1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
30 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
31 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
34 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
35 backends. This requires the freetype and fontconfig libraries
37 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
38 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
40 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
41 where Emacs is running).
43 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
45 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
48 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
50 ** Changes to image support
52 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
55 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
57 ** The Mac Carbon port is no longer supported.
58 Instead, use... [FIXME what?]
60 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
63 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
64 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
66 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
68 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
70 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
73 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
74 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
75 you need control over which C compiler is used.
77 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
80 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
81 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
82 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
84 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
86 ** Improved X Window System support
88 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
89 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
90 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
91 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
92 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
94 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
95 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
97 **** Emacsclient can now open new terminal frames.
98 Now, the default behavior is to open a new Emacs frame by default.
99 Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in the
100 currently selected Emacs frame.
102 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
105 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
106 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
107 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
108 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
109 for details about XEmbed.
111 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
112 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
113 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
114 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, or on
115 Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
117 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
118 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
119 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
120 active frame and INACTIVE is the opactity of non-active frames.
122 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
123 opacity; the default is 20.
125 ** Internationalization changes
127 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
128 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
130 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
131 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. This encoding is backwards
132 compatible with Unicode's UTF-8 encoding. The internal encoding
133 previously used by Emacs, `emacs-mule', is still available.
135 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
136 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
137 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
138 or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule (whether or not they contain
139 multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it may be
140 worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared
143 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
145 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
146 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
147 as tables of unicodes.
149 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
150 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
152 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
153 characters for display.
155 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
156 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
157 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
159 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
160 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
162 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
163 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
164 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
165 the mode-line mouse menu.
169 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
170 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
171 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
172 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
173 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
175 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
176 "Save Options" item is used.
178 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
179 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
180 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
182 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
183 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
184 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
185 the new word wrapping option (see Editing Changes, below).
189 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
190 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
192 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
193 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
195 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
196 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
198 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
199 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-settings.el for directory-local
200 variables. For more information, see `set-directory-project' and
201 `define-project-bindings'.
204 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
207 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
208 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
209 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
210 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
211 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
213 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
214 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
217 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
218 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
219 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
222 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
224 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
227 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
228 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
232 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
233 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
234 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
235 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
236 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
240 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
242 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
243 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
244 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
245 behavior (motion by logical lines based on buffer contents alone).
247 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
248 invokes `suspend-frame'. This change is for compatibility with the
249 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
253 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
255 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
257 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
260 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
261 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
263 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
264 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
266 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
268 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
269 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
272 ** Temporarily active regions
274 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
275 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
276 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
277 region, similar to mouse-selection.
279 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
280 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
281 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
282 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
283 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
286 ** Minibuffer changes
288 *** Operations like C-x b and C-x C-f, which use switch-to-buffer, do
289 not fail any more when used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window.
290 Instead, they fallback on using pop-to-buffer, which will use some
293 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
294 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
295 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
296 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
297 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
298 searching minibuffer completion items.
300 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
302 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
303 name of the current buffer.
305 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
306 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
307 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
308 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
309 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
311 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
312 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
313 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last isearch
314 regexp, the last isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
316 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
317 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
318 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
319 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
320 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
321 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
322 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
326 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
327 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
328 via face remapping (see below).
332 ** Primary selection changes
334 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
335 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
336 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to
337 bind `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
339 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
340 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
342 ** Completion changes
344 *** `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your favorite
347 *** The default completion styles include a form of partial-completion.
349 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
350 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
352 *** `completion-auto-help' can be set to `lazy' to list the
353 completions only if you repeat the completion. This was already
354 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
356 ** Continuation lines can be wrapped at word boundaries
357 (word-wrapping) instead of the right window edge. The new per-buffer
358 variable `word-wrap', if non-nil turns on word-wrapping. Word
359 wrapping does not take place if continuation lines are not shown,
360 e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil.
362 ** Window management changes
364 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
365 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
366 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 30.
368 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
369 vertically and horizontally.
371 ** Miscellaneous changes:
373 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
374 for search related commands: `M-s o' for `occur', `M-s h r' for
375 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands on the `M-s h' prefix.
377 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
378 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
379 successive invokations.
381 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
383 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
384 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
385 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
388 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
389 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
390 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
392 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
393 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
394 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
395 run processes remotely.
397 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
400 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
401 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
404 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
406 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
407 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
409 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
410 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
411 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
413 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
415 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
417 ** copyright.el provides utilities for updating copyright notices in files.
419 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
420 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
421 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
423 ** Doc View Mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
424 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
425 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
427 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
428 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
429 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
430 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
432 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
433 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
435 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
438 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
441 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
442 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
443 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
445 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
446 any invalid parts of your document.
448 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
449 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
450 allowed by the schema in that context.
452 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on processes.
453 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current
454 processes (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to
455 move around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on
456 the processes listed.
458 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
459 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
462 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing ReSTructured-Text files.
464 ** A new `whitespace' package has been installed, and the pre-existing one
465 renamed to `old-whitespace'.
466 [FIXME someone explain why this is good, if it is...]
468 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
469 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
470 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
471 which have installed this software.
474 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
476 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
477 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
478 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
479 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
480 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
481 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
482 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
483 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
484 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
485 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
486 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
487 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
488 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
491 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
492 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
494 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
498 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
500 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
501 `string', disabled by default.
503 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
504 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
506 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
508 ** Calendar and diary
511 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
512 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
513 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
514 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
517 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
518 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
519 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
520 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
521 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
524 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
526 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
527 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
529 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
530 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
532 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
533 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
535 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
536 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
540 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
541 associated with the current log entry.
543 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
544 source code associated with a log entry.
546 ** Compile and grep modes
548 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
549 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
550 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
552 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
553 the first error encountered during compilations.
555 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
556 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
557 C++ sources and headers.
561 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
562 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
566 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
567 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
568 diff-auto-refine. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
570 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
571 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
572 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
575 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
577 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
578 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
581 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
585 *** The Gnus package has been updated
586 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
587 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
589 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
590 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
591 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
592 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
595 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
596 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
597 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
598 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
599 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
600 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
604 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r'
605 in isearch mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer')
606 with the current search string as its regexp argument.
608 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in isearch mode
609 runs `occur' with the current search string.
611 *** isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
612 When running isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
613 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
614 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
616 This is enabled if isearch-buffers-multi is non-nil.
618 *** The part of an isearch that failed to match is highlighted in `isearch-fail'
621 *** `C-h C-h' in isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
622 `C-h b' displays all isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
623 documentation of the given isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
624 documentation of isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit isearch mode
625 and execute their global definitions.
627 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
628 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
631 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
632 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
634 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
635 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
636 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
637 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
641 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
642 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
643 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
644 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
650 *** New connection methods.
651 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
652 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
653 "tunnel" and "socks".
655 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
656 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
657 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
659 *** More default settings.
660 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
661 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
663 *** Connection information is cached.
664 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
665 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
666 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
668 *** Control of remote processes.
669 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
670 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
672 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
673 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
674 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
676 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
677 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
680 ** VC and related modes
682 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
683 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
684 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
685 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
688 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
689 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
690 directory or a set of files/directories.
692 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
694 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
696 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
697 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
700 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
702 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
705 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you
706 can see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current
707 file) by typing the D key or using the "Show changeset diff of
708 revision at line" menu entry.
710 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
711 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
714 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
715 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
716 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
718 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
719 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
720 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
722 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
724 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
726 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of maintainer able
727 to update it to the new VC.
731 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
732 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
733 on the corresponding remote system.
735 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
736 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
739 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
740 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
742 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
743 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
744 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
746 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
747 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
749 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
750 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
752 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
754 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
755 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
757 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
758 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
760 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
762 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
763 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
765 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
766 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
768 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
770 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
772 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
773 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see smerge-auto-refine.
775 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
777 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
778 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
781 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
782 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
783 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
784 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
786 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
787 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
789 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
790 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
793 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
795 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
796 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
797 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
798 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
799 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
802 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
803 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
804 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
805 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
806 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
809 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
810 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
811 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
814 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
815 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
816 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
817 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
818 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
820 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
821 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
822 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
823 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
824 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
826 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
827 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
828 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
829 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
830 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
831 for the list of extra keys that are available.
834 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
836 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
838 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
839 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
841 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
842 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
843 that range have the same value.
847 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
849 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
850 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
851 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
854 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
855 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
856 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
857 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
858 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
859 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
860 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
862 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
863 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
865 ** Internationalization changes
867 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
869 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
872 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
873 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
874 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
876 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
877 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
878 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
880 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
881 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
883 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
884 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
886 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
887 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
889 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
890 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
893 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
896 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
897 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
899 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
900 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
901 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
903 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
906 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
907 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
908 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
909 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
911 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
913 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
914 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
915 strings on the kill ring.
918 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
919 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
926 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
928 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
929 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
932 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
933 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
934 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
935 remote connection has been established already.
937 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
940 ** Changes to interactive function handling
942 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
943 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
944 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
946 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
947 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
948 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
950 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
951 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
952 interactive forms to subroutines.
956 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
957 an active region that they should operate on.
959 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
960 enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
961 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
962 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
964 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
965 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
966 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
967 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
968 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
970 ** Emacs session information
972 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
973 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
975 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
977 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
978 Emacs initialization.
980 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
982 *** New value nil for split-height-threshold inhibits vertical splitting
983 unless there's no other window.
985 *** New option split-width-threshold controls horizontal splitting.
987 *** A window can be split horizontally even when it's not full-width.
989 *** New option split-window-preferred-function can be set to a function
990 to override the default splitting mechanism of display-buffer.
992 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
994 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
995 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
996 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
997 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
998 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1000 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1001 regexp defaults (string at point, last isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1002 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1004 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1005 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1007 *** `all-completions' may now return the base size in the last cdr.
1008 Since this means the returned list is not properly nil-terminated, this
1009 is an incompatible change and is thus enabled by the new variable
1010 completion-all-completions-with-base-size.
1012 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1015 ** Search and replacement changes
1017 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1019 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1020 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1022 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1023 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string.
1025 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1026 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1027 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1028 `map-query-replace-regexp'.
1030 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1031 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1033 ** File handling changes
1035 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1036 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1038 *** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
1039 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
1043 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1044 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1045 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1046 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1047 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1049 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1050 returns its output as a list of lines.
1052 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1054 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
1055 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
1056 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
1058 Generic characters no longer exist.
1060 In buffers and strings, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
1061 sequences in a multibyte buffer/string.
1063 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong
1064 to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1065 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1067 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1069 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1070 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1072 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1073 priorities of charsets.
1075 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1076 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1077 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1078 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1079 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1082 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1083 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1084 entries in that range of characters.
1087 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
1091 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1092 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1094 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1096 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1098 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1100 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1102 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1104 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1106 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1107 a character code property.
1111 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1112 search for a word boundary.
1114 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1116 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1118 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1119 property on printing a string.
1121 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1123 ** Code conversion changes
1125 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1126 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1128 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1129 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1130 conversion should go.
1132 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1133 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1136 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1140 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1141 coding system priority order.
1143 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1144 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1146 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1148 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1151 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1152 ordered by their priorities.
1154 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1156 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1157 It has three functionalities:
1158 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1159 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1160 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1161 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1163 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1165 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1167 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1170 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1171 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1174 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1176 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
1177 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1179 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1181 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1182 available on your graphic device.
1184 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1185 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1186 currently `x' and `xft'.
1188 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1189 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1194 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1196 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1198 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1200 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1202 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1204 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1206 **** `font-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1208 **** `list-families' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1210 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1211 entity, or font object.
1213 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1215 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1217 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1218 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1220 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1222 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1223 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1224 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1225 takes a frame argument.
1227 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1228 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1230 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1231 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1233 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1234 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
1236 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
1237 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
1239 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
1240 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
1241 which is not used directly any more.
1245 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
1246 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
1247 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
1248 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1250 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1251 deleting a terminal.
1257 **** `make-frame-on-tty' creates a new frame on another tty device.
1265 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1267 ** Redisplay changes
1269 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1270 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1272 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
1273 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
1274 Convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer position
1275 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1277 *** Non-breaking space is now displayed as whitespace.
1279 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1281 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
1282 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
1283 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
1284 times the default column width.
1286 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1288 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1289 string of days, hours, etc.
1291 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1293 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
1294 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
1296 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1297 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1299 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
1301 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1302 attributes of a given face.
1304 *** `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide as its
1307 *** `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
1309 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
1311 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1314 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1315 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1318 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
1319 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
1320 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
1322 ** Miscellaneous new variables
1324 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
1325 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
1327 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
1328 marker used for window-point.
1330 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
1331 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
1334 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
1335 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
1336 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
1338 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
1339 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
1341 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1342 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1345 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1347 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1349 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
1350 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
1352 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1354 ** The package isearch-multi.el has been added. It implements a new mode
1355 `isearch-buffers-minor-mode' that allows isearch to search through
1356 multiple buffers. In this mode a new variable
1357 `isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' defines the function to call
1358 to get the next buffer to search in the series of multiple buffers.
1360 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
1361 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
1364 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1365 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1367 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1368 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1369 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1370 (at your option) any later version.
1372 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1373 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1374 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1375 GNU General Public License for more details.
1377 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1378 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1383 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
1386 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2