1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
31 ** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
34 ** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
36 ** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
39 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
41 ** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
42 You can also use any number of different ttys.
44 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
45 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
47 ** Emacs comes with a new set of icons for Mac OS X.
48 OS-X-style icons (an application icon and a relevant document icon)
49 were contributed by Kentaro Ohkouchi.
50 Source files for these icons can be found in Emacs.app/Contents/Resources.
52 ** Built-in functions (subr) can now have an interactive specification
53 that is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
54 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
56 ** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
57 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
59 ** split-window-preferred-function specifies whether display-buffer should
60 split windows vertically or horizontally.
62 ** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
63 frame. Its behavior has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
64 default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in
65 the currently selected Emacs frame.
67 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
69 ** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
71 ** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
72 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
74 ** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode enabled, Emacs uses a
75 Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server, rather than faking events
76 using the client program mev. This C level approach provides mouse
77 highlighting, and help echoing in the minibuffer.
79 ** The new variable next-error-recenter specifies how next-error should
80 recenter the visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example,
81 0 for top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
83 ** The mode-line displays a `@' if the default-directory for the current buffer
84 is on a remote machine, or a hyphen otherwise.
86 ** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a minor mode,
87 in the same way as it already did for major modes.
89 ** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both vertically
92 ** The new command close-display-connection can be used to close a connection
93 to a remote display, e.g. because the display is about to become unreachable.
95 ** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
96 called with a prefix, and the default directory is a remote file name.
97 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
98 run processes remotely.
100 ** The new command `display-time-world' starts an updating time display
101 using several time zones, in a buffer.
103 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
105 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
106 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
109 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
110 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
111 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
114 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
116 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
119 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
122 ** M-q now fills the region if the region is active and
123 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on. Otherwise, it fills the current
127 ** M-$ now checks spelling of the region if the region is active and
128 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
131 ** TAB now indents the region if the region is active and
132 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on.
134 ** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
135 `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
137 ** New command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name matches a regexp.
139 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
140 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
141 strings on the kill ring.
143 ** Minibuffer changes:
145 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
146 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
147 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
148 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
149 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
150 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
151 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
154 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
156 ** The package doc-view.el has been added. It supports viewing of PDF,
157 PostScript and DVI documents inside an Emacs buffer by converting the
158 document to a set of PNG images first. One can also search for a
159 regular expression in the document. The commentary of the file explains
162 ** A new game called `bubbles' has been added.
164 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
167 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
169 ** isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
170 When running isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
171 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
172 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
174 This is enabled if isearch-buffers-multi is non-nil.
177 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
178 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
181 ** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
182 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see smerge-auto-refine.
184 ** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
185 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see diff-auto-refine.
187 ** archive-mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
189 ** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
191 ** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
192 the first error encountered during compilations.
194 ** In the `copyright' package, you can specify your copyright holders' names.
195 Only copyright lines with holders matching copyright-names-regexp will be
196 considered for update.
198 ** eldoc highlights the function argument under point
199 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
202 ** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
203 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
206 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
208 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
210 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
212 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
213 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, and
214 Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems
215 as a single changeset.
217 ** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
219 ** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
220 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
221 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
222 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
226 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
227 `string', disabled by default.
229 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
230 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
232 *** Command `bibtex-url' now allows multiple URLs per entry.
237 *** New connection methods.
238 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
239 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
240 "tunnel" and "socks".
242 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
243 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
244 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
246 *** More default settings.
247 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
248 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
250 *** Connection information is cached.
251 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
252 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
253 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
255 *** Control of remote processes.
256 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
257 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
259 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
260 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
261 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
263 ** Miscellaneous programming mode changes
265 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
266 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
268 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
271 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
275 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
276 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
277 on the corresponding remote system.
279 *** C-x C-q in dired-mode now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
280 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
283 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
286 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
289 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
290 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
291 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. Previously IPv6 was
292 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
293 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
296 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
299 ** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
302 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
305 ** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
306 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
307 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
308 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
309 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
311 ** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a certain
312 variable as having been made within Custom.
314 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
317 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
318 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
319 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
320 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
322 ** Changes related to multiple tty support.
324 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
325 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
327 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
329 *** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
330 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
333 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
334 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
336 *** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
337 frame on another tty device interactively.
339 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
340 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
342 *** New functions: `delete-tty', `suspend-tty', `resume-tty'.
344 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
345 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
347 *** New hooks: `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions'
348 are called after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed,
349 respectively. The functions are called with the terminal id of the frame
350 being suspended/resumed as a parameter.
352 *** New function: `environment'.
354 *** New variable: `local-function-key-map'.
355 This in addition to the global function-key-map variable that
356 already existed. The global variable is not used directly any more;
357 instead, the local-function-key-map is initialized so as to inherit from
360 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
362 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
363 keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
365 *** In addition to the global function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
366 local-function-key-map variables, and uses them instead of the
367 global keymaps to set up translations and function key sequences
368 relevant to a specific terminal device.
371 ** You can now also pass the value of the `invisible' property to invisible-p
372 to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible. Convenient when
373 checking invisibility of text which has no buffer position
374 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
376 ** Non-breaking space now acts as whitespace.
379 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
381 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
388 ** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
392 ** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
394 ** New function `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide
397 ** The new function `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
399 ** The new function `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
401 ** The new function `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated
402 with a given image specification.
405 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
406 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
409 ** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
410 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
411 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
412 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
413 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
416 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
417 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
418 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
419 remote connection has been established already.
421 ** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
422 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
425 ** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
426 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex interactive
427 forms to subroutines.
429 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
431 ** The package isearch-multi.el has been added. It implements a new mode
432 `isearch-buffers-minor-mode' that allows isearch to search through
433 multiple buffers. In this mode a new variable
434 `isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' defines the function to call
435 to get the next buffer to search in the series of multiple buffers.
437 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
440 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
441 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
443 GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
444 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
445 the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
448 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
449 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
450 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
451 GNU General Public License for more details.
453 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
454 along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
455 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
456 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
461 paragraph-separate: "[
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464 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2