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.
41 ** Emacs compiles with Gconf support, if it is detected.
42 Use the configure option --without-gconf to disable this.
43 This is used by the `font-use-system-font' feature (see below).
45 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.2
47 ** The command-line option -Q (--quick) also inhibits loading X resources.
48 However, if Emacs is compiled with the Lucid or Motif toolkit, X
49 resource settings for the graphical widgets are still applied.
50 On Windows, the -Q option causes Emacs to ignore Registry settings,
51 but environment variables set on the Registry are still honored.
53 *** The new variable `inhibit-x-resources' shows whether X resources
57 ** New command-line option -mm (--maximized) maximizes the initial frame.
59 * Changes in Emacs 23.2
62 ** The maximum size of buffers (and the largest fixnum) is doubled.
63 On typical 32bit systems, buffers can now be up to 512MB.
66 ** The default value of `trash-directory' is now nil.
67 This means that `move-file-to-trash' trashes files according to
68 freedesktop.org specifications, the same method used by the Gnome,
69 KDE, and XFCE desktops. (This change has no effect on Windows, which
70 uses `system-move-file-to-trash' for trashing.)
73 ** The pointer now becomes invisible when typing.
74 Customize `make-pointer-invisible' to disable this feature.
78 *** Emacs can use the system default monospaced font in Gnome.
79 To enable this feature, set `font-use-system-font' to non-nil (it is
80 nil by default). If the system default changes, Emacs changes also.
81 This feature requires Gconf support, which is automatically included
82 at compile-time if configure detects the gconf libraries (you can
83 disable this with the configure option --without-gconf).
85 *** On X11, Emacs reacts to Xft changes made by configuration tools,
86 via the XSETTINGS mechanism. This includes antialias, hinting,
87 hintstyle, RGBA, DPI and lcdfilter changes.
90 ** Killing a buffer with a running process now asks for confirmation.
91 To remove this query, remove `process-kill-buffer-query-function' from
92 `kill-buffer-query-functions', or set the appropriate process flag
93 with `set-process-query-on-exit-flag'.
95 ** File-local variable changes
97 *** Specifying a minor mode as a local variables enables that mode,
98 unconditionally. The previous behavior, toggling the mode, was
99 neither reliable nor generally desirable.
102 *** There are new commands for adding and removing file-local variables:
103 `add-file-local-variable', `delete-file-local-variable',
104 `add-file-local-variable-prop-line', and
105 `delete-file-local-variable-prop-line'.
108 *** There are new commands for adding and removing directory-local variables,
109 and copying them to and from file-local variable lists:
110 `add-dir-local-variable', `delete-dir-local-variable',
111 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals',
112 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals-prop-line' and
113 `copy-file-locals-to-dir-locals'.
115 ** Internationalization changes
117 *** Unibyte sessions are now considered obsolete.
118 This refers to the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable as well as the
119 --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte command line
120 arguments. Customizing enable-multibyte-characters and setting
121 default-enable-multibyte-characters are also deprecated.
123 *** New coding system `utf-8-hfs'.
124 This is suitable for default-file-name-coding-system on Mac OS X; see
125 international/ucs-normalize.el.
128 ** Function arguments in *Help* buffers are now shown in upper-case.
129 Customize `help-downcase-arguments' to t to show them in lower-case.
132 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.2
134 ** Kill-ring and selection changes
136 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, any active region automatically
137 becomes the primary selection (for interaction with other window
138 applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
139 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
141 *** When `save-interprogram-paste-before-kill' is non-nil, the kill
142 commands save the interprogram-paste selection into the kill ring
143 before doing anything else. This avoids losing the selection.
145 *** When `kill-do-not-save-duplicates' is non-nil, identical
146 subsequent kills are not duplicated in the `kill-ring'.
148 ** Completion changes
150 *** The new command `completion-at-point' provides mode-sensitive completion.
152 *** tab-always-indent set to `complete' lets TAB do completion as well.
154 *** The new completion-style `initials' is available.
155 For instance, this can complete M-x lch to list-command-history.
157 *** The new variable `completions-format' determines how completions
158 are displayed in the *Completions* buffer. If you set it to
159 `vertical', completions are sorted vertically in columns.
162 ** The default value of `blink-matching-paren-distance' is increased.
165 ** M-n provides more default values in the minibuffer for commands
166 that read file names. These include the file name at point (when ffap
167 is loaded without ffap-bindings), the file name on the current line
168 (in Dired buffers), and the directory names of adjacent Dired windows
169 (for Dired commands that operate on several directories, such as copy,
173 ** M-r is bound to the new `move-to-window-line-top-bottom'.
174 This moves point to the window center, top and bottom on successive
175 invocations, in the same spirit as the C-l (recenter-top-bottom)
179 ** The new variable `recenter-positions' determines the default
180 cycling order of C-l (`recenter-top-bottom').
183 ** The abbrevs file is now a file named abbrev_defs in
184 user-emacs-directory; but the old location, ~/.abbrev_defs, is used if
187 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
190 ** The bookmark menu has a narrowing search via bookmark-bmenu-search.
192 ** LaTeX mode now provides completion (via completion-at-point).
195 ** sym-comp.el is now declared obsolete, superseded by completion-at-point.
198 ** lucid.el and levents.el are now declared obsolete.
201 ** pcomplete provides a new command `pcomplete-std-completion' which
202 is similar to `pcomplete' but using the standard completion UI code.
206 *** The Calc settings file is now a file named calc.el in
207 user-emacs-directory; but the old location, ~/.calc.el, is used if
210 *** Graphing commands (`g f' etc.) now work on MS-Windows, if you have
211 the native Windows port of Gnuplot version 3.8 or later installed.
213 ** Calendar and diary
215 *** Fancy diary display is now the default.
216 If you prefer the simple display, customize `diary-display-function'.
218 *** The diary's fancy display now enables view-mode.
220 *** The command `calendar-current-date' accepts an optional argument
221 giving an offset from today.
225 *** The default value for `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is nil.
226 This means Desktop will try restoring all buffers, when you restart
227 your Emacs session. Also, `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is only
228 effective for buffers that have no associated file. If you want to
229 exempt buffers that do correspond to files, customize the value of
230 `desktop-files-not-to-save' instead.
234 *** The new variable `dired-auto-revert-buffer', if non-nil, causes
235 Dired buffers to be reverted automatically on revisiting them.
239 *** When `doc-view-continuous' is non-nil, scrolling a line
240 on the page edge advances to the next/previous page.
245 *** Toolbar functionality for reverse debugging. Display of STL
246 collections as watch expressions. These features require GDB 7.0 or later.
250 *** A new command `zrgrep' searches recursively in gzipped files.
255 *** The new command `Info-virtual-index' bound to "I" displays a menu of
256 matched topics found in the index.
259 *** The new command `info-finder' replaces finder.el with a virtual Info
260 manual that generates an Info file which gives the same information
261 through a menu structure.
264 ** Message mode is now the default mode for composing mail.
266 The default for `mail-user-agent' is now message-user-agent, so the
267 C-x m (`compose-mail') command uses Message mode instead of Mail mode.
269 Message mode has been included in Emacs, as part of the Gnus package,
270 for several years. It provides several features that are absent in
271 Mail mode, such as MIME handling.
274 *** If the user has not customized mail-user-agent, `compose-mail'
275 checks for Mail mode customizations, and issues a warning if these
276 customizations are found. This alerts users who may otherwise be
277 unaware that their mail configuration has changed.
279 To disable this check, set compose-mail-user-agent-warnings to nil.
282 ** The default value of mail-interactive is t, since Emacs 23.1.
283 (This was not announced at the time.) It means that when sending mail,
284 Emacs will wait for the process sending mail to return. If you
285 experience delays when sending mail, you may wish to set this to nil.
288 ** nXML mode is now the default for editing XML files.
290 ** Shell (and other comint modes)
292 *** M-s is no longer bound to `comint-next-matching-input'.
294 *** M-r is now bound to `comint-history-isearch-backward-regexp'.
295 This starts an incremental search of the comint/shell input history.
297 *** ansi-color is now enabled by default in Shell mode.
298 To disable it, set ansi-color-for-comint-mode to nil.
302 *** New connection methods "rsyncc", "imap" and "imaps".
303 On systems which support GVFS-Fuse, Tramp offers also the new
304 connection methods "dav", "davs", "obex" and "synce".
306 ** VC and related modes
308 *** When using C-x v v or C-x v i on a unregistered file that is in a
309 directory not controlled by any VCS, ask the user what VC backend to
310 use to create a repository, create a new repository and register the
313 *** New command `vc-root-print-log', bound to `C-x v L'.
314 This displays a `*vc-change-log*' buffer showing the history of the
315 version-controlled directory tree as a whole.
317 *** New command `vc-root-diff', bound to `C-x v D'.
318 This is similar to `vc-diff', but compares the entire directory tree
319 of the current VC directory with its working revision.
321 *** `C-x v l' and `C-x v L' do not show the full log by default.
322 The number of entries shown can be chosen interactively with a prefix
323 argument, or by customizing vc-log-show-limit. The `*vc-change-log*'
324 buffer now contains buttons at the end of the buffer, which can be
325 used to increase the number of entries shown. RCS, SCCS, and CVS do
326 not support this feature.
328 *** vc-annotate supports annotations through file copies and renames,
329 it displays the old names for the files and it can show logs/diffs for
330 the corresponding lines. Currently only Git and Mercurial take
331 advantage of this feature.
333 *** The log command in vc-annotate can display a single log entry
334 instead of redisplaying the full log. The RCS, CVS and SCCS VC
335 backends do not support this.
337 *** When a file is not found, VC will not try to check it out of RCS anymore.
339 *** Diff and log operations can be used from Dired buffers.
344 **** The short log format for git makes use of the graph display,
345 so it's not supported on git versions earlier than 1.5.6.
348 **** vc-dir uses the --relative option of git, and so requires at least
352 **** Support for operating with stashes has been added to vc-dir:
353 the stash list is displayed in the *vc-dir* header, stashes can be
354 created, removed, applied and their content displayed.
357 *** vc-bzr supports operating with shelves: the shelve list is
358 displayed in the *vc-dir* header, shelves can be created, removed and applied.
360 *** log-edit-strip-single-file-name controls whether or not single filenames
361 are stripped when copying text from the ChangeLog to the *VC-Log* buffer.
365 *** Elint now uses compilation-mode.
367 *** Elint can now scan individual files and whole directories,
368 and can be run in batch mode.
370 *** Elint does a more thorough initialization, and recognizes more built-in
371 functions and variables. Customize `elint-scan-preloaded' if you want
372 to sacrifice some accuracy for a faster startup.
374 *** Elint attempts some basic understanding of featurep and (f)boundp tests.
376 *** Customize `elint-ignored-warnings' to suppress some warnings.
380 *** The new command `async-shell-command' bound globally to `M-&' executes
381 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand to
382 the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
385 *** Interactively `multi-isearch-buffers' and `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp'
386 read buffer names to search, one by one, ended with RET. With a prefix
387 argument, they ask for a regexp, and search in buffers whose names match
388 the specified regexp. Interactively `multi-isearch-files' and
389 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' read file names to search, one by one,
390 ended with RET. With a prefix argument, they ask for a wildcard, and
391 search in file buffers whose file names match the specified wildcard.
393 *** Autorevert Tail mode now works also for remote files.
395 *** The new built-in commands `su' and `sudo' support Tramp.
396 That means, they change `default-directory' to the new users value,
397 and let commands run under that user permissions. It works even when
398 `default-directory' is already remote. Calling the external commands
399 is possible by `*su' or `*sudo', respectively.
401 *** When running in a new enough xterm (newer than version 242), Emacs
402 asks xterm what the background color is and it sets up faces
403 accordingly for a dark background if needed (the current default is to
404 consider the background light).
407 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
409 ** CEDET (the Collection of Emacs Development Tools) is now in Emacs.
410 This is a collection of packages to aid with using Emacs as an IDE
411 (integrated development environment):
414 *** The Semantic package allows the use of parsers to intelligently
415 edit and navigate source code. Parsers for C/C++, Java, Javascript,
416 and several other languages are included by default, and Semantic can
417 also interface with external tools such as GNU Global and GNU Idutils.
419 To enable Semantic, use the global minor mode `semantic-mode'.
420 See the Semantic manual for details.
423 *** EDE (Emacs Development Environment) is a package for managing code
424 projects, including features such as automatic Makefile generation.
426 To enable EDE, use the minor mode `global-ede-mode'.
427 See the EDE manual for details.
429 *** SRecode is a library for recoding Semantic tags back into source
430 code. It is currently used by some parts of Semantic and EDE; in the
431 future, it may be used for code generation features.
434 *** The EIEIO library implements a subset of the Common Lisp Object
435 System (CLOS). It is used by the other CEDET packages.
438 ** mpc.el is a front end for the Music Player Daemon. Run it with M-x mpc.
440 ** htmlfontify.el turns a fontified Emacs buffer into an HTML page.
443 ** js.el is a new major mode for JavaScript files.
446 ** imap-hash.el is a new library to address IMAP mailboxes as hashtables.
449 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.2
452 ** The Lisp reader turns integers that are too large/small into floats.
453 For instance, on machines where `536870911' is the largest integer,
454 reading `536870912' gives the floating-point object `536870912.0'.
456 This change only concerns the Lisp reader; it does not affect how
457 actual integer objects overflow.
460 ** Several obsolete functions removed.
461 The functions have been obsolete since Emacs 19, and are unlikely to
464 time-stamp-month-dd-yyyy, time-stamp-dd/mm/yyyy, time-stamp-mon-dd-yyyy
465 time-stamp-dd-mon-yy, time-stamp-yy/mm/dd, time-stamp-yyyy/mm/dd,
466 time-stamp-yyyy-mm-dd, time-stamp-yymmdd, time-stamp-hh:mm:ss,
467 time-stamp-hhmm, baud-rate
470 ** Support for generating Emacs 18 compatible bytecode (by setting
471 the variable `byte-compile-compatibility') has been removed.
474 ** In image-mode.el `image-mode-maybe' is obsolete.
475 Instead, you can either use `image-mode' (which displays an image file
476 as the actual image initially), or `image-mode-as-text' (when you want
477 to display an image file as text initially). `image-mode-as-text' is a
478 combination of a non-image mode from `auto-mode-alist' (or Fundamental
479 mode) and `image-minor-mode'. `image-minor-mode' provides a `C-c C-c'
480 key binding to toggle image display.
481 `image-toggle-display-text' removes image properties.
482 `image-toggle-display-image' adds image properties.
483 `image-toggle-display' toggles between `image-mode-as-text' and `image-mode'.
486 * Lisp changes in Emacs 23.2
488 ** All the default-FOO variables that hold the default value of the FOO
489 variable, are now declared obsolete.
491 ** read-key is a function halfway between read-event and read-key-sequence.
492 It reads a single key, but obeys input and escape sequence decoding.
494 ** Frame parameter changes
496 *** You can give the `fullscreen' frame parameter the value `maximized'.
497 This maximizes the frame.
499 *** The new frame parameter `sticky' makes Emacs frames sticky in
502 ** Completion changes
504 *** completion-base-size is obsoleted by completion-base-position.
505 This change causes a few backward incompatibilities, mostly with
506 choose-completion-string-functions where the `mini-p' argument has
507 been replaced by a `base-position' argument, and where the `base-size'
508 argument is now always nil.
510 *** New function `completion-in-region' to use the standard completion
511 facilities on a particular region of text.
513 *** The 4th arg to all-completions (aka hide-spaces) is declared obsolete.
515 *** completion-annotate-function specifies how to compute annotations
516 for completions displayed in *Completions*.
518 ** Minibuffer changes
520 *** read-file-name-predicate is obsolete. It was used to pass the predicate
521 to read-file-name-internal because read-file-name-internal abused its `pred'
522 argument to pass the current directory, but this hack is not needed
525 ** Changes to file-manipulation functions
527 *** `delete-directory' has an optional parameter RECURSIVE.
529 *** New function `copy-directory', which copies a directory recursively.
531 ** called-interactively-p now takes one argument and replaces interactive-p
532 which is now marked obsolete.
534 ** New function set-advertised-calling-convention makes it possible
535 to obsolete arguments as well as make some arguments mandatory.
537 ** You can control which binding is preferentially shown in menus and
538 docstrings by adding a `:advertised-binding' property to the corresponding
539 command's symbol. That property can hold a single binding or a list
542 ** Network and process changes
544 *** start-process-shell-command and start-file-process-shell-command
545 now only take a single `command' argument.
547 *** The new variable `process-file-side-effects' should be set to nil
548 if a `process-file' call does not change a remote file. This allows
549 file name handlers such as Tramp to optimizations.
551 *** make-network-process can now also create `seqpacket' Unix sockets.
555 *** eval-next-after-load is obsolete.
557 *** New hook `after-load-functions' run after loading an Elisp file.
559 ** Byte compilation changes
561 *** Changing the file-names generated by byte-compilation by redefining
562 the function `byte-compile-dest-file' before loading bytecomp.el is obsolete.
563 Instead, customize byte-compile-dest-file-function.
565 *** `byte-compile-warnings' has new members, `constants' and `suspicious'.
567 ** New macro with-silent-modifications to tweak text properties without
568 affecting the buffer's modification state.
571 ** Hash tables have a new printed representation that is readable.
572 The feature `hashtable-print-readable' identifies this new
575 ** New functions for performing Unicode normalization:
576 ucs-normalize-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-NFD-string,
577 ucs-normalize-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-NFC-string,
578 ucs-normalize-NFKD-region, ucs-normalize-NFKD-string,
579 ucs-normalize-NFKC-region, ucs-normalize-NFKC-string,
580 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-string,
581 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-string.
584 ** Face aliases can now be marked as obsolete, using the macro
585 `define-obsolete-face-alias'.
588 ** New function `window-full-height-p', analogous to the full-width version.
591 * Changes in Emacs 23.2 on non-free operating systems
594 ** On MS-Windows, `display-time' now displays the system load average
595 as well as the time, as it does on GNU and Unix.
598 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
600 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
601 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
602 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
605 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
606 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
608 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
609 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
611 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
612 where Emacs is running).
614 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
616 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
619 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
621 ** Changes to image support
623 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
626 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
628 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
630 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port.
631 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
632 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
634 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
635 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
636 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
637 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
639 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
640 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
642 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
645 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
646 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
648 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
650 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
652 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
654 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
655 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
656 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
658 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
660 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
663 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
665 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
667 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
669 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
671 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
672 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
674 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
675 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
676 you need control over which C compiler is used.
678 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
680 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
681 or any later version.
683 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
684 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
685 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
687 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
689 ** Improved X Window System support
691 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
692 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
693 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
694 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
695 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
696 There may be problems if a display exits unexpectedly and Emacs is compiled
697 with Gtk+, see etc/PROBLEMS.
699 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
700 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
702 *** Emacs starts in the background, as a daemon, when given the
703 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
704 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
705 terminal frames using emacsclient.
707 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
708 --alternate-editor="" is used (or when the evironment variable
709 ALTERNATE_EDITOR is set to "") and emacsclient cannot connect to an
712 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
713 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
715 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
716 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
717 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
718 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
719 for details about XEmbed.
721 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
722 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
723 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
724 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
725 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
727 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
728 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
729 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
730 active frame and INACTIVE is the opacity of non-active frames.
732 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
733 opacity; the default is 20.
735 ** Internationalization changes
737 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
738 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
740 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
741 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs' (`emacs-internal' is an alias
742 for this). This encoding is backward-compatible with Unicode's UTF-8
743 encoding. The internal encoding previously used by Emacs,
744 `emacs-mule', is still available for reading and writing files.
746 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
747 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
748 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
749 or 22 are loaded correctly as `emacs-mule' (whether or not they
750 contain multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it
751 may be worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be
752 shared with older Emacsen.
754 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
756 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
757 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
758 as tables of unicodes.
760 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
761 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
762 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
764 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
765 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
767 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
768 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
769 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
771 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
772 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
773 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
776 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
777 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
778 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
779 the mode-line mouse menu.
783 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
784 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
785 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
786 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
787 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
789 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
790 "Save Options" item is used.
792 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
793 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
794 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
796 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
797 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
798 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
799 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
801 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
802 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
803 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
807 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
808 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
810 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
811 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
813 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
814 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
816 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
818 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
819 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
821 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
822 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
823 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
824 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
826 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
827 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
828 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
829 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
831 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
832 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
833 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
834 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
836 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
839 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
841 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
842 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
843 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
844 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
845 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
847 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
848 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
851 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
852 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
853 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
856 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
858 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
859 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
860 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
861 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
864 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
866 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
867 on the regexp command prefix map.
869 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
870 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
873 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
874 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
875 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
876 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
877 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
878 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
880 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
881 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
882 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
883 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
884 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
885 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
887 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound from
888 `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the global
889 prefix map `M-o', which is intended for such formatting commands.
891 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
892 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
893 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
894 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
895 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
899 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
901 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
902 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
903 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
904 behavior (i.e., motion by logical lines based on buffer contents
907 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
908 invokes `suspend-frame'. These changes are for compatibility with the
909 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
913 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
915 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
917 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
920 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
921 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
923 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
924 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
927 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
930 *** The variable `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty
931 active region in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on
934 ** Temporarily active regions
936 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
937 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
938 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
939 region, similar to mouse-selection.
941 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
942 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
943 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
944 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
945 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
948 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
950 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
951 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
952 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
953 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
954 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
955 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
956 to create the file or buffer.
958 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
959 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
960 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
961 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
963 *** The rules for performing completion have been changed.
964 When generating completion alternatives, Emacs now takes the
965 minibuffer text after point, if any, into account: this text is
966 treated as a substring of the remaining part of the completion
967 alternative (i.e., the part not matched by the minibuffer text before
968 point). If no completion alternatives are found this way, Emacs
969 attempts to perform partial-completion. If still no completion
970 alternatives are found, we fall back on the Emacs 22 rules for
971 performing completion.
973 The new variable `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your
974 favorite completion style.
976 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
977 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
978 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
979 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
980 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
981 searching minibuffer completion items.
983 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
985 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
986 name of the current buffer.
988 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
989 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
990 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
991 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
992 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
994 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
995 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
996 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
997 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
999 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
1000 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
1001 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
1002 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
1003 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
1005 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
1006 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
1007 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
1008 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
1009 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
1010 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
1011 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
1013 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
1014 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
1016 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
1017 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
1019 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
1020 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
1022 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
1023 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
1024 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
1028 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
1029 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
1030 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
1032 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
1033 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
1034 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
1035 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
1037 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
1038 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
1039 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
1040 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
1042 *** The commands buffer-face-mode and buffer-face-set can be used to
1043 remap the default face in the current buffer. See "Buffer Face mode",
1044 under New Modes and Packages.
1046 ** Primary selection changes
1048 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
1049 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
1051 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
1052 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
1053 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
1054 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
1055 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
1056 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
1057 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
1058 New Modes and Packages, below.
1060 ** Window management changes
1062 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
1063 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
1064 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
1066 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
1067 vertically and horizontally.
1069 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
1070 is on a different frame.
1072 ** Miscellaneous changes:
1074 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
1075 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
1076 successive invocations.
1078 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
1080 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
1081 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
1082 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
1084 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
1085 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
1086 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
1088 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
1089 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
1090 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
1091 run processes remotely.
1093 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
1096 *** The value of comment-style now defaults to `indent'.
1097 Thefore, comment-start markers are inserted at the current indentation
1098 of the region to comment, rather than the leftmost column.
1100 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
1101 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
1103 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
1104 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
1105 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
1106 convenience alias for this function.
1108 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
1109 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
1110 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
1112 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
1113 kill into the password.
1115 *** Tooltip frame parameters `font' and `color' in `tooltip-frame-parameters'
1116 are ignored. Customize the `tooltip' face instead.
1118 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
1120 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
1122 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
1123 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
1124 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
1126 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
1128 ** Buffer Face mode is a minor mode for remapping the default face in
1129 the current buffer. The variable `buffer-face-mode-face' specifies
1130 the face to remap to. The command `buffer-face-set' prompts for a
1131 face name, sets `buffer-face-mode-face' to it, and enables
1132 buffer-face-mode. See "Face changes", under Editing Changes, for a
1133 description of face remapping.
1135 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
1136 See http://xkcd.com/378/
1138 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
1140 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
1141 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
1142 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
1144 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
1145 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
1146 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
1148 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
1150 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
1151 the postscript file.
1153 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
1154 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
1155 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
1156 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
1158 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
1159 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
1161 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
1164 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
1165 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
1166 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
1167 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
1170 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
1173 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
1174 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
1175 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
1177 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
1178 any invalid parts of your document.
1180 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
1181 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
1182 allowed by the schema in that context.
1184 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
1185 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
1186 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
1187 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
1188 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
1189 MS-Windows and Solaris.
1191 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
1192 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
1195 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
1197 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
1199 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
1200 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
1201 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
1202 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
1203 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
1204 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
1206 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
1207 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
1208 requires D-Bus for communication.
1210 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
1211 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
1212 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
1213 which have installed this software.
1215 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
1216 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
1217 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
1218 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
1219 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
1220 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
1221 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
1222 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
1223 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
1226 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
1228 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
1230 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
1231 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
1233 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
1235 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
1236 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
1238 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
1240 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
1242 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
1243 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
1245 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
1246 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
1247 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
1251 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
1253 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
1255 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
1256 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
1257 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
1261 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
1263 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
1264 `string', disabled by default.
1266 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
1267 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
1269 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
1273 *** bookmark.el saves bookmarks in a pre-Emacs-23-incompatible file format
1274 bookmark.el can read a .emacs.bmk file saved by an older Emacs, but an
1275 older Emacs cannot read one saved by Emacs 23.
1277 ** Calendar and diary
1279 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
1280 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
1281 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
1282 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
1284 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
1285 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
1286 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
1287 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
1288 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
1289 using the new names.
1291 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
1293 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
1294 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
1296 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
1297 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
1299 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
1300 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
1302 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
1303 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
1307 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
1308 associated with the current log entry.
1310 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
1311 source code associated with a log entry.
1313 ** Compile and grep modes
1315 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
1316 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
1317 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
1319 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
1320 the first error encountered during compilations.
1322 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
1323 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
1325 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
1326 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
1327 C++ sources and headers.
1331 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
1332 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
1333 considered for update.
1335 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
1336 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
1340 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
1341 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
1345 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
1346 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
1347 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
1349 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
1350 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
1351 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
1353 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
1354 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
1358 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
1359 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
1362 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
1363 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
1364 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
1367 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
1368 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
1369 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
1370 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
1371 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
1372 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
1373 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
1374 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
1376 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
1377 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
1378 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
1380 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
1381 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
1382 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
1383 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
1384 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
1385 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
1386 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
1390 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
1391 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
1393 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
1394 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
1396 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
1400 *** The Gnus package has been updated
1401 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
1402 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
1404 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
1405 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
1406 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
1407 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
1409 *** Passwords are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
1410 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
1411 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
1412 authentication respectively.
1416 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
1417 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
1419 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
1420 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
1422 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits one to specify a new
1423 position for point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
1427 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
1428 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
1429 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
1430 while Isearch is active.
1432 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
1433 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
1434 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
1435 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
1436 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
1438 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
1439 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
1440 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
1442 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
1443 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
1444 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
1445 if there is one (e.g. going from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
1446 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
1448 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
1449 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
1452 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
1453 `isearch-fail' face.
1455 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
1456 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
1457 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
1458 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
1459 and execute their global definitions.
1461 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
1462 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
1466 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.2. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1469 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
1470 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
1472 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
1473 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
1474 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
1475 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
1479 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
1480 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
1481 corresponding remote host.
1485 *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
1486 Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
1487 and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
1489 The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
1490 automatically converts it to mbox format. This is a one-time
1491 conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
1492 your machine and on the size of the file. You should find the rest of
1493 Rmail usage unaltered.
1495 However, M-x set-rmail-inbox-list now lasts only for one session
1496 because there is no way to save the list of inbox files in an
1499 Also, whereas with Babyl format M-x find-file would switch to Rmail
1500 mode, with mbox format this is no longer the case (there being no way
1501 to add an "-*- rmail-*-" cookie to an mbox file). Use C-u M-x rmail
1504 If you have written any extensions to Rmail, they are likely to need
1505 updating. Conceptually, the Rmail buffer that you see is no longer
1506 just a narrowed portion of the whole. So you cannot access the whole
1507 of a message (or message collection) by a simple save-restriction and
1508 widen. Instead, there are two buffers: the rmail-buffer, and the
1509 rmail-view-buffer. The former is the buffer that you see, the latter
1510 is invisible. Most of the time, the invisible `view' buffer contains
1511 the full contents of the Rmail file, and the Rmail buffer contains a
1512 decoded copy of the current message (with only a subset of the
1513 headers). In this state, Rmail is said to be `swapped'.
1515 You may find the following functions useful:
1517 `rmail-get-header' and `rmail-set-header' get or set the value of a
1518 message header, whether or not it is currently visible.
1520 `rmail-apply-in-message' is a general purpose function that calls a
1521 function (with arguments) which you specify on the full text of a given
1522 message. To further narrow to just the headers, search forward for "\n\n".
1524 *** The new command `rmail-mime' displays MIME messages.
1525 It is bound to `v' in Rmail buffers and summaries. It displays plain
1526 text and multipart messages in a temporary buffer, and offers buttons
1527 to save attachments.
1529 *** The command `rmail-redecode-body' no longer accepts the optional arg RAW.
1530 Since Rmail now holds messages in their original undecoded form in a
1531 separate buffer, `rmail-redecode-body' no longer encodes the original
1532 message, and therefore there should be no need to avoid encoding it.
1534 *** The o command is now `rmail-output'. It is an all-purpose command
1535 for copying messages from Rmail and appending them to files. It
1536 handles Babyl-format files as well as mbox-format files, and it
1537 handles both kinds properly when they are visited in Emacs. It always
1538 copies the full headers of the message.
1540 *** The C-o command is now `rmail-output-as-seen'. It uses
1541 the message as displayed, appending it to an mbox file.
1543 *** The modified status of the Rmail buffer is reported in the mode-line.
1544 Previously, this information was hidden.
1548 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
1549 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
1554 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
1555 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
1556 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
1557 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
1562 *** New connection methods.
1563 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
1564 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
1565 "tunnel" and "socks".
1568 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
1569 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
1571 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
1572 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead, multi hops
1573 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
1575 *** More default settings.
1576 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
1577 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
1579 *** Connection information is cached.
1580 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
1581 connections is kept persistently in a file. The name of this file is
1582 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
1584 *** Control of remote processes.
1585 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
1586 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
1588 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
1589 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
1590 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
1592 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
1593 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
1596 ** VC and related modes
1598 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
1599 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
1600 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
1601 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
1604 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
1605 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
1606 directory or a set of files/directories.
1608 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
1609 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
1610 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
1611 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
1612 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
1613 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
1614 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
1616 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
1618 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
1620 *** In VC Annotate mode, the key bindings have changed to use lower
1621 case keys instead of the upper case keys used in the past.
1623 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1624 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1625 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
1626 line" menu entry does the same thing.
1628 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
1630 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1633 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1634 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1637 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1638 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1639 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1641 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1642 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1643 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1645 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1647 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1649 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of a maintainer able
1650 to update it to the new VC.
1654 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1655 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1656 on the corresponding remote system.
1658 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1659 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1661 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1662 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1663 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1665 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1666 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1668 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1669 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1671 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1673 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1674 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1676 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1677 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1679 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1681 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1682 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1684 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1685 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1687 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1689 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1691 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1692 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1693 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1695 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1697 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1698 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1701 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1702 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1703 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1704 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1706 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1707 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1709 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1710 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1713 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1715 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1716 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1717 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1718 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1719 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1721 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1722 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1723 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1724 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1725 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1727 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1728 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1729 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1731 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1732 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1733 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1734 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1735 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1737 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1738 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1739 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1740 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1741 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1743 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1744 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1745 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1746 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1747 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1748 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1750 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1751 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1752 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1753 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1754 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1755 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1756 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1757 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1758 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1761 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1763 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1765 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1766 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1768 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1769 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1770 that range have the same value.
1774 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1776 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1777 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1778 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1781 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1782 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1783 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1784 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1785 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1786 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1787 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1789 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1790 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1792 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1793 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1795 ** Internationalization changes
1797 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1799 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1802 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1803 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1804 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1806 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1807 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1808 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1810 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1811 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1813 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1814 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1816 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1817 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1819 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1820 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1822 *** The meaning of NAME argument of `set-fontset-font' is changed.
1823 Previously nil is accepted as the default fontset. Now, nil is for
1824 the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the default fontset.
1826 *** The meaning of FONTSET argument of `print-fontset' is changed.
1827 Now, nil is for the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the
1830 ** If a function in write-region-annotate-functions returns with a
1831 different buffer current, Emacs no longer kills that buffer
1832 automatically. This behavior existed in previous versions of Emacs,
1833 but was undocumented. To kill a buffer after write-region, give the
1834 variable `write-region-post-annotation-function' a buffer-local value
1837 ** The variable temp-file-name-pattern has been removed.
1838 This variable was only used by call-process-region, which now uses
1839 temporary-file-directory instead.
1841 ** The COUNT and SYSTEM-FLAG arguments to define-abbrev have been
1842 removed. The function now takes extra arguments for specifying
1843 arbitrary abbrev properties.
1845 ** end-of-defun-function is now guaranteed to work only when called
1846 from the start of a defun. It must now leave point exactly at the end
1847 of defun, since `end-of-defun' now itself moves forward over
1848 whitespace after calling it.
1851 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1853 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1854 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1855 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1856 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1857 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1860 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `process-attributes'
1861 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1862 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1863 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1864 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1866 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1867 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1869 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1870 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1871 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1873 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1876 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1877 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1878 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1879 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1881 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1883 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1884 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1885 strings on the kill ring.
1887 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1888 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1893 ((debug error) nil))
1895 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1897 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count given to
1898 `beginning-of-defun'. (N.B. `end-of-defun-function' doesn't take any
1901 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1902 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1903 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1904 remote connection has been established already.
1906 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1907 undefined functions.
1909 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1911 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1912 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1913 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1915 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1916 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1917 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1919 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1920 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1921 interactive forms to subroutines.
1925 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1926 an active region that they should operate on.
1928 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1929 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
1930 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
1931 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
1932 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
1934 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1935 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1936 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1937 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1938 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1940 ** Emacs session information
1942 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1943 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1945 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1947 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1948 Emacs initialization.
1950 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1952 *** display-buffer tries to be smarter when splitting windows.
1953 The new option split-window-preferred-function lets you specify your own
1954 function to pop up new windows. Its default value split-window-sensibly
1955 can split a window either vertically or horizontally, whichever seems
1956 more suitable in the current configuration. You can tune the behavior
1957 of split-window-sensibly by customizing split-height-threshold and the
1958 new option split-width-threshold. Both options now take the value nil
1959 to inhibit splitting in one direction. Setting split-width-threshold to
1960 nil inhibits horizontal splitting and gets you the behavior of Emacs 22
1961 in this respect. In any case, display-buffer may now split the largest
1962 window vertically even when it is not as wide as the containing frame.
1964 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1965 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1967 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have a new optional
1968 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1969 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1971 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1972 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1975 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1976 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1978 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1980 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1981 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1982 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1983 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1984 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1986 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1987 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1988 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1990 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1991 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1993 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
1994 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
1996 ** Search and replacement changes
1998 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
2000 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
2001 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
2003 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
2004 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
2005 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
2008 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
2009 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
2010 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
2011 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
2012 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
2014 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
2015 for search related commands.
2017 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
2018 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
2020 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
2021 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
2023 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
2024 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
2025 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
2026 unless it ends in whitespace.
2028 ** File handling changes
2030 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
2031 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
2033 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
2034 variables defined in the current buffer.
2038 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
2039 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
2040 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
2041 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
2042 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
2044 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
2045 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
2046 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
2047 Editing Changes, above).
2051 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
2054 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
2057 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
2059 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
2063 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
2064 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
2065 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
2066 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
2067 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
2069 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
2070 returns its output as a list of lines.
2072 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
2074 *** In multibyte buffers and strings, characters are represented by
2075 UTF-8 byte sequences. The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF
2076 with no gap; code points 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the
2077 same code points, while code points 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit
2080 *** Generic characters no longer exist.
2082 *** The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may
2083 belong to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
2084 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
2086 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
2087 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
2089 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
2090 characters for display.
2092 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
2093 positional codes instead of just 2.
2095 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
2097 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
2098 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
2100 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
2101 priorities of charsets.
2103 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
2104 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
2105 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
2106 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
2107 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
2110 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
2111 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
2112 entries in that range of characters.
2114 *** Use of `translation-table-for-input' for character code unification
2115 is now obsolete, since Emacs 23.1 and later uses Unicode as basis for
2116 internal representation of characters.
2120 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
2121 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
2123 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
2125 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
2127 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
2129 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
2131 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
2133 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
2135 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
2136 a character code property.
2140 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
2141 search for a word boundary.
2143 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
2145 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
2147 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
2148 property on printing a string.
2150 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
2152 ** Code conversion changes
2154 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
2155 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
2157 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
2158 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
2159 conversion should go.
2161 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
2162 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
2165 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
2166 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
2167 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
2170 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
2174 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
2175 coding system priority order.
2177 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
2178 encodable by the specified coding systems.
2180 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
2182 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
2185 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
2186 ordered by their priorities.
2188 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
2190 **** `coding-system-from-name' returns a coding system matching with
2193 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
2194 It has three functionalities:
2195 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
2196 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
2197 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
2198 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
2200 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
2202 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
2204 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
2207 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
2208 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
2211 ** Changes related to the new font backend
2213 *** Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource
2214 "FontBackend". For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
2216 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
2218 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
2219 available on your graphic device.
2221 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
2222 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
2223 currently `x' and `xft'.
2225 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
2226 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
2231 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
2233 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
2235 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
2237 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
2239 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
2241 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
2243 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
2245 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
2247 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
2248 entity, or font object.
2250 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
2252 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
2254 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
2255 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
2257 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
2259 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
2260 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
2261 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
2262 takes a frame argument.
2264 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
2265 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
2267 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
2268 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
2270 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
2273 *** A new `terminal' data type.
2274 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
2275 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
2277 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
2278 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
2279 which is not used directly any more.
2283 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
2284 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
2285 file-local variables.
2287 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
2288 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
2289 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
2290 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
2292 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
2293 deleting a terminal.
2297 **** `delete-terminal'
2303 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
2305 ** Redisplay changes
2307 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
2308 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
2310 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
2311 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
2312 This is convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer
2313 position (e.g. in before/after-strings).
2315 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
2317 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
2318 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
2319 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
2320 times the default column width.
2322 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
2323 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
2326 *** The new variables `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' specify display
2327 specs which are appended at display-time to every continuation line
2328 and non-continuation line, respectively. In addition, Emacs
2329 recognizes the `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' text or overlay
2330 properties; these have the same effects as the variables of the same
2331 name, but take precedence.
2333 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
2335 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2337 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
2339 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
2340 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
2342 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
2343 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
2344 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
2345 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
2347 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
2348 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
2350 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
2351 attributes of a given face.
2353 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
2354 string of days, hours, etc.
2356 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
2359 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
2360 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
2361 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
2363 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
2365 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
2366 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
2368 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
2369 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
2370 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
2372 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
2373 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
2376 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
2377 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
2378 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
2380 ** Miscellaneous new variables
2382 *** `auto-save-include-big-deletions', if non-nil, means auto-save is
2383 not turned off automatically after a big deletion.
2385 *** `read-circle', if nil, disables the reading of recursive Lisp
2386 structures using the #N= and #N# syntax.
2388 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
2389 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
2391 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
2392 marker used for window-point.
2394 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
2395 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
2398 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
2399 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
2402 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
2404 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
2406 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
2407 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
2409 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
2411 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
2412 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
2413 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
2414 of multiple buffers. Top-level functions `multi-isearch-buffers',
2415 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
2416 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
2417 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
2419 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
2420 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
2423 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2424 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2426 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2427 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2428 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2429 (at your option) any later version.
2431 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2432 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2433 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2434 GNU General Public License for more details.
2436 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2437 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2442 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
2445 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2