1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2006-05-31
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006
3 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying 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 20.
13 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
15 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
18 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
20 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
22 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
23 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
24 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
25 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
26 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
28 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
33 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
35 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
39 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
41 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
42 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
46 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
48 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
50 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
51 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
52 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
54 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
55 is the one that is used.
57 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
58 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
59 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
60 separate from the command's regular output.
61 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
62 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
63 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
66 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
67 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
68 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
69 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
71 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
72 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
73 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
74 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
76 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
77 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
78 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
79 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
81 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
82 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
83 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
84 they never ignore case.
86 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
87 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
88 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
89 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
90 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
91 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
92 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
94 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
95 the same format that was used in the file before.
97 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
98 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
100 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
101 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
102 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
104 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
105 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
106 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
107 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
108 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
109 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
110 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
112 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
113 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
114 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
115 format. You can now customize these variables.
117 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
118 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
119 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
120 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
122 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
123 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
124 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
126 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
127 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
128 doesn't have any effect.
130 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
133 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
134 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
135 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
137 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
138 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
139 `auto-show-mode' command.
141 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
142 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
143 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
144 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
145 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
147 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
148 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
150 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
151 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
152 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
154 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
155 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
156 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
157 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
159 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
161 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
162 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
163 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
164 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
165 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
167 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
168 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
170 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
171 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
172 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
173 `?' on other systems.
175 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
176 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
179 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
180 current codepage when it starts.
184 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
185 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
186 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
187 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
188 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
189 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
193 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
194 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
196 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
197 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
198 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
199 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
200 buffer-file-coding-system.
202 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
203 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
206 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
207 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
208 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
209 list of possible coding systems.
213 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
214 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
215 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
216 docstring for details.
218 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
219 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
220 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
221 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
222 lineup functions use this feature currently.
224 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
225 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
227 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
228 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
230 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
231 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
232 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
233 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
236 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
237 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
239 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
240 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
241 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
242 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
244 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
245 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
246 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
247 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
248 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
250 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
252 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
254 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
255 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
257 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
259 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
260 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
261 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
262 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
263 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
267 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
268 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
269 Gnus manual for the full story.
271 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
272 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
273 group, which is created automatically.
275 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
278 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
280 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
281 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
283 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
286 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
288 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
289 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
291 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
293 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
294 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
296 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
297 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
299 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
300 control over simplification.
302 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
304 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
307 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
309 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
311 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
312 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
313 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
315 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
316 `a' forces normal posting method.
318 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
321 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
324 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
325 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
327 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
330 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
332 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
334 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
335 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
337 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
338 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
340 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
342 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
345 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
346 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
348 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
349 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
351 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
353 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
355 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
357 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
359 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
360 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
361 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
363 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
364 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
365 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
366 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
367 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
369 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
370 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
371 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
372 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
374 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
375 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
376 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
379 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
381 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
382 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
384 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
385 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
386 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
387 removed from the label.
389 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
390 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
392 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
393 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
395 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
396 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
399 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
401 ** New/deleted modes and packages
403 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
404 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
406 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
407 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
408 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
410 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
411 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
412 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
415 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
417 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
418 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
419 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
420 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
421 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
423 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
424 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
425 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
427 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
428 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
429 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
430 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
431 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
432 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
433 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
434 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
435 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
437 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
438 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
439 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
440 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
441 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
444 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
445 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
446 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
447 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
448 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
449 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
451 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
452 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
453 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
454 was not documented clearly before.
456 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
457 This includes Tetris and Snake.
460 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
462 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
463 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
464 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
465 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
467 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
468 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
469 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
471 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
473 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
474 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
476 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
477 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
480 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
481 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
482 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
483 file names and attributes are returned.
485 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
486 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
487 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
488 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
491 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
492 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
494 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
496 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
497 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
498 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
501 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
502 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
505 The new function process-running-child-p
506 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
507 terminal to its own child process.
509 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
510 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
511 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
512 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
514 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
515 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
517 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
518 :included is an alias for :visible.
520 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
521 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
522 to move or copy menu entries.
524 ** Multibyte editing changes
526 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
527 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
528 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
529 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
530 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
531 (setq char (sref str idx)
532 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
533 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
535 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
536 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
537 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
539 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
540 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
541 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
543 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
545 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
548 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
549 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
550 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
551 contains 8-bit characters.
552 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
553 contains invalid characters.
555 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
556 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
557 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
558 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
561 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
562 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
563 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
564 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
566 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
567 compose Thai characters in a string.
569 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
570 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
571 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
572 menus should always use the third argument.
574 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
575 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
576 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
577 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
579 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
580 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
581 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
582 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
584 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
585 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
586 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
589 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
591 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
592 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
593 requested feature cannot be loaded.
595 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
596 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
597 means to clear out that attribute.
599 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
600 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
602 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
603 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
604 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
605 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
607 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
608 the gap of the current buffer.
610 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
611 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
614 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
615 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
616 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
617 it back in after any modifications have been made.
621 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
623 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
624 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
625 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
626 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
627 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
629 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
630 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
631 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
632 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
633 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
635 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
636 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
637 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
639 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
640 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
641 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
642 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
643 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
646 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
647 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
648 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
649 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
652 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
654 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
655 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
656 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
657 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
659 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
660 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
661 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
662 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
663 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
664 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
665 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
668 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
671 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
672 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
673 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
674 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
675 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
677 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
678 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
679 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
680 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
682 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
683 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
684 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
685 something that most users not do.
687 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
688 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
689 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
692 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
695 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
696 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
697 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
698 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
701 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
702 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
703 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
704 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
705 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
708 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
709 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
710 to be confused by TeX commands.
712 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
713 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
714 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
715 of various alternative replacements and actions.
717 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
718 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
719 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
720 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
721 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
723 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
724 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
726 ** Changes in input method usage.
728 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
729 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
732 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
734 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
735 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
737 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
738 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
740 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
742 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
744 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
745 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
747 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
748 given in the following case:
749 o When you are using a complex input method.
750 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
752 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
753 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
754 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
755 setting it to t is helpful.
757 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
759 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
761 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
762 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
763 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
764 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
767 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
768 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
769 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
774 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
776 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
777 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
779 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
780 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
783 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
784 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
786 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
787 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
789 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
790 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
791 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
792 by the left edge of the rectangle.
794 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
795 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
796 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
797 for writing keyboard macros.
799 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
800 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
801 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
802 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
803 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
806 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
808 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
809 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
812 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
813 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
814 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
815 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
817 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
818 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
819 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
821 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
822 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
823 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
824 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
826 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
827 failure if the command produces no output.
829 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
830 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
833 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
834 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
835 function and variable names.
837 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
838 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
839 file-coding-system-alist.
841 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
842 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
843 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
844 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
845 according to the current fontset.
847 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
849 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
850 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
851 nonascii-insert-offset.
853 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
854 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
855 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
856 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
858 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
859 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
861 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
862 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
864 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
865 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
868 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
869 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
871 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
872 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
873 all variables that have documentation.
875 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
876 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
877 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
878 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
879 it should show; the default is 20.
881 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
882 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
885 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
886 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
887 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
888 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
889 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
890 Newly added options are included as well.
892 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
893 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
894 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
896 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
899 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
900 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
902 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
903 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
906 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
907 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
910 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
911 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
912 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
913 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
916 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
918 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
919 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
920 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
922 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
923 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
924 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
929 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
930 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
932 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
933 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
935 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
936 read and post multi-lingual articles.
938 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
939 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
940 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
941 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
942 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
943 made invisible again.
945 ** Mail reading and sending changes
947 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
948 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
949 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
952 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
953 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
954 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
955 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
956 rmail-default-body-file.
958 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
959 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
960 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
962 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
963 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
964 is evaluated to insert the signature.
966 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
967 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
968 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
969 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
970 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
971 especially interested in trying feedmail.
973 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
974 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
975 provided by feedmail are:
977 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
978 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
979 there is also a queue for draft messages
981 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
982 be prompted for confirmation
984 **** does smart filling of address headers
986 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
987 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
988 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
990 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
991 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
992 /usr/lib/sendmail, and Emacs Lisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
993 function for something else (10-20 lines of Lisp code).
997 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
998 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
1000 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
1001 run Dired on the directory name at point.
1003 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
1004 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
1005 for a specified regexp.
1009 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
1012 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
1013 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
1016 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
1017 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
1018 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
1019 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
1021 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
1022 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
1023 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
1024 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
1025 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
1027 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
1028 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
1029 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
1030 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
1031 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
1033 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
1034 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
1035 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
1036 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
1038 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
1039 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
1040 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
1042 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
1043 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
1044 session to resolve them.
1046 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
1047 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
1048 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
1051 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
1052 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
1053 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
1054 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
1055 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
1056 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
1059 ** Changes in Font Lock
1061 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
1062 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
1063 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
1064 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
1065 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
1067 ** Frame name display changes
1069 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
1070 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
1071 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
1072 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
1074 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
1075 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
1078 ** Comint (subshell) changes
1080 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
1081 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
1082 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
1084 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
1086 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
1087 that is, the line after the last line you got.
1088 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
1090 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
1091 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
1094 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
1095 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
1096 previously sent input.
1098 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
1099 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
1100 as the search string.
1102 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
1103 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
1107 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
1108 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
1109 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
1112 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
1113 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
1114 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
1115 style is still the default however.
1117 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
1119 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
1120 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
1121 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
1123 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
1124 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
1126 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
1127 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
1129 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
1130 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
1132 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
1133 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
1135 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
1136 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
1137 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
1138 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
1140 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
1142 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
1143 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
1144 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
1146 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
1147 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
1148 expanding dynamically.
1150 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
1151 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
1153 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
1154 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
1155 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
1156 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
1158 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
1160 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
1162 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
1163 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
1164 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
1165 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
1166 against the first word in the title.
1168 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
1169 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
1170 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
1171 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
1172 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
1173 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
1175 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
1176 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
1177 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
1178 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
1180 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
1182 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
1183 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
1184 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
1185 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
1186 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
1187 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
1189 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
1190 Editing group once the package is loaded.
1192 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
1193 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
1194 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
1196 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
1197 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
1201 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
1202 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
1203 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
1205 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
1206 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
1207 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
1208 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
1211 o URLs are automatically skipped
1212 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
1214 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
1216 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
1218 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
1219 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
1220 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
1221 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
1223 *** New recursive parser.
1225 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
1226 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
1227 recursive parser scans the individual files.
1229 *** Parsing only part of a document.
1231 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
1232 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
1233 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
1235 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
1237 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
1239 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
1241 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
1243 *** Using multiple selection buffers
1245 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
1246 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
1248 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
1250 *** References to external documents.
1252 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
1253 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
1254 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
1255 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
1256 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
1257 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
1258 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
1260 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
1262 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
1263 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
1265 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
1266 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
1268 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
1270 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
1271 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
1273 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
1275 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
1276 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
1277 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
1278 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
1279 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
1280 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
1283 *** Support for the varioref package
1285 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
1289 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
1290 and citations are created. These hooks are
1291 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
1292 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
1294 *** Citations outside LaTeX
1296 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
1297 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
1299 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
1301 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
1302 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
1305 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
1307 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
1308 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
1309 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
1310 directories that contain the same file name.
1312 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
1313 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
1314 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
1315 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
1316 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
1317 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
1318 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
1321 ** New modes and packages
1323 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
1324 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
1325 it, but some do not.
1327 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
1330 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
1331 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
1334 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
1336 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
1337 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
1338 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
1339 established system of notation similar to Chess.
1341 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
1342 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
1343 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
1345 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
1346 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
1347 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc.); others are implementations of
1348 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
1349 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
1352 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
1353 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
1355 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
1356 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
1357 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
1358 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
1360 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
1362 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
1363 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
1364 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
1365 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
1366 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc.)
1367 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
1368 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
1369 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
1370 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
1371 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
1372 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
1374 Platform-specific modes:
1376 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
1377 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
1378 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
1379 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
1380 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
1381 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
1382 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
1383 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
1384 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
1387 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
1389 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
1390 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
1391 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
1392 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
1394 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
1395 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
1396 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
1398 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
1399 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
1400 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
1401 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
1403 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
1404 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
1405 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
1408 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
1409 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
1410 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
1411 current input method for reading this one event.
1413 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
1414 now control whether to output certain characters as
1415 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
1416 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
1417 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
1418 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
1421 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
1423 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
1424 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
1426 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
1427 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
1428 always increases point by 1.
1430 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
1431 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
1433 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
1435 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
1436 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
1437 default value changed. For example,
1439 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
1444 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
1447 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
1448 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
1449 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
1450 `:version' in the top level group.
1452 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
1454 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
1455 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
1457 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
1458 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
1459 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
1462 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
1463 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
1466 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
1467 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
1468 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
1470 ** Frame-local variables.
1472 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
1473 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
1474 local bindings for that variable.
1476 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
1477 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
1478 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
1481 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
1482 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
1483 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
1484 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
1486 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
1487 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
1488 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
1489 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
1491 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
1492 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
1493 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
1494 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
1495 See the documentation in sregex.el.
1497 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
1498 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
1499 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
1500 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
1502 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
1503 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
1505 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
1506 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
1507 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
1509 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
1510 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
1511 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
1512 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
1514 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
1515 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
1518 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
1519 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
1520 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
1521 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
1522 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
1524 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
1525 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
1526 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
1527 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
1529 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
1530 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
1531 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
1532 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
1533 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
1535 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
1536 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
1537 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
1538 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
1540 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
1541 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
1542 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
1544 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
1545 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
1546 was directed to display this buffer.
1548 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
1549 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
1550 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
1551 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
1552 set-window-configuration.
1554 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
1555 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
1556 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
1557 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
1559 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
1560 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
1561 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
1563 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
1564 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
1565 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
1567 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
1568 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
1570 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
1571 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
1573 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
1574 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
1575 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
1577 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
1578 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
1579 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
1580 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
1584 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
1585 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
1588 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
1589 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
1590 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
1591 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
1592 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
1594 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
1596 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
1597 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
1598 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
1599 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
1602 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
1603 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
1604 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
1605 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
1606 The supported properties include
1608 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
1610 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
1611 item should appear in the menu.
1613 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
1614 which will be REAL-BINDING.
1615 It should return a binding to use instead.
1617 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
1618 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
1619 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
1620 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
1621 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
1624 This means that the command normally has no
1625 keyboard equivalent.
1626 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
1627 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
1628 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
1629 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
1630 value says whether this button is currently selected.
1632 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
1633 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
1635 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
1639 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
1640 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
1641 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
1642 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
1644 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
1646 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
1647 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
1648 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
1649 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
1650 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
1651 forward, away from the user.
1653 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
1655 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
1656 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
1657 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
1658 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
1659 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
1661 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
1663 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
1664 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
1665 that were dragged and dropped.
1667 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
1669 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
1671 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
1672 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
1673 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
1675 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
1676 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
1677 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
1679 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
1680 in Emacs 19 and before.
1682 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
1683 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
1685 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
1686 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
1687 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
1688 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
1690 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
1691 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
1692 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
1693 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
1694 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
1696 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
1697 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
1698 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
1699 consistent with the new representation.
1701 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
1702 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
1703 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
1704 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
1706 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
1707 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
1708 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
1710 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
1711 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
1712 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
1714 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
1715 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
1716 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
1718 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
1719 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
1721 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
1722 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
1724 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
1725 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
1726 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
1727 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
1729 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
1730 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
1732 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
1733 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
1734 buffer or string being searched.
1736 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
1737 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
1738 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
1739 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
1740 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
1741 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
1742 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
1744 *** Structure of coding system changed.
1746 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
1747 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
1748 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
1749 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
1750 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
1751 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
1752 define-coding-system-alias.
1754 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
1755 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
1756 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
1757 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
1758 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
1759 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
1760 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
1763 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
1764 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
1765 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
1766 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
1768 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
1769 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
1770 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
1771 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
1773 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
1774 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
1775 This function requires a user interaction.
1777 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
1778 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
1779 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
1780 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
1781 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
1782 select-safe-coding-system.
1784 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
1785 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
1786 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
1789 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
1790 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
1791 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
1793 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
1794 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
1795 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
1796 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
1798 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
1799 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
1800 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
1803 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
1804 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
1806 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
1807 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
1808 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
1809 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
1810 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
1811 range of characters.
1813 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
1814 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
1816 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
1817 in the current buffer at position POS.
1819 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
1820 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
1821 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
1822 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
1823 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
1824 binding input-method-function to nil.
1826 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
1827 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
1828 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
1829 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
1830 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
1832 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
1833 subsequent events of a key sequence.
1835 *** You can customize any language environment by using
1836 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
1838 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
1839 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
1840 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
1841 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
1842 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
1846 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
1848 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
1849 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
1850 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
1853 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
1854 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
1856 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
1857 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
1858 in your .emacs file.)
1860 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
1861 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
1863 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
1864 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
1866 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
1867 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
1870 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
1871 delete the character before point, as usual.
1873 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
1874 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
1875 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
1877 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
1878 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
1879 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
1880 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
1881 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
1884 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
1885 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
1886 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
1887 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
1888 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
1890 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
1891 and is an alias for it.
1893 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
1894 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
1896 ** Scrolling changes
1898 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
1899 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
1901 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
1902 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
1905 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
1906 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
1907 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
1908 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
1910 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
1911 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
1912 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
1913 recenters the window.
1915 ** International character set support (MULE)
1917 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
1918 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
1919 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
1920 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
1921 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
1922 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
1924 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
1925 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
1926 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
1927 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
1928 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
1930 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
1931 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
1932 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
1933 language, to make it possible to type them.
1935 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
1936 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
1938 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
1939 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
1941 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
1943 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
1945 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
1946 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
1947 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
1948 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
1949 characters for their work until they want to change.
1953 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
1954 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
1955 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
1956 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
1957 support several input methods.
1959 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
1960 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
1963 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
1964 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
1965 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
1966 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
1967 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
1970 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
1971 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
1972 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
1973 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
1974 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
1976 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
1977 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
1978 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
1979 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
1981 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
1982 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
1983 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
1984 the first guess is wrong.
1986 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
1987 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
1989 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
1990 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
1991 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
1992 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
1994 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
1995 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
1996 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
1997 translate automatically to and from either one.
1999 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
2001 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
2002 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
2003 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
2006 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
2007 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
2008 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
2009 multibyte characters in that buffer.
2011 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
2012 character conversion as well.
2014 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
2016 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
2017 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
2018 requires using many fonts.
2020 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
2021 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
2023 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
2024 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
2025 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
2026 you would use a font.
2028 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
2029 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
2030 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
2032 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
2033 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
2036 *** Defining fontsets.
2038 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
2039 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
2040 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
2042 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
2043 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
2044 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
2045 standard fontset are created automatically.
2047 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
2048 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
2049 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
2050 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
2051 name is `fontset-startup'.
2053 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
2054 The resource value should have this form:
2055 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
2056 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
2057 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
2058 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
2059 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
2060 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
2061 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
2062 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
2063 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
2065 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
2066 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
2067 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
2069 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
2070 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
2072 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
2073 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
2074 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
2075 Here is the substitution rule:
2076 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
2077 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
2078 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
2079 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
2080 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
2082 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
2083 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
2084 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
2086 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
2087 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
2088 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
2089 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
2092 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
2093 defaults for a particular choice of language.
2095 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
2096 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
2097 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
2098 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
2099 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
2100 system for new files that you create.
2102 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
2103 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
2104 whole Emacs session.
2106 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
2107 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
2108 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
2110 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
2111 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
2112 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
2113 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
2114 coding systems that Emacs supports.
2116 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
2117 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
2118 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
2119 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
2120 is used for *the immediately following command*.
2122 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
2123 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
2125 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
2126 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
2128 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
2129 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
2131 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
2132 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
2133 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
2134 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
2137 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
2138 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
2139 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
2140 translated into that character code.
2142 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
2143 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
2145 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
2147 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
2148 the coding system for keyboard input.
2150 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
2151 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
2152 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
2154 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
2156 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
2157 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
2158 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
2159 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
2160 designed to work with terminals.
2162 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
2163 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
2164 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
2165 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
2166 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
2167 in the corresponding buffer.
2169 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
2171 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
2172 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
2173 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
2175 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
2176 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
2177 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
2180 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
2181 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
2183 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
2184 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
2185 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
2186 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
2188 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
2189 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
2190 related information.
2192 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
2193 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
2196 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
2197 information about the support for a particular language.
2198 You specify the language as an argument.
2200 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
2201 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
2204 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
2205 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
2206 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
2207 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
2209 A alternativnyj (Russian)
2211 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
2212 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
2213 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
2214 E euc-japan (Japanese)
2215 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
2216 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
2217 K euc-korea (Korean)
2220 S shift_jis (Japanese)
2223 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
2224 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
2225 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
2229 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
2230 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
2231 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
2232 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
2234 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
2235 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
2237 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
2238 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
2239 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
2240 Rmail files themselves.
2242 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
2243 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
2245 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
2248 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
2249 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
2250 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
2251 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
2252 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
2254 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
2255 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
2256 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
2259 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
2260 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
2261 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
2262 without any conversion.
2264 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
2265 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
2266 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
2267 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
2269 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
2270 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
2272 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
2273 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
2275 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
2276 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
2278 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
2279 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
2280 in the buffer before point.
2282 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
2283 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
2286 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
2287 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
2289 ** File locking works with NFS now.
2291 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
2292 in the same directory as FILENAME.
2294 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
2295 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
2296 can become a bottleneck.
2298 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
2299 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
2300 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
2301 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
2302 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
2303 so useful that the change is worth while.
2305 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
2306 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
2307 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
2308 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
2310 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
2311 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
2314 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
2315 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
2316 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
2318 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
2319 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
2320 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
2322 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
2323 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
2324 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
2326 ** Changes in View mode.
2328 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
2329 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
2331 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
2332 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
2334 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
2337 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
2338 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
2340 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
2341 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
2342 not just the selected window.
2344 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
2345 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
2346 turns View mode on or off.
2348 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
2349 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
2350 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
2352 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
2353 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
2355 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
2356 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
2357 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
2358 which version to compare with.
2360 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
2361 blocks if a match is inside the block.
2363 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
2364 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
2365 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
2366 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
2368 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
2369 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
2370 blocks, all of them or none.
2372 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
2373 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
2376 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
2377 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
2378 However, the mode will not be changed if
2379 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
2380 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
2381 not suitable for ordinary files, or
2382 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
2384 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
2386 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
2387 these commands do not change the major mode.
2389 ** M-x occur changes.
2391 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
2392 it performs a case-sensitive search.
2394 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
2395 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
2396 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
2398 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
2399 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
2400 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
2401 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
2402 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
2404 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
2405 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
2406 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
2407 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
2409 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
2410 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
2411 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
2413 ** Outline mode changes.
2415 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
2417 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
2419 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
2420 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
2421 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
2424 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
2425 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
2428 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
2429 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
2431 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
2433 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
2434 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
2435 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
2436 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
2438 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
2439 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
2440 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
2442 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
2443 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
2446 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
2447 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
2448 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
2449 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
2451 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
2452 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
2453 can be. The default value is 30.
2455 ** Changes in Mail mode.
2457 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
2458 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
2459 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
2460 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
2461 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
2464 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
2465 compose-mail-other-frame.
2467 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
2468 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
2469 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
2470 buffer that shows the original message.
2472 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
2473 with separator lines around the contents.
2475 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
2476 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
2477 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
2478 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
2480 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
2482 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
2483 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
2484 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
2485 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
2487 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
2488 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
2491 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
2492 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
2495 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
2496 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
2497 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
2498 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
2500 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
2501 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
2502 be taken to be magic.
2504 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
2505 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
2506 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
2508 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
2509 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
2511 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
2512 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
2514 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
2516 new key dired.el binding old key
2517 ------- ---------------- -------
2518 * c dired-change-marks c
2520 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
2521 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
2522 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
2524 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
2525 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
2526 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
2527 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
2528 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
2529 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
2533 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
2534 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
2535 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
2536 each time you run it.
2538 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
2539 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
2541 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
2542 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
2543 means to move in the opposite direction.
2545 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
2546 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
2548 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
2549 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
2550 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
2551 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
2556 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
2558 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
2561 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
2562 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
2564 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
2567 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
2569 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
2571 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
2573 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
2574 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
2575 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
2577 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
2579 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
2581 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
2582 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
2584 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
2585 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
2586 used to pick articles.
2588 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
2589 another have been added.
2591 `M-x gnus-change-server'
2593 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
2594 generating lines in buffers.
2596 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
2599 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
2601 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
2603 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
2605 *** Scores can be decayed.
2607 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
2609 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
2610 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
2612 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
2615 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
2617 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
2618 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
2620 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
2622 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
2623 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
2625 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
2626 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
2628 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
2631 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
2632 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
2634 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
2636 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
2638 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
2640 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
2642 Use the `Y c' command.
2644 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
2646 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
2648 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
2650 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
2651 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
2653 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
2655 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
2657 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
2658 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
2660 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
2662 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
2663 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
2664 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
2665 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
2668 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
2669 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
2670 particular news group. This can be done by:
2672 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
2674 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
2675 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
2676 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
2677 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
2678 for reading and posting).
2680 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
2681 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
2682 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
2683 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
2686 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
2687 default. Here are some of these default settings:
2689 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
2690 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
2691 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
2692 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
2693 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
2695 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
2696 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
2700 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
2701 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
2702 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
2703 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
2704 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
2707 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
2708 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
2709 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
2710 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
2711 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
2712 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
2714 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
2715 of the current buffer.
2717 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
2718 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
2719 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
2721 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
2722 style that the Python developers like.
2724 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
2725 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
2726 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
2730 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
2731 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
2732 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
2734 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
2735 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
2738 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
2739 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
2741 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
2742 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
2743 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
2744 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
2746 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
2747 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
2749 ** Calendar changes.
2751 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
2752 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
2753 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
2754 following/previous years.
2756 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
2757 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
2758 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
2759 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
2760 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
2761 supposed attribute of God.
2765 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
2768 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
2770 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
2771 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
2772 printer system has this behavior, set variable
2773 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
2775 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
2776 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
2777 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
2779 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
2780 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
2782 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
2783 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
2784 printing for your printer.
2786 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
2787 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
2789 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
2790 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
2792 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
2793 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
2794 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
2795 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
2796 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
2797 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
2798 The default value is nil.
2800 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
2801 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
2803 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
2804 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
2805 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
2806 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
2807 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
2808 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
2809 color). The default is 0 ("black").
2811 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
2812 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
2814 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
2815 The default is 0 ("black").
2817 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
2818 The default is 0 ("black").
2820 border-width Specify the border width.
2823 Any other property is ignored.
2825 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
2826 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
2829 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
2830 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
2831 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
2832 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
2833 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
2834 controlling headers.
2836 *** Color management (subgroup)
2838 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
2841 *** Face Management (subgroup)
2843 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
2844 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
2845 background should be used. Valid values are:
2847 t always use face background color.
2848 nil never use face background color.
2849 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
2851 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
2853 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
2856 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
2857 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
2859 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
2862 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
2863 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
2864 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
2866 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
2870 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
2874 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
2878 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
2882 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
2884 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
2886 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
2889 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
2890 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
2891 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
2893 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
2894 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
2895 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2896 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2897 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2901 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2902 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2903 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2906 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
2907 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
2908 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
2909 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
2910 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
2911 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2912 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2913 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2914 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
2915 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
2916 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
2919 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
2921 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
2924 *** Printer management (subgroup)
2926 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
2927 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
2928 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
2929 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
2932 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
2933 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
2934 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
2936 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
2937 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
2940 *** Page settings (subgroup)
2942 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
2943 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
2944 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
2945 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
2946 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
2947 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
2950 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
2951 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
2952 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
2954 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
2955 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
2956 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
2957 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
2958 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
2959 its TO, are ignored.
2961 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
2962 pages. Valid values are:
2964 nil print all pages.
2966 `even-page' print only even pages.
2968 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
2970 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
2971 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
2972 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
2973 print only the even sheet of paper.
2975 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
2976 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
2977 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
2978 only the odd sheet of paper.
2980 Any other value is treated as nil.
2982 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
2983 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
2984 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
2986 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
2988 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
2989 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
2991 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
2992 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
2993 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
2994 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
2995 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
2996 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
2997 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
2999 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
3000 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
3001 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
3002 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
3003 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
3004 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
3005 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
3007 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
3009 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
3010 messages should be sent.
3012 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
3013 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
3014 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
3016 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
3018 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
3019 points for line numbers.
3021 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
3022 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
3024 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
3025 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
3026 to 2, the printing will look like:
3038 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
3039 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
3042 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
3043 zebra stripe is to be printed.
3045 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
3047 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
3048 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
3049 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
3050 3, the output will look like:
3064 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
3065 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
3067 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
3068 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
3071 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
3072 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
3075 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
3077 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
3078 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
3080 ** hideshow changes.
3082 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
3085 *** Support for java-mode added.
3087 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
3088 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
3090 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
3091 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
3092 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
3094 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
3095 robust and a lot faster.
3097 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
3099 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
3100 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
3101 documentation for more details.
3103 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
3105 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
3106 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
3107 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
3108 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
3109 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
3111 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
3112 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
3113 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
3114 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
3120 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
3121 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify
3122 the faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new
3123 custom group font-lock-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in your
3124 ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
3125 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
3127 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
3129 *** Maximum decoration
3131 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
3132 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
3133 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
3134 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
3135 to get the old behavior.
3139 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
3141 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
3142 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
3144 *** Configurable support
3146 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
3147 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
3148 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
3149 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
3150 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
3151 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
3152 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
3154 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
3155 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
3156 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
3158 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
3160 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
3161 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
3164 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
3166 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
3172 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
3173 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
3174 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
3175 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
3177 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
3179 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
3180 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
3181 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
3183 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
3185 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
3186 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
3187 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
3188 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
3189 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
3190 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
3191 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
3193 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
3194 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
3195 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
3196 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
3197 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
3198 the command M-o M-o (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
3200 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
3202 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
3203 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
3204 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
3205 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
3207 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
3210 ** Ada mode changes.
3212 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
3213 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
3214 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
3215 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
3218 *** There are two new commands:
3219 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
3220 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
3222 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
3223 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
3224 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
3226 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
3227 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
3228 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
3230 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
3231 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
3232 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
3233 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
3235 ** Scheme mode changes.
3237 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
3238 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
3239 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
3240 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
3243 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
3244 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
3245 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
3246 variables as buffer-local variables.
3248 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
3251 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
3253 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
3254 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
3255 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
3256 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
3258 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
3259 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
3262 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
3263 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
3264 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
3265 option takes precedence.
3267 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
3268 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
3269 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
3271 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
3272 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
3275 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
3276 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
3278 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
3279 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
3282 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
3283 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
3284 these register values no longer become completely useless.
3285 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
3286 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
3287 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
3289 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
3290 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
3291 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
3292 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
3294 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
3295 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
3296 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
3297 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
3298 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
3300 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
3301 since it applies only to the current frame.
3303 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
3304 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
3305 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
3307 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
3308 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
3309 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
3310 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
3311 instead of just the file you are editing.
3315 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
3316 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
3317 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
3318 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
3319 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
3322 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
3323 knows which kind of label is needed.
3325 C-c ) reftex-reference
3326 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
3327 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
3329 C-c [ reftex-citation
3330 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
3331 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
3333 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
3334 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
3337 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
3338 can quickly jump to every section.
3340 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
3341 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
3342 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
3343 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
3344 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
3346 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
3348 *** Info documentation is now available.
3350 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
3351 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
3353 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
3354 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
3356 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
3357 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
3359 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
3360 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
3361 appropriate functions.
3363 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
3364 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
3366 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
3369 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
3370 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
3372 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
3375 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
3376 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
3377 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
3379 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
3380 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
3381 prefixed with `ALT'.
3383 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
3384 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
3385 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
3388 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
3389 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
3390 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
3392 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
3393 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
3395 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
3396 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
3397 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
3399 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
3401 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
3403 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
3406 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
3407 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
3410 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
3413 *** Added support for imenu.
3415 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
3416 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
3417 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
3418 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
3420 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
3421 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
3423 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
3425 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
3427 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
3428 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
3429 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
3432 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
3433 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
3435 ** browse-url changes
3437 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
3438 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
3439 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
3440 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
3441 customization variables.
3443 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
3445 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
3446 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
3447 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
3451 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
3452 pops up the Info file for this command.
3454 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
3455 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
3456 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
3459 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
3460 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
3461 files in the same directory.
3463 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
3464 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
3465 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
3469 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
3470 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
3472 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
3473 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
3474 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
3475 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
3476 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
3477 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
3478 color when Viper is in insert state.
3479 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
3480 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
3481 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
3485 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
3486 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
3487 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
3488 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
3489 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
3491 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
3493 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
3494 constructs are tagged. Files are recognized by the extension .java.
3496 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
3497 recognized by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
3498 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
3500 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
3501 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
3502 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
3503 methods and protocols.
3505 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognized by the extension
3506 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
3507 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
3510 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
3511 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
3512 at least M times and as many as N times.
3514 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
3515 in files has changed slightly.
3517 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
3518 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
3519 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
3520 with old time-stamp-format values.
3522 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
3523 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
3524 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
3527 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
3528 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
3529 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
3530 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
3531 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
3532 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
3534 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
3535 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
3536 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
3538 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
3539 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
3540 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
3541 recommended now will continue to work then.
3543 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
3546 ** There are some additional major modes:
3548 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
3549 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
3550 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
3552 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
3553 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
3556 ** New Lisp packages include:
3558 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
3560 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
3561 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
3563 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
3565 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
3568 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
3569 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
3572 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
3573 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
3574 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
3575 strings or comments.
3577 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
3578 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
3579 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
3580 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
3583 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
3584 can visit them by short forms of their names.
3586 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
3587 Emacs Lisp function at point.
3589 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
3591 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
3592 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
3594 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
3596 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
3598 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
3600 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
3601 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
3603 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
3604 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
3605 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
3606 original place after inserting the copy.
3608 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
3611 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
3612 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
3613 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
3615 Enable mouse-drag with:
3616 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
3618 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
3620 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
3621 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
3623 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
3624 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
3628 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
3629 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
3630 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
3631 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
3632 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
3633 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
3634 instance) and vice versa.
3636 To use this package load it using
3637 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
3638 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
3639 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
3640 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
3641 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
3642 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
3644 *** Interface to ph.
3646 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
3648 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
3649 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
3652 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
3654 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
3655 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
3656 while the real cursor does not move.
3658 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
3659 for visiting your favorite web sites.
3661 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
3662 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
3666 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
3667 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
3668 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
3669 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
3671 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
3674 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
3676 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
3678 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
3679 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
3680 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
3681 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
3682 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
3684 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
3685 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
3686 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
3687 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
3688 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
3689 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
3692 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
3694 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
3695 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
3696 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
3697 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
3699 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
3700 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
3702 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
3703 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
3706 ** Basic Lisp changes
3708 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
3709 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
3711 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
3712 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
3715 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
3717 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
3719 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
3720 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
3722 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
3723 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
3726 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
3728 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
3730 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
3732 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
3733 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
3734 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
3737 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
3738 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
3739 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
3741 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
3742 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
3743 adding one of these suffixes.
3745 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
3746 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
3747 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
3749 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
3750 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
3752 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
3754 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
3755 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
3757 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
3758 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
3760 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
3762 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
3763 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
3765 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
3766 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
3767 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
3768 works using `save-current-buffer'.
3770 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
3771 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
3774 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
3775 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
3776 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
3779 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
3780 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
3783 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
3785 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
3786 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
3787 Then it returns that string.
3789 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
3791 (with-output-to-string
3792 (princ "The buffer is ")
3793 (princ (buffer-name)))
3795 returns "The buffer is foo".
3797 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
3800 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
3801 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
3802 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
3804 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
3805 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
3807 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
3808 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
3809 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
3810 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
3811 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
3812 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
3814 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
3815 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
3816 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
3819 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
3820 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
3821 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
3822 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
3823 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
3825 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
3826 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
3827 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
3828 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
3830 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
3831 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
3833 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
3835 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
3836 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
3837 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
3838 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
3841 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
3842 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
3845 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
3847 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
3848 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
3849 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
3850 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
3851 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
3853 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
3855 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
3856 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
3857 more than the number of characters.
3859 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
3860 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
3861 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
3862 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
3863 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
3864 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
3866 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
3867 and returns a string containing those characters.
3869 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
3870 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
3871 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
3872 character, sref signals an error.
3874 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
3875 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
3876 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
3878 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
3879 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
3880 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
3882 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
3883 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
3884 to a vector of the characters in it.
3886 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
3887 of a string. You call it as follows:
3889 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
3891 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
3892 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
3893 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
3894 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
3895 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
3897 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
3898 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
3900 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
3901 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
3903 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
3904 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
3905 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
3906 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
3908 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
3910 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
3912 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
3913 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
3914 are not included in the resulting value.
3916 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
3917 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
3918 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
3919 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
3921 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
3922 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
3923 character extends across that column), then the padding character
3924 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
3925 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
3926 column START-COLUMN.
3928 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
3929 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
3930 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
3931 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
3932 changed text, before the change.
3934 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
3935 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
3936 one character set for each script, not for each language.
3938 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
3940 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
3942 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
3943 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
3945 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
3946 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
3947 which identify the character within that character set.
3949 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
3950 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
3951 opposite of split-char.
3953 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
3954 of all the characters between BEG and END.
3956 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
3957 of all the characters in a string.
3959 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
3960 and specifying coding systems.
3962 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
3963 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
3964 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
3965 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
3966 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
3967 as what to do about code conversion.)
3969 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
3970 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
3972 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
3973 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
3974 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
3976 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
3977 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
3978 to match against a file name.
3980 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
3981 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
3982 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
3983 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
3984 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
3985 specifies the coding system for encoding.
3987 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
3988 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
3990 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
3991 the coding system to use for network sockets.
3993 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
3994 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
3995 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
3998 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
3999 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
4000 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
4001 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
4002 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
4003 specifies the coding system for encoding.
4005 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
4006 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
4008 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
4009 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
4010 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
4011 start the subprocess.
4013 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
4014 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
4015 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
4016 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
4017 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
4019 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
4020 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
4023 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
4024 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
4025 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
4026 connection permanently or until overridden.
4028 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
4029 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
4030 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
4031 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
4032 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
4033 system for one operation at a time.
4035 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
4036 files, subprocesses or network connections.
4038 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
4039 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
4040 The value is a cons cell,
4041 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
4042 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
4043 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
4044 input to the subprocess.
4046 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
4047 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
4049 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
4050 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
4051 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
4053 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
4054 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
4055 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
4056 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
4059 Thus, instead of writing
4061 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
4062 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
4064 you would now write this:
4066 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
4067 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
4071 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
4072 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
4073 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
4074 for a description of them.
4076 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
4077 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
4079 (defgroup ispell nil
4080 "Spell checking using Ispell."
4083 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
4084 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
4085 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
4086 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
4087 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
4089 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
4090 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
4091 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
4092 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
4093 first-level subgroups.
4095 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
4097 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
4098 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
4102 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
4103 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
4104 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
4105 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
4106 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
4107 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
4109 ** Text property changes
4111 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
4114 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
4115 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
4116 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
4117 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
4118 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
4120 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
4121 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
4122 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
4123 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
4125 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
4126 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
4127 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
4129 ** Changes in invisibility features
4131 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
4132 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
4133 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
4134 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
4135 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
4136 make the overlay visible.
4138 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
4139 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
4140 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
4141 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
4142 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
4143 t when it should hide it.
4145 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
4147 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
4148 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
4149 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
4150 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
4151 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
4152 Here is an example of how to do this:
4154 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
4155 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
4156 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
4157 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
4160 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
4163 ;; When done with the overlays:
4164 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
4166 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
4168 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
4170 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
4171 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
4172 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
4173 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
4175 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
4176 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
4177 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
4179 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
4180 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
4182 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
4183 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
4185 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
4186 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
4187 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
4189 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
4190 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
4191 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
4192 determine the syntax type of the character.
4194 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
4195 of the current buffer.
4197 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
4198 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
4199 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
4201 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
4202 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
4203 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
4204 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
4205 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
4207 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
4210 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
4211 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
4212 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
4214 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
4215 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
4216 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
4217 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
4218 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
4220 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
4221 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
4222 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
4224 ** Changes in face features
4226 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
4227 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
4229 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
4230 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
4232 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
4233 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
4235 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
4236 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
4238 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
4239 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
4240 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
4241 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
4244 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
4245 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
4247 ** Changes in file-handling functions
4249 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
4250 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
4251 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
4252 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
4254 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
4257 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
4258 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
4260 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
4261 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
4263 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
4264 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
4266 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
4267 character code conversion as well as other things.
4269 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
4270 (formerly it did not).
4272 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
4273 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
4275 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
4276 instead of constant strings.
4278 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
4279 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
4280 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
4282 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
4283 in the same way as before.
4285 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
4286 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
4287 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
4289 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
4290 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
4291 else, and returns nil.
4293 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
4294 directory cannot be listed.
4296 ** Changes in minibuffer input
4298 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
4299 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
4300 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
4301 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
4304 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
4305 It is available through the history command M-n.
4307 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
4308 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
4309 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
4310 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
4311 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
4313 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
4314 argument in this way.
4316 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
4317 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
4318 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
4320 ** Echo area features
4322 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
4323 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
4324 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
4325 after the echo area is cleared.
4327 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
4328 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
4330 ** Keyboard input features
4332 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
4333 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
4335 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
4336 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
4339 ** Frame-related changes
4341 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
4342 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
4343 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
4345 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
4346 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
4347 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
4349 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
4350 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
4351 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
4352 in the selected frame.
4354 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
4355 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
4356 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
4358 ** X Windows features
4360 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
4361 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
4362 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
4364 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
4365 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
4367 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
4368 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
4369 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
4371 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
4372 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
4374 ** Subprocess features
4376 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
4377 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
4380 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
4381 and returns the output from the command as a string.
4383 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
4384 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
4386 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
4387 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
4389 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
4390 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
4391 goes after the other menu items.
4393 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
4394 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
4395 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
4398 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
4399 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
4401 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
4402 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
4405 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
4406 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
4407 but its hook is still run.
4409 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
4410 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
4412 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
4413 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
4414 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
4416 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
4417 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
4418 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
4421 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
4422 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
4424 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
4425 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
4426 functions like display-time.
4428 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
4429 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
4431 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
4432 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
4433 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
4435 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
4436 if there is an error in compilation.
4438 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
4439 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
4440 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
4441 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
4443 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
4444 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
4445 the *scratch* buffer.
4447 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
4448 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
4449 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
4450 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
4452 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
4453 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
4454 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
4456 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
4457 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
4458 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
4459 and compose-mail-other-frame.
4461 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
4462 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
4463 full name of the specified user will be returned.
4465 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
4466 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
4467 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
4468 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
4469 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
4472 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
4473 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
4474 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
4475 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
4477 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
4478 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
4479 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
4480 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
4482 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
4484 ** imenu.el changes.
4486 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
4487 item from menu created by imenu.
4489 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
4490 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
4491 select one of those items.
4494 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
4495 Copyright information:
4497 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2006
4498 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4500 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
4501 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
4502 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
4503 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
4505 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
4506 of this document, or of portions of it,
4507 under the above conditions, provided also that they
4508 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
4512 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"