1043 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
1045 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
1046 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
1047 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
1048 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
1049 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
1050 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
1051 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
1052 New Modes and Packages, below.
1054 ** Window management changes
1056 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
1057 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
1058 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
1060 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
1061 vertically and horizontally.
1063 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
1064 is on a different frame.
1066 ** Miscellaneous changes:
1068 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
1069 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
1070 successive invocations.
1072 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
1074 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
1075 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
1076 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
1078 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
1079 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
1080 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
1082 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
1083 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
1084 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
1085 run processes remotely.
1087 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
1090 *** The value of comment-style now defaults to `indent'.
1091 Thefore, comment-start markers are inserted at the current indentation
1092 of the region to comment, rather than the leftmost column.
1094 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
1095 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
1097 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
1098 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
1099 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
1100 convenience alias for this function.
1102 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
1103 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
1104 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
1106 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
1107 kill into the password.
1109 *** Tooltip frame parameters `font' and `color' in `tooltip-frame-parameters'
1110 are ignored. Customize the `tooltip' face instead.
1112 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
1114 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
1116 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
1117 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
1118 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
1120 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
1122 ** Buffer Face mode is a minor mode for remapping the default face in
1123 the current buffer. The variable `buffer-face-mode-face' specifies
1124 the face to remap to. The command `buffer-face-set' prompts for a
1125 face name, sets `buffer-face-mode-face' to it, and enables
1126 buffer-face-mode. See "Face changes", under Editing Changes, for a
1127 description of face remapping.
1129 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
1130 See http://xkcd.com/378/
1132 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
1134 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
1135 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
1136 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
1138 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
1139 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
1140 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
1142 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
1144 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
1145 the postscript file.
1147 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
1148 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
1149 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
1150 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
1152 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
1153 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
1155 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
1158 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
1159 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
1160 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
1161 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
1164 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
1167 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
1168 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
1169 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
1171 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
1172 any invalid parts of your document.
1174 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
1175 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
1176 allowed by the schema in that context.
1178 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
1179 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
1180 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
1181 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
1182 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
1183 MS-Windows and Solaris.
1185 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
1186 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
1189 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
1191 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
1193 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
1194 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
1195 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
1196 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
1197 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
1198 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
1200 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
1201 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
1202 requires D-Bus for communication.
1204 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
1205 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
1206 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
1207 which have installed this software.
1209 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
1210 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
1211 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
1212 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
1213 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
1214 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
1215 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
1216 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
1217 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
1220 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
1222 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
1224 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
1225 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
1227 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
1229 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
1230 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
1232 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
1234 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
1236 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
1237 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
1239 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
1240 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
1241 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
1245 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
1247 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
1249 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
1250 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
1251 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
1255 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
1257 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
1258 `string', disabled by default.
1260 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
1261 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
1263 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
1267 *** bookmark.el saves bookmarks in a pre-Emacs-23-incompatible file format
1268 bookmark.el can read a .emacs.bmk file saved by an older Emacs, but an
1269 older Emacs cannot read one saved by Emacs 23.
1271 ** Calendar and diary
1273 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
1274 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
1275 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
1276 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
1278 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
1279 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
1280 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
1281 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
1282 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
1283 using the new names.
1285 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
1287 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
1288 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
1290 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
1291 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
1293 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
1294 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
1296 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
1297 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
1301 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
1302 associated with the current log entry.
1304 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
1305 source code associated with a log entry.
1307 ** Compile and grep modes
1309 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
1310 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
1311 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
1313 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
1314 the first error encountered during compilations.
1316 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
1317 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
1319 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
1320 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
1321 C++ sources and headers.
1325 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
1326 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
1327 considered for update.
1329 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
1330 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
1334 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
1335 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
1339 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
1340 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
1341 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
1343 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
1344 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
1345 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
1347 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
1348 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
1352 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
1353 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
1356 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
1357 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
1358 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
1361 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
1362 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
1363 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
1364 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
1365 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
1366 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
1367 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
1368 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
1370 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
1371 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
1372 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
1374 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
1375 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
1376 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
1377 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
1378 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
1379 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
1380 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
1384 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
1385 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
1387 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
1388 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
1390 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
1394 *** The Gnus package has been updated
1395 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
1396 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
1398 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
1399 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
1400 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
1401 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
1403 *** Passwords are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
1404 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
1405 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
1406 authentication respectively.
1410 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
1411 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
1413 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
1414 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
1416 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits one to specify a new
1417 position for point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
1421 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
1422 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
1423 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
1424 while Isearch is active.
1426 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
1427 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
1428 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
1429 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
1430 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
1432 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
1433 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
1434 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
1436 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
1437 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
1438 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
1439 if there is one (e.g. going from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
1440 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
1442 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
1443 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
1446 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
1447 `isearch-fail' face.
1449 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
1450 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
1451 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
1452 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
1453 and execute their global definitions.
1455 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
1456 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
1460 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.2. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1463 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
1464 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
1466 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
1467 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
1468 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
1469 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
1473 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
1474 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
1475 corresponding remote host.
1479 *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
1480 Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
1481 and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
1483 The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
1484 automatically converts it to mbox format. This is a one-time
1485 conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
1486 your machine and on the size of the file. You should find the rest of
1487 Rmail usage unaltered.
1489 However, M-x set-rmail-inbox-list now lasts only for one session
1490 because there is no way to save the list of inbox files in an
1493 Also, whereas with Babyl format M-x find-file would switch to Rmail
1494 mode, with mbox format this is no longer the case (there being no way
1495 to add an "-*- rmail-*-" cookie to an mbox file). Use C-u M-x rmail
1498 If you have written any extensions to Rmail, they are likely to need
1499 updating. Conceptually, the Rmail buffer that you see is no longer
1500 just a narrowed portion of the whole. So you cannot access the whole
1501 of a message (or message collection) by a simple save-restriction and
1502 widen. Instead, there are two buffers: the rmail-buffer, and the
1503 rmail-view-buffer. The former is the buffer that you see, the latter
1504 is invisible. Most of the time, the invisible `view' buffer contains
1505 the full contents of the Rmail file, and the Rmail buffer contains a
1506 decoded copy of the current message (with only a subset of the
1507 headers). In this state, Rmail is said to be `swapped'.
1509 You may find the following functions useful:
1511 `rmail-get-header' and `rmail-set-header' get or set the value of a
1512 message header, whether or not it is currently visible.
1514 `rmail-apply-in-message' is a general purpose function that calls a
1515 function (with arguments) which you specify on the full text of a given
1516 message. To further narrow to just the headers, search forward for "\n\n".
1518 *** The new command `rmail-mime' displays MIME messages.
1519 It is bound to `v' in Rmail buffers and summaries. It displays plain
1520 text and multipart messages in a temporary buffer, and offers buttons
1521 to save attachments.
1523 *** The command `rmail-redecode-body' no longer accepts the optional arg RAW.
1524 Since Rmail now holds messages in their original undecoded form in a
1525 separate buffer, `rmail-redecode-body' no longer encodes the original
1526 message, and therefore there should be no need to avoid encoding it.
1528 *** The o command is now `rmail-output'. It is an all-purpose command
1529 for copying messages from Rmail and appending them to files. It
1530 handles Babyl-format files as well as mbox-format files, and it
1531 handles both kinds properly when they are visited in Emacs. It always
1532 copies the full headers of the message.
1534 *** The C-o command is now `rmail-output-as-seen'. It uses
1535 the message as displayed, appending it to an mbox file.
1537 *** The modified status of the Rmail buffer is reported in the mode-line.
1538 Previously, this information was hidden.
1542 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
1543 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
1548 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
1549 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
1550 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
1551 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
1556 *** New connection methods.
1557 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
1558 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
1559 "tunnel" and "socks".
1562 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
1563 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
1565 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
1566 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead, multi hops
1567 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
1569 *** More default settings.
1570 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
1571 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
1573 *** Connection information is cached.
1574 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
1575 connections is kept persistently in a file. The name of this file is
1576 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
1578 *** Control of remote processes.
1579 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
1580 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
1582 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
1583 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
1584 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
1586 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
1587 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
1590 ** VC and related modes
1592 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
1593 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
1594 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
1595 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
1598 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
1599 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
1600 directory or a set of files/directories.
1602 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
1603 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
1604 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
1605 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
1606 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
1607 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
1608 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
1610 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
1612 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
1614 *** In VC Annotate mode, the key bindings have changed to use lower
1615 case keys instead of the upper case keys used in the past.
1617 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1618 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1619 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
1620 line" menu entry does the same thing.
1622 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
1624 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1627 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1628 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1631 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1632 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1633 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1635 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1636 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1637 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1639 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1641 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1643 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of a maintainer able
1644 to update it to the new VC.
1648 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1649 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1650 on the corresponding remote system.
1652 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1653 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1655 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1656 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1657 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1659 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1660 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1662 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1663 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1665 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1667 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1668 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1670 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1671 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1673 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1675 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1676 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1678 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1679 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1681 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1683 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1685 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1686 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1687 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1689 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1691 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1692 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1695 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1696 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1697 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1698 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1700 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1701 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1703 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1704 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1707 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1709 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1710 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1711 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1712 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1713 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1715 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1716 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1717 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1718 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1719 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1721 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1722 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1723 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1725 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1726 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1727 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1728 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1729 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1731 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1732 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1733 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1734 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1735 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1737 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1738 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1739 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1740 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1741 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1742 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1744 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1745 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1746 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1747 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1748 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1749 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1750 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1751 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1752 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1755 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1757 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1759 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1760 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1762 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1763 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1764 that range have the same value.
1768 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1770 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1771 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1772 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1775 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1776 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1777 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1778 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1779 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1780 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1781 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1783 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1784 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1786 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1787 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1789 ** Internationalization changes
1791 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1793 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1796 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1797 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1798 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1800 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1801 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1802 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1804 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1805 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1807 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1808 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1810 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1811 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1813 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1814 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1816 *** The meaning of NAME argument of `set-fontset-font' is changed.
1817 Previously nil is accepted as the default fontset. Now, nil is for
1818 the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the default fontset.
1820 *** The meaning of FONTSET argument of `print-fontset' is changed.
1821 Now, nil is for the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the
1824 ** If a function in write-region-annotate-functions returns with a
1825 different buffer current, Emacs no longer kills that buffer
1826 automatically. This behavior existed in previous versions of Emacs,
1827 but was undocumented. To kill a buffer after write-region, give the
1828 variable `write-region-post-annotation-function' a buffer-local value
1831 ** The variable temp-file-name-pattern has been removed.
1832 This variable was only used by call-process-region, which now uses
1833 temporary-file-directory instead.
1835 ** The COUNT and SYSTEM-FLAG arguments to define-abbrev have been
1836 removed. The function now takes extra arguments for specifying
1837 arbitrary abbrev properties.
1839 ** end-of-defun-function is now guaranteed to work only when called
1840 from the start of a defun. It must now leave point exactly at the end
1841 of defun, since `end-of-defun' now itself moves forward over
1842 whitespace after calling it.
1845 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1847 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1848 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1849 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1850 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1851 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1854 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `process-attributes'
1855 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1856 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1857 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1858 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1860 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1861 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1863 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1864 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1865 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1867 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1870 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1871 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1872 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1873 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1875 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1877 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1878 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1879 strings on the kill ring.
1881 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1882 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1887 ((debug error) nil))
1889 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1891 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count given to
1892 `beginning-of-defun'. (N.B. `end-of-defun-function' doesn't take any
1895 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1896 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1897 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1898 remote connection has been established already.
1900 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1901 undefined functions.
1903 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1905 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1906 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1907 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1909 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1910 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1911 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1913 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1914 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1915 interactive forms to subroutines.
1919 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1920 an active region that they should operate on.
1922 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1923 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
1924 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
1925 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
1926 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
1928 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1929 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1930 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1931 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1932 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1934 ** Emacs session information
1936 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1937 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1939 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1941 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1942 Emacs initialization.
1944 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1946 *** display-buffer tries to be smarter when splitting windows.
1947 The new option split-window-preferred-function lets you specify your own
1948 function to pop up new windows. Its default value split-window-sensibly
1949 can split a window either vertically or horizontally, whichever seems
1950 more suitable in the current configuration. You can tune the behavior
1951 of split-window-sensibly by customizing split-height-threshold and the
1952 new option split-width-threshold. Both options now take the value nil
1953 to inhibit splitting in one direction. Setting split-width-threshold to
1954 nil inhibits horizontal splitting and gets you the behavior of Emacs 22
1955 in this respect. In any case, display-buffer may now split the largest
1956 window vertically even when it is not as wide as the containing frame.
1958 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1959 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1961 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have a new optional
1962 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1963 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1965 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1966 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1969 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1970 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1972 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1974 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1975 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1976 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1977 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1978 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1980 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1981 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1982 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1984 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1985 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1987 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
1988 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
1990 ** Search and replacement changes
1992 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1994 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1995 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1997 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1998 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1999 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
2002 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
2003 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
2004 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
2005 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
2006 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
2008 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
2009 for search related commands.
2011 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
2012 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
2014 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
2015 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
2017 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
2018 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
2019 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
2020 unless it ends in whitespace.
2022 ** File handling changes
2024 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
2025 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
2027 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
2028 variables defined in the current buffer.
2032 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
2033 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
2034 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
2035 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
2036 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
2038 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
2039 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
2040 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
2041 Editing Changes, above).
2045 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
2048 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
2051 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
2053 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
2057 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
2058 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
2059 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
2060 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
2061 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
2063 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
2064 returns its output as a list of lines.
2066 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
2068 *** In multibyte buffers and strings, characters are represented by
2069 UTF-8 byte sequences. The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF
2070 with no gap; code points 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the
2071 same code points, while code points 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit
2074 *** Generic characters no longer exist.
2076 *** The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may
2077 belong to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
2078 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
2080 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
2081 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
2083 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
2084 characters for display.
2086 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
2087 positional codes instead of just 2.
2089 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
2091 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
2092 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
2094 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
2095 priorities of charsets.
2097 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
2098 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
2099 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
2100 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
2101 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
2104 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
2105 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
2106 entries in that range of characters.
2108 *** Use of `translation-table-for-input' for character code unification
2109 is now obsolete, since Emacs 23.1 and later uses Unicode as basis for
2110 internal representation of characters.
2114 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
2115 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
2117 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
2119 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
2121 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
2123 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
2125 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
2127 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
2129 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
2130 a character code property.
2134 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
2135 search for a word boundary.
2137 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
2139 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
2141 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
2142 property on printing a string.
2144 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
2146 ** Code conversion changes
2148 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
2149 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
2151 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
2152 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
2153 conversion should go.
2155 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
2156 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
2159 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
2160 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
2161 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
2164 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
2168 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
2169 coding system priority order.
2171 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
2172 encodable by the specified coding systems.
2174 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
2176 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
2179 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
2180 ordered by their priorities.
2182 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
2184 **** `coding-system-from-name' returns a coding system matching with
2187 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
2188 It has three functionalities:
2189 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
2190 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
2191 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
2192 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
2194 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
2196 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
2198 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
2201 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
2202 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
2205 ** Changes related to the new font backend
2207 *** Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource
2208 "FontBackend". For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
2210 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
2212 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
2213 available on your graphic device.
2215 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
2216 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
2217 currently `x' and `xft'.
2219 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
2220 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
2225 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
2227 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
2229 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
2231 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
2233 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
2235 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
2237 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
2239 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
2241 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
2242 entity, or font object.
2244 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
2246 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
2248 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
2249 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
2251 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
2253 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
2254 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
2255 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
2256 takes a frame argument.
2258 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
2259 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
2261 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
2262 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
2264 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
2267 *** A new `terminal' data type.
2268 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
2269 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
2271 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
2272 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
2273 which is not used directly any more.
2277 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
2278 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
2279 file-local variables.
2281 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
2282 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
2283 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
2284 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
2286 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
2287 deleting a terminal.
2291 **** `delete-terminal'
2297 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
2299 ** Redisplay changes
2301 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
2302 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
2304 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
2305 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
2306 This is convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer
2307 position (e.g. in before/after-strings).
2309 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
2311 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
2312 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
2313 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
2314 times the default column width.
2316 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
2317 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
2320 *** The new variables `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' specify display
2321 specs which are appended at display-time to every continuation line
2322 and non-continuation line, respectively. In addition, Emacs
2323 recognizes the `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' text or overlay
2324 properties; these have the same effects as the variables of the same
2325 name, but take precedence.
2327 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
2329 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2331 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
2333 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
2334 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
2336 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
2337 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
2338 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
2339 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
2341 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
2342 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
2344 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
2345 attributes of a given face.
2347 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
2348 string of days, hours, etc.
2350 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
2353 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
2354 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
2355 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
2357 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
2359 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
2360 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
2362 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
2363 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
2364 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
2366 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
2367 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
2370 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
2371 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
2372 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
2374 ** Miscellaneous new variables
2376 *** `auto-save-include-big-deletions', if non-nil, means auto-save is
2377 not turned off automatically after a big deletion.
2379 *** `read-circle', if nil, disables the reading of recursive Lisp
2380 structures using the #N= and #N# syntax.
2382 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
2383 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
2385 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
2386 marker used for window-point.
2388 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
2389 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
2392 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
2393 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
2396 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
2398 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
2400 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
2401 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
2403 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
2405 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
2406 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
2407 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
2408 of multiple buffers. Top-level functions `multi-isearch-buffers',
2409 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
2410 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
2411 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
2413 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
2414 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
2417 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2418 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2420 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2421 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2422 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2423 (at your option) any later version.
2425 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2426 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2427 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2428 GNU General Public License for more details.
2430 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2431 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2436 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
2439 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2