1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.2
27 ** New configure options for Emacs developers
28 These are not new features; only the configure flags are new.
30 *** --enable-profiling builds Emacs with profiling enabled.
31 This might not work on all platforms.
33 *** --enable-checking[=OPTIONS] builds emacs with extra runtime checks.
36 ** `make install' now consistently ignores umask, creating a
37 world-readable install.
39 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.2
41 ** Command-line option -Q (--quick) now also disables loading X resources.
42 Note however that this does not affect Lucid or Motif widgets, if you
43 are using those toolkits. On Windows, this option causes Emacs to
44 ignore Registry settings, though environment variables set on the
45 Registry are still honored.
47 *** The new variable `inhibit-x-resources' shows whether X resources
50 * Changes in Emacs 23.2
52 ** The maximum size of buffers (as well as the largest fixnum) is doubled.
53 On typical 32bit systems, buffers can now be up to 512MB.
55 ** Function arguments in *Help* buffers are now in uppercase by default.
56 You can customize the new variable `help-downcase-arguments' to change it.
58 ** Unibyte sessions are now considered obsolete.
59 I.e. the use of the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE, or command line
60 arguments --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
61 is deprecated. Similarly for custom-izing enable-multibyte-characters, or
62 setting default-enable-multibyte-characters.
64 ** The default value of `trash-directory' has changed to nil, which
65 means that `move-file-to-trash' trashes files according to
66 freedesktop.org specifications, the same method used by the Gnome,
67 KDE, and XFCE desktops. (This change has no effect on Windows, which
68 uses `system-move-file-to-trash' for trashing.)
71 ** Emacs frames can be maximized.
72 The command line arguments -mm/--maximized and the value maximized to the
73 frame parameter fullscreen makes the Emacs frame maximized.
76 ** New frame parameter sticky makes Emacs frames sticky in virtual desktops.
78 ** The pointer now becomes invisible when typing.
79 Customize make-pointer-invisible to turn it off.
81 ** Emacs can use the system default monospaced font in Gnome.
82 The use of the system default font can be turned on or off by customizing
83 the variable 'font-use-system-font'. It is off by default.
84 If the system default is changed, Emacs changes also.
85 This requires that gconf-support is built in. If configure finds the
86 gconf-libraries, that support is included. Gconf-support can be
87 turned off with the configure option --without-gconf.
89 ** Emacs now reacts to Xft-changes made by configuration tools on X11.
90 Changes to antialias, hinting, hintstyle, RGBA, DPI and lcdfilter are
91 handeled. The XSETTINGS mechanism is used to implement this.
93 ** Killing a buffer with a running process now asks for confirmation.
94 You can remove this query in two ways: either remove
95 `process-kill-buffer-query-function' from `kill-buffer-query-functions',
96 or set the appropriate process flag with `set-process-query-on-exit-flag'.
98 ** The variable `load-in-progress' won't get corrupted by binding it
99 with `let'. In certain situations, loading an Emacs Lisp file from
100 source while in the midst of loading another file (e.g., with
101 `require' or `autoload') could cause the value of `load-in-progress'
102 to be corrupted once the outer load completed. Most code doesn't care
103 about this, but some (like c-mode) may check it.
105 ** File-local variable changes
107 *** Specifying a minor mode as a local variables enables that mode,
108 unconditionally. The previous behavior, toggling the mode, was
109 neither reliable nor generally desirable.
111 *** New commands for adding and removing file-local variables:
112 `add-file-local-variable', `delete-file-local-variable',
113 `add-file-local-variable-prop-line', and
114 `delete-file-local-variable-prop-line'.
116 *** New commands for adding and removing directory-local variables,
117 and copying them to and from file-local variable lists:
118 `add-dir-local-variable', `delete-dir-local-variable',
119 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals',
120 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals-prop-line' and
121 `copy-file-locals-to-dir-locals'.
123 ** New coding system `utf-8-hfs' is available in
124 international/ucs-normalize.el. It is suitable for
125 default-file-name-coding-system on Mac OS X.
128 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.2
132 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, any active region automatically
133 becomes the primary selection (for interaction with other window
134 applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
135 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
137 *** When `save-interprogram-paste-before-kill' is non-nil, emacs will
138 not clobber the the interprogram paste when something is killed in it
139 by saving the former in the `kill-ring' before the latter.
141 ** When `kill-do-not-save-duplicates' is non-nil, identical subsequent
142 kills are not duplicated in the `kill-ring'.
145 ** The default value for `blink-matching-paren-distance' has been increased.
147 ** The new completion-style `initials' is available.
148 For instance, this can complete M-x lch to list-command-history.
150 ** Completions in the *Completions* buffer are sorted vertically
151 when the value of the new variable `completions-format' is `vertical'.
153 ** M-n provides more default values in the minibuffer of commands that
154 read a file and directory name: a file name at point (when ffap is loaded
155 without ffap-bindings), a file name on the current line in the Dired buffer,
156 a directory name of adjacent Dired windows for Dired commands that can
157 operate on several directories (copy, rename, diff).
159 ** M-r is bound to the new `move-to-window-line-top-bottom'
160 to mirror the new behavior of C-l in Emacs-23.1.
163 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
165 ** The bookmark menu has a narrowing search via bookmark-bmenu-search.
167 ** LaTeX mode now provides completion via latex-complete and
168 latex-indent-or-complete.
170 ** lucid.el and levents.el are now declared obsolete.
172 ** pcomplete provides a new command `pcomplete-std-completion' which
173 is similar to `pcomplete' but using the standard completion UI code.
175 ** .calc.el and .abbrev_defs obey user-emacs-directory.
177 ** Calc graphing commands (`g f' etc.) now work on MS-Windows,
178 if you have the native Windows port of Gnuplot version 3.8 or later
181 ** Calendar and diary
183 *** Fancy diary display is now the default.
184 If you prefer the simple display, customize `diary-display-function'.
186 *** The diary's fancy display now enables view-mode.
189 *** The command `calendar-current-date' accepts an optional argument
190 giving an offset from today.
194 *** The default value for `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is nil.
195 This means Desktop will try restoring all buffers, when you restart
196 your Emacs session. Also, `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is only
197 effective for buffers that have no associated file. If you want to
198 exempt buffers that do correspond to files, customize the value of
199 `desktop-files-not-to-save' instead.
203 *** When `doc-view-continuous-mode' is non-nil, scrolling a line
204 on the page edge advances to the next/previous page.
206 ** FIXME mail-user-agent change
207 This probably affects a lot of documentation.
213 A new command `zrgrep' searches recursively in gzipped files.
217 *** The new command `Info-virtual-index' bound to "I" displays a menu of
218 matched topics found in the index.
220 *** The new command `info-finder' replaces finder.el with a virtual Info
221 manual that generates an Info file which gives the same information
222 through a menu structure.
225 ** New connection methods in Tramp.
226 The new connection methods "rsyncc", "imap" and "imaps" have been
227 introduced. On systems which support GVFS-Fuse, Tramp offers also the
228 new connection methods "dav", "davs", "obex" and "synce".
230 ** nXML mode is now the default for editing XML files.
232 ** VC and related modes
234 *** When using C-x v v or C-x v i on a unregistered file that is in a
235 directory not controlled by any VCS, ask the user what VC backend to
236 use to create a repository, create a new repository and register the
239 *** FIXME: add info about the new VC functions: vc-root-diff and
240 vc-root-print-log once they stabilize.
242 *** The log functions (C-x v l and C-x v L) do not show the full log
243 by default anymore. The number of entries shown can be chosen
244 interactively with a prefix argument, by customizing
245 vc-log-show-limit. The log buffer display buttons that can be used
246 to change the number of entries shown.
247 RCS, SCCS, CVS and Git do not support this feature.
249 *** vc-annotate supports annotations through file copies and renames,
250 it displays the old names for the files and it can show logs/diffs for
251 the corresponding lines. Currently only Git and Mercurial take
252 advantage of this feature.
254 *** When a file is not found, VC will not try to check it out of RCS anymore.
256 *** Diff and log operations can be used from dired buffers.
260 **** The new variable vc-git-add-signoff can be used to add a
261 Signed-off-by line when committing.
263 **** Support for operating with stashes has been added to vc-dir: the stash list is
264 displayed in the *vc-dir* header, stashes can be created, removed and
265 their content displayed.
267 **** vc-dir displays the stash status
269 *** log-edit-strip-single-file-name controls whether or not single filenames
270 are stripped when copying text from the ChangeLog to the *VC-Log* buffer.
275 *** Elint now uses compilation-mode.
278 *** Elint can now scan individual files and whole directories,
279 and can be run in batch mode.
282 *** Elint does a more thorough initialization, and recognizes more built-in
283 functions and variables. Customize `elint-scan-preloaded' if you want
284 to sacrifice some accuracy for a faster startup.
287 *** Elint attempts some basic understanding of featurep and (f)boundp tests.
290 *** Customize `elint-ignored-warnings' to suppress some warnings.
294 *** The new command `async-shell-command' bound globally to `M-&' executes
295 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand to
296 the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
299 *** Isearch searches in the comint/shell input history when the new variable
300 `comint-history-isearch' is non-nil. New commands `comint-history-isearch-backward'
301 and `comint-history-isearch-backward-regexp' start Isearch in the input history
302 regardless of the value of `comint-history-isearch'.
305 *** Autorevert Tail mode now works also for remote files.
307 *** The new commands `eshell/su' and `eshell/sudo' support Tramp.
308 That means, they change `default-directory' to the new users value,
309 and let commands run under that user permissions. It works even when
310 `default-directory' is already remote.
313 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
315 ** htmlfontify.el turns a fontified Emacs buffer into an HTML page.
319 ** js.el is a new major mode for JavaScript files.
321 ** imap-hash.el is a new library to address IMAP mailboxes as hashtables.
324 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.2
326 ** Several obsolete functions removed.
327 The functions have been obsolete since Emacs 19, and are unlikely to
330 time-stamp-month-dd-yyyy, time-stamp-dd/mm/yyyy, time-stamp-mon-dd-yyyy
331 time-stamp-dd-mon-yy, time-stamp-yy/mm/dd, time-stamp-yyyy/mm/dd,
332 time-stamp-yyyy-mm-dd, time-stamp-yymmdd, time-stamp-hh:mm:ss,
333 time-stamp-hhmm, baud-rate
336 ** Support for generating Emacs 18 compatible bytecode (by setting
337 the variable `byte-compile-compatibility') has been removed.
340 * Lisp changes in Emacs 23.2
342 ** New function `completion-in-region' to use the standard completion
343 facilities on a particular region of text.
345 ** The 4th arg to all-completions (aka hide-spaces) is declared obsolete.
347 ** read-file-name-predicate is obsolete. It was used to pass the predicate
348 to read-file-name-internal because read-file-name-internal abused its `pred'
349 argument to pass the current directory, but this hack is not needed
352 ** completion-base-size is obsoleted by completion-base-position.
353 This change causes a few backward incompatibilities, mostly with
354 choose-completion-string-functions where the `mini-p' argument has
355 been replaced by a `base-position' argument, and where the `base-size'
356 argument is now always nil.
358 ** called-interactively-p now takes one argument and replaces interactive-p
359 which is now marked obsolete.
360 ** New function set-advertised-calling-convention makes it possible
361 to obsolete arguments as well as make some arguments mandatory.
362 ** eval-next-after-load is obsolete.
363 ** New hook `after-load-functions' run after loading an Elisp file.
365 ** You can control which binding is preferentially shown in menus and
366 docstrings by adding a `:advertised-binding' property to the corresponding
367 command's symbol. That property can hold a single binding or a list
370 ** New macro with-silent-modifications to tweak text properties without
371 affecting the buffer's modification state.
372 ** All the default-FOO variables that hold the default value of the FOO
373 variable, are now declared obsolete.
375 ** read-key is a function halfway between read-event and read-key-sequence.
376 It reads a single key, but obeys input and escape sequence decoding.
378 ** start-process-shell-command and start-file-process-shell-command
379 now only take a single `command' argument.
381 ** The variable `process-file-side-effects' shall be bound to nil, if
382 a `process-file' call does not change a remote file. By this, file
383 name handlers like Tramp can apply optimizations.
385 ** Hash tables have a new printed representation that is readable.
386 The feature `hashtable-print-readable' identifies this new
389 ** Functions performing Unicode normalization are added. They are:
390 ucs-normalize-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-NFD-string,
391 ucs-normalize-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-NFC-string,
392 ucs-normalize-NFKD-region, ucs-normalize-NFKD-string,
393 ucs-normalize-NFKC-region, ucs-normalize-NFKC-string,
394 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-string,
395 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-string.
397 ** completion-annotate-function specifies how to compute annotations
398 for completions displayed in *Completions*.
401 ** Face aliases can now be marked as obsolete, using the macro
402 `define-obsolete-face-alias'.
405 ** Changing the file-names generated by byte-compilation by redefining
406 the function `byte-compile-dest-file' before loading bytecomp.el is obsolete.
407 Instead, customize byte-compile-dest-file-function.
410 ** `byte-compile-warnings' can have a new member, `constants'.
412 ** `delete-directory' has an optional parameter RECURSIVE.
414 ** New function `copy-directory', which copies a directory recursively.
417 ** New function `window-full-height-p', analogous to the full-width version.
420 * Changes in Emacs 23.2 on non-free operating systems
423 ** On MS-Windows, `display-time' now displays the system load average
424 as well as the time, as it does on GNU and Unix.
427 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
429 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
430 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
431 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
434 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
435 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
437 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
438 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
440 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
441 where Emacs is running).
443 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
445 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
448 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
450 ** Changes to image support
452 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
455 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
457 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
459 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
460 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
461 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
463 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
464 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
465 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
466 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
468 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
469 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
471 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
474 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
475 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
477 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
479 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
481 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
483 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
484 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
485 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
487 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
489 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
492 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
494 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
496 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
498 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
500 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
501 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
503 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
504 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
505 you need control over which C compiler is used.
507 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
509 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
510 or any later version.
512 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
513 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
514 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
516 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
518 ** Improved X Window System support
520 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
521 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
522 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
523 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
524 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
525 There may be problems if a display exits unexpectedly and Emacs is compiled
526 with Gtk+, see etc/PROBLEMS.
528 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
529 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
531 *** Emacs starts in the background, as a daemon, when given the
532 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
533 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
534 terminal frames using emacsclient.
536 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
537 --alternate-editor="" is used (or when the evironment variable
538 ALTERNATE_EDITOR is set to "") and emacsclient cannot connect to an
541 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
542 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
544 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
545 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
546 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
547 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
548 for details about XEmbed.
550 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
551 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
552 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
553 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
554 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
556 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
557 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
558 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
559 active frame and INACTIVE is the opacity of non-active frames.
561 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
562 opacity; the default is 20.
564 ** Internationalization changes
566 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
567 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
569 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
570 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs' (`emacs-internal' is an alias
571 for this). This encoding is backward-compatible with Unicode's UTF-8
572 encoding. The internal encoding previously used by Emacs,
573 `emacs-mule', is still available for reading and writing files.
575 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
576 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
577 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
578 or 22 are loaded correctly as `emacs-mule' (whether or not they
579 contain multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it
580 may be worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be
581 shared with older Emacsen.
583 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
585 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
586 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
587 as tables of unicodes.
589 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
590 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
591 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
593 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
594 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
596 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
597 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
598 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
600 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
601 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
602 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
605 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
606 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
607 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
608 the mode-line mouse menu.
612 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
613 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
614 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
615 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
616 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
618 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
619 "Save Options" item is used.
621 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
622 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
623 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
625 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
626 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
627 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
628 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
630 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
631 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
632 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
636 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
637 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
639 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
640 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
642 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
643 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
645 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
647 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
648 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
650 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
651 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
652 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
653 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
655 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
656 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
657 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
658 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
660 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
661 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
662 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
663 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
665 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
668 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
670 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
671 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
672 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
673 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
674 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
676 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
677 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
680 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
681 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
682 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
685 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
687 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
688 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
689 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
690 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
693 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
695 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
696 on the regexp command prefix map.
698 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
699 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
702 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
703 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
704 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
705 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
706 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
707 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
709 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
710 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
711 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
712 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
713 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
714 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
716 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound from
717 `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the global
718 prefix map `M-o', which is intended for such formatting commands.
720 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
721 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
722 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
723 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
724 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
728 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
730 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
731 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
732 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
733 behavior (i.e., motion by logical lines based on buffer contents
736 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
737 invokes `suspend-frame'. These changes are for compatibility with the
738 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
742 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
744 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
746 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
749 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
750 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
752 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
753 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
756 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
759 *** The variable `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty
760 active region in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on
763 ** Temporarily active regions
765 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
766 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
767 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
768 region, similar to mouse-selection.
770 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
771 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
772 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
773 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
774 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
777 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
779 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
780 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
781 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
782 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
783 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
784 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
785 to create the file or buffer.
787 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
788 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
789 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
790 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
792 *** The rules for performing completion have been changed.
793 When generating completion alternatives, Emacs now takes the
794 minibuffer text after point, if any, into account: this text is
795 treated as a substring of the remaining part of the completion
796 alternative (i.e., the part not matched by the minibuffer text before
797 point). If no completion alternatives are found this way, Emacs
798 attempts to perform partial-completion. If still no completion
799 alternatives are found, we fall back on the Emacs 22 rules for
800 performing completion.
802 The new variable `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your
803 favorite completion style.
805 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
806 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
807 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
808 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
809 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
810 searching minibuffer completion items.
812 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
814 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
815 name of the current buffer.
817 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
818 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
819 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
820 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
821 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
823 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
824 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
825 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
826 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
828 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
829 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
830 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
831 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
832 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
834 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
835 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
836 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
837 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
838 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
839 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
840 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
842 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
843 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
845 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
846 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
848 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
849 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
851 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
852 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
853 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
857 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
858 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
859 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
861 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
862 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
863 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
864 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
866 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
867 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
868 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
869 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
871 *** The commands buffer-face-mode and buffer-face-set can be used to
872 remap the default face in the current buffer. See "Buffer Face mode",
873 under New Modes and Packages.
875 ** Primary selection changes
877 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
878 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
880 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
881 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
882 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
883 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
884 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
885 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
886 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
887 New Modes and Packages, below.
889 ** Window management changes
891 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
892 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
893 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
895 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
896 vertically and horizontally.
898 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
899 is on a different frame.
901 ** Miscellaneous changes:
903 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
904 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
905 successive invocations.
907 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
909 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
910 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
911 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
913 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
914 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
915 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
917 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
918 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
919 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
920 run processes remotely.
922 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
925 *** The value of comment-style now defaults to `indent'.
926 Thefore, comment-start markers are inserted at the current indentation
927 of the region to comment, rather than the leftmost column.
929 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
930 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
932 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
933 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
934 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
935 convenience alias for this function.
937 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
938 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
939 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
941 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
942 kill into the password.
944 *** Tooltip frame parameters `font' and `color' in `tooltip-frame-parameters'
945 are ignored. Customize the `tooltip' face instead.
947 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
949 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
951 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
952 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
953 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
955 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
957 ** Buffer Face mode is a minor mode for remapping the default face in
958 the current buffer. The variable `buffer-face-mode-face' specifies
959 the face to remap to. The command `buffer-face-set' prompts for a
960 face name, sets `buffer-face-mode-face' to it, and enables
961 buffer-face-mode. See "Face changes", under Editing Changes, for a
962 description of face remapping.
964 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
965 See http://xkcd.com/378/
967 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
969 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
970 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
971 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
973 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
974 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
975 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
977 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
979 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
982 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
983 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
984 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
985 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
987 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
988 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
990 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
993 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
994 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
995 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
996 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
999 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
1002 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
1003 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
1004 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
1006 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
1007 any invalid parts of your document.
1009 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
1010 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
1011 allowed by the schema in that context.
1013 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
1014 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
1015 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
1016 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
1017 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
1018 MS-Windows and Solaris.
1020 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
1021 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
1024 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
1026 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
1028 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
1029 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
1030 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
1031 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
1032 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
1033 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
1035 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
1036 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
1037 requires D-Bus for communication.
1039 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
1040 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
1041 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
1042 which have installed this software.
1044 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
1045 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
1046 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
1047 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
1048 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
1049 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
1050 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
1051 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
1052 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
1055 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
1057 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
1059 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
1060 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
1062 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
1064 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
1065 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
1067 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
1069 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
1071 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
1072 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
1074 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
1075 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
1076 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
1080 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
1082 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
1084 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
1085 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
1086 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
1090 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
1092 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
1093 `string', disabled by default.
1095 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
1096 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
1098 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
1102 *** bookmark.el saves bookmarks in a pre-Emacs-23-incompatible file format
1103 bookmark.el can read a .emacs.bmk file saved by an older Emacs, but an
1104 older Emacs cannot read one saved by Emacs 23.
1106 ** Calendar and diary
1108 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
1109 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
1110 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
1111 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
1113 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
1114 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
1115 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
1116 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
1117 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
1118 using the new names.
1120 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
1122 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
1123 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
1125 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
1126 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
1128 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
1129 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
1131 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
1132 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
1136 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
1137 associated with the current log entry.
1139 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
1140 source code associated with a log entry.
1142 ** Compile and grep modes
1144 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
1145 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
1146 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
1148 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
1149 the first error encountered during compilations.
1151 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
1152 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
1154 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
1155 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
1156 C++ sources and headers.
1160 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
1161 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
1162 considered for update.
1164 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
1165 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
1169 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
1170 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
1174 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
1175 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
1176 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
1178 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
1179 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
1180 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
1182 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
1183 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
1187 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
1188 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
1191 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
1192 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
1193 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
1196 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
1197 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
1198 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
1199 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
1200 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
1201 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
1202 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
1203 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
1205 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
1206 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
1207 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
1209 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
1210 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
1211 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
1212 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
1213 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
1214 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
1215 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
1219 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
1220 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
1222 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
1223 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
1225 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
1229 *** The Gnus package has been updated
1230 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
1231 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
1233 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
1234 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
1235 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
1236 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
1238 *** Passwords are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
1239 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
1240 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
1241 authentication respectively.
1245 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
1246 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
1248 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
1249 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
1251 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits one to specify a new
1252 position for point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
1256 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
1257 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
1258 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
1259 while Isearch is active.
1261 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
1262 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
1263 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
1264 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
1265 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
1267 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
1268 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
1269 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
1271 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
1272 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
1273 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
1274 if there is one (e.g. going from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
1275 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
1277 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
1278 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
1281 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
1282 `isearch-fail' face.
1284 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
1285 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
1286 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
1287 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
1288 and execute their global definitions.
1290 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
1291 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
1295 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.2. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1298 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
1299 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
1301 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
1302 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
1303 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
1304 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
1308 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
1309 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
1310 corresponding remote host.
1314 *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
1315 Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
1316 and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
1318 The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
1319 automatically converts it to mbox format. This is a one-time
1320 conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
1321 your machine and on the size of the file. You should find the rest of
1322 Rmail usage unaltered.
1324 However, M-x set-rmail-inbox-list now lasts only for one session
1325 because there is no way to save the list of inbox files in an
1328 Also, whereas with Babyl format M-x find-file would switch to Rmail
1329 mode, with mbox format this is no longer the case (there being no way
1330 to add an "-*- rmail-*-" cookie to an mbox file). Use C-u M-x rmail
1333 If you have written any extensions to Rmail, they are likely to need
1334 updating. Conceptually, the Rmail buffer that you see is no longer
1335 just a narrowed portion of the whole. So you cannot access the whole
1336 of a message (or message collection) by a simple save-restriction and
1337 widen. Instead, there are two buffers: the rmail-buffer, and the
1338 rmail-view-buffer. The former is the buffer that you see, the latter
1339 is invisible. Most of the time, the invisible `view' buffer contains
1340 the full contents of the Rmail file, and the Rmail buffer contains a
1341 decoded copy of the current message (with only a subset of the
1342 headers). In this state, Rmail is said to be `swapped'.
1344 You may find the following functions useful:
1346 `rmail-get-header' and `rmail-set-header' get or set the value of a
1347 message header, whether or not it is currently visible.
1349 `rmail-apply-in-message' is a general purpose function that calls a
1350 function (with arguments) which you specify on the full text of a given
1351 message. To further narrow to just the headers, search forward for "\n\n".
1353 *** The new command `rmail-mime' displays MIME messages.
1354 It is bound to `v' in Rmail buffers and summaries. It displays plain
1355 text and multipart messages in a temporary buffer, and offers buttons
1356 to save attachments.
1358 *** The command `rmail-redecode-body' no longer accepts the optional arg RAW.
1359 Since Rmail now holds messages in their original undecoded form in a
1360 separate buffer, `rmail-redecode-body' no longer encodes the original
1361 message, and therefore there should be no need to avoid encoding it.
1363 *** The o command is now `rmail-output'. It is an all-purpose command
1364 for copying messages from Rmail and appending them to files. It
1365 handles Babyl-format files as well as mbox-format files, and it
1366 handles both kinds properly when they are visited in Emacs. It always
1367 copies the full headers of the message.
1369 *** The C-o command is now `rmail-output-as-seen'. It uses
1370 the message as displayed, appending it to an mbox file.
1372 *** The modified status of the Rmail buffer is reported in the mode-line.
1373 Previously, this information was hidden.
1377 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
1378 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
1383 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
1384 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
1385 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
1386 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
1391 *** New connection methods.
1392 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
1393 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
1394 "tunnel" and "socks".
1397 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
1398 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
1400 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
1401 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead, multi hops
1402 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
1404 *** More default settings.
1405 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
1406 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
1408 *** Connection information is cached.
1409 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
1410 connections is kept persistently in a file. The name of this file is
1411 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
1413 *** Control of remote processes.
1414 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
1415 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
1417 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
1418 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
1419 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
1421 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
1422 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
1425 ** VC and related modes
1427 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
1428 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
1429 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
1430 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
1433 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
1434 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
1435 directory or a set of files/directories.
1437 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
1438 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
1439 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
1440 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
1441 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
1442 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
1443 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
1445 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
1447 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
1449 *** In VC Annotate mode, the key bindings have changed to use lower
1450 case keys instead of the upper case keys used in the past.
1452 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1453 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1454 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
1455 line" menu entry does the same thing.
1457 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
1459 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1462 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1463 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1466 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1467 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1468 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1470 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1471 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1472 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1474 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1476 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1478 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of a maintainer able
1479 to update it to the new VC.
1483 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1484 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1485 on the corresponding remote system.
1487 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1488 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1490 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1491 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1492 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1494 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1495 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1497 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1498 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1500 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1502 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1503 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1505 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1506 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1508 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1510 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1511 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1513 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1514 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1516 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1518 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1520 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1521 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1522 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1524 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1526 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1527 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1530 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1531 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1532 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1533 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1535 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1536 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1538 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1539 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1542 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1544 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1545 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1546 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1547 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1548 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1550 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1551 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1552 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1553 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1554 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1556 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1557 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1558 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1560 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1561 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1562 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1563 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1564 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1566 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1567 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1568 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1569 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1570 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1572 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1573 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1574 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1575 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1576 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1577 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1579 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1580 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1581 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1582 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1583 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1584 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1585 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1586 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1587 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1590 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1592 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1594 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1595 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1597 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1598 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1599 that range have the same value.
1603 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1605 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1606 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1607 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1610 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1611 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1612 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1613 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1614 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1615 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1616 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1618 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1619 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1621 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1622 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1624 ** Internationalization changes
1626 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1628 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1631 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1632 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1633 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1635 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1636 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1637 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1639 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1640 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1642 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1643 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1645 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1646 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1648 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1649 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1651 *** The meaning of NAME argument of `set-fontset-font' is changed.
1652 Previously nil is accepted as the default fontset. Now, nil is for
1653 the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the default fontset.
1655 *** The meaning of FONTSET argument of `print-fontset' is changed.
1656 Now, nil is for the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the
1659 ** If a function in write-region-annotate-functions returns with a
1660 different buffer current, Emacs no longer kills that buffer
1661 automatically. This behavior existed in previous versions of Emacs,
1662 but was undocumented. To kill a buffer after write-region, give the
1663 variable `write-region-post-annotation-function' a buffer-local value
1666 ** The variable temp-file-name-pattern has been removed.
1667 This variable was only used by call-process-region, which now uses
1668 temporary-file-directory instead.
1670 ** The COUNT and SYSTEM-FLAG arguments to define-abbrev have been
1671 removed. The function now takes extra arguments for specifying
1672 arbitrary abbrev properties.
1674 ** end-of-defun-function is now guaranteed to work only when called
1675 from the start of a defun. It must now leave point exactly at the end
1676 of defun, since `end-of-defun' now itself moves forward over
1677 whitespace after calling it.
1680 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1682 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1683 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1684 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1685 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1686 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1689 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `process-attributes'
1690 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1691 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1692 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1693 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1695 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1696 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1698 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1699 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1700 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1702 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1705 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1706 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1707 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1708 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1710 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1712 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1713 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1714 strings on the kill ring.
1716 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1717 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1722 ((debug error) nil))
1724 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1726 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count given to
1727 `beginning-of-defun'. (N.B. `end-of-defun-function' doesn't take any
1730 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1731 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1732 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1733 remote connection has been established already.
1735 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1736 undefined functions.
1738 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1740 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1741 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1742 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1744 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1745 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1746 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1748 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1749 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1750 interactive forms to subroutines.
1754 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1755 an active region that they should operate on.
1757 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1758 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
1759 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
1760 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
1761 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
1763 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1764 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1765 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1766 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1767 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1769 ** Emacs session information
1771 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1772 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1774 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1776 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1777 Emacs initialization.
1779 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1781 *** display-buffer tries to be smarter when splitting windows.
1782 The new option split-window-preferred-function lets you specify your own
1783 function to pop up new windows. Its default value split-window-sensibly
1784 can split a window either vertically or horizontally, whichever seems
1785 more suitable in the current configuration. You can tune the behavior
1786 of split-window-sensibly by customizing split-height-threshold and the
1787 new option split-width-threshold. Both options now take the value nil
1788 to inhibit splitting in one direction. Setting split-width-threshold to
1789 nil inhibits horizontal splitting and gets you the behavior of Emacs 22
1790 in this respect. In any case, display-buffer may now split the largest
1791 window vertically even when it is not as wide as the containing frame.
1793 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1794 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1796 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have a new optional
1797 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1798 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1800 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1801 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1804 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1805 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1807 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1809 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1810 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1811 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1812 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1813 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1815 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1816 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1817 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1819 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1820 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1822 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
1823 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
1825 ** Search and replacement changes
1827 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1829 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1830 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1832 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1833 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1834 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
1837 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1838 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1839 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1840 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
1841 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
1843 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1844 for search related commands.
1846 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1847 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1849 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1850 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1852 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1853 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1854 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1855 unless it ends in whitespace.
1857 ** File handling changes
1859 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1860 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1862 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1863 variables defined in the current buffer.
1867 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
1868 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
1869 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
1870 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
1871 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
1873 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
1874 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
1875 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
1876 Editing Changes, above).
1880 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
1883 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
1886 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
1888 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
1892 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1893 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1894 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1895 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1896 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1898 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1899 returns its output as a list of lines.
1901 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1903 *** In multibyte buffers and strings, characters are represented by
1904 UTF-8 byte sequences. The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF
1905 with no gap; code points 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the
1906 same code points, while code points 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit
1909 *** Generic characters no longer exist.
1911 *** The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may
1912 belong to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1913 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1915 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
1916 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
1918 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
1919 characters for display.
1921 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1922 positional codes instead of just 2.
1924 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1926 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1927 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1929 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1930 priorities of charsets.
1932 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1933 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1934 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1935 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1936 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1939 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1940 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1941 entries in that range of characters.
1943 *** Use of `translation-table-for-input' for character code unification
1944 is now obsolete, since Emacs 23.1 and later uses Unicode as basis for
1945 internal representation of characters.
1949 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1950 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1952 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1954 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1956 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1958 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1960 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1962 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1964 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1965 a character code property.
1969 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1970 search for a word boundary.
1972 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1974 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1976 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1977 property on printing a string.
1979 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1981 ** Code conversion changes
1983 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1984 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1986 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1987 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1988 conversion should go.
1990 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1991 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1994 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
1995 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
1996 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
1999 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
2003 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
2004 coding system priority order.
2006 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
2007 encodable by the specified coding systems.
2009 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
2011 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
2014 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
2015 ordered by their priorities.
2017 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
2019 **** `coding-system-from-name' returns a coding system matching with
2023 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
2024 It has three functionalities:
2025 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
2026 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
2027 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
2028 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
2030 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
2032 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
2034 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
2037 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
2038 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
2041 ** Changes related to the new font backend
2043 *** Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource
2044 "FontBackend". For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
2046 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
2048 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
2049 available on your graphic device.
2051 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
2052 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
2053 currently `x' and `xft'.
2055 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
2056 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
2061 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
2063 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
2065 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
2067 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
2069 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
2071 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
2073 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
2075 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
2077 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
2078 entity, or font object.
2080 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
2082 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
2084 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
2085 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
2087 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
2089 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
2090 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
2091 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
2092 takes a frame argument.
2094 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
2095 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
2097 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
2098 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
2100 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
2103 *** A new `terminal' data type.
2104 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
2105 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
2107 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
2108 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
2109 which is not used directly any more.
2113 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
2114 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
2115 file-local variables.
2117 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
2118 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
2119 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
2120 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
2122 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
2123 deleting a terminal.
2127 **** `delete-terminal'
2133 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
2135 ** Redisplay changes
2137 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
2138 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
2140 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
2141 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
2142 This is convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer
2143 position (e.g. in before/after-strings).
2145 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
2147 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
2148 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
2149 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
2150 times the default column width.
2152 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
2153 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
2156 *** The new variables `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' specify display
2157 specs which are appended at display-time to every continuation line
2158 and non-continuation line, respectively. In addition, Emacs
2159 recognizes the `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' text or overlay
2160 properties; these have the same effects as the variables of the same
2161 name, but take precedence.
2163 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
2165 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2167 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
2169 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
2170 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
2172 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
2173 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
2174 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
2175 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
2177 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
2178 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
2180 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
2181 attributes of a given face.
2183 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
2184 string of days, hours, etc.
2186 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
2189 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
2190 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
2191 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
2193 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
2195 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
2196 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
2198 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
2199 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
2200 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
2202 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
2203 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
2206 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
2207 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
2208 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
2210 ** Miscellaneous new variables
2212 *** `auto-save-include-big-deletions', if non-nil, means auto-save is
2213 not turned off automatically after a big deletion.
2215 *** `read-circle', if nil, disables the reading of recursive Lisp
2216 structures using the #N= and #N# syntax.
2218 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
2219 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
2221 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
2222 marker used for window-point.
2224 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
2225 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
2228 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
2229 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
2232 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
2234 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
2236 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
2237 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
2239 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
2241 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
2242 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
2243 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
2244 of multiple buffers. Top-level functions `multi-isearch-buffers',
2245 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
2246 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
2247 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
2249 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
2250 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
2253 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2254 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2256 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2257 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2258 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2259 (at your option) any later version.
2261 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2262 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2263 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2264 GNU General Public License for more details.
2266 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2267 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2272 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
2275 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2