1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
9 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
10 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
11 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
12 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
17 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
18 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer. This port
19 provides a way to display multilingual text in menus (with some caveats).
22 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
24 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with elisp code.
27 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
28 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
32 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
33 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
34 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
35 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
36 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
37 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
38 in each user's home directory.
41 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
42 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
46 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
48 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
49 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
50 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
51 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
54 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
57 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
58 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
59 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
60 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
62 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
65 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
68 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
71 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
72 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
75 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
78 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
81 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
84 * Changes in Emacs 21.4
86 ** New command `display-local-help' displays any local help at point
87 in the echo area. It is bound to `C-h .'. It normally displays the
88 same string that would be displayed on mouse-over using the
89 `help-echo' property, but, in certain cases, it can display a more
90 keyboard oriented alternative.
92 ** New user option `help-at-pt-display-when-idle' allows to
93 automatically show the help provided by `display-local-help' on
94 point-over, after suitable idle time. The amount of idle time is
95 determined by the user option `help-at-pt-timer-delay' and defaults
96 to one second. This feature is turned off by default.
98 ** New commands `scan-buf-next-region' and `scan-buf-previous-region'
99 move to the start of the next (previous, respectively) region with
100 non-nil help-echo property and display any help found there in the
101 echo area, using `display-local-help'.
104 ** Help mode now only makes hyperlinks for faces when the face name is
105 preceded or followed by the word `face'. It no longer makes
106 hyperlinks for variables without variable documentation, unless
107 preceded by one of the words `variable' or `option'.
109 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
110 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
113 ** The -f option, used from the command line to call a function,
114 now reads arguments for the function interactively if it is
115 an interactively callable function.
120 *** The variable `sql-product' controls the highlightng of different
121 SQL dialects. This variable can be set globally via Customize, on a
122 buffer-specific basis via local variable settings, or for the current
123 session using the new SQL->Product submenu. (This menu replaces the
124 SQL->Highlighting submenu.)
126 The following values are supported:
128 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
142 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
145 The technique of setting `sql-mode-font-lock-defaults' directly in
146 your .emacs will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
147 `sql-product' to accomplish this.
149 *** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
150 font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
151 all identifiers ending in "_t" under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
152 you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
154 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
155 '("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face))
157 *** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i. Most
158 SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
159 highlighted in `font-lock-doc-face'.
161 *** Microsoft SQLServer support has been significantly improved.
162 Keyword highlighting for SqlServer 2000 is implemented.
163 sql-interactive-mode defaults to use osql, rather than isql, because
164 osql flushes it's error stream more frequently. Thus error messages
165 are displayed when they occur rather than when the session is
168 If the username and password are not provided to `sql-ms', osql is
169 called with the -E command line argument to use the operating system
170 credentials to authenticate the user.
172 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
173 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
176 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
177 appropriate sql-interactive-mode wrapper for the current setting of
180 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
181 with special modes such as Tar mode.
183 ** Enhancements to apropos commands:
185 *** The apropos commands will now accept a list of words to match.
186 When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
187 be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
190 *** The new option `apropos-sort-by-scores' causes the matching items
191 to be sorted according to their score. The score for an item is a
192 number calculated to indicate how well the item matches the words or
193 regular expression that you entered to the apropos command. The best
194 match is listed first, and the calculated score is shown for each
198 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
199 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
200 the operating system or your X server.
202 ** New minor mode, Visible mode, toggles invisibility in the current buffer.
203 When enabled, it makes all invisible text visible. When disabled, it
204 restores the previous value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
206 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
207 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
210 ** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
211 If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
212 `Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
214 ** Support for the SQLite interpreter has been added to sql.el by calling
218 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
219 *** bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries can take values `plain',
220 `crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
221 for BibTeX entries. `bibtex-sort-entry-class' controls the sorting
222 scheme `entry-class'. TAB completion for reference keys and
223 automatic detection of duplicates does not require anymore that
224 bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil.
226 *** If the new variable bibtex-parse-keys-fast is non-nil,
227 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
229 *** If the new variable bibtex-autoadd-commas is non-nil,
230 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
232 *** The new variable bibtex-autofill-types contains a list of entry
233 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
235 *** The new command bibtex-complete completes word fragment before
236 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
238 *** The new commands bibtex-find-entry and bibtex-find-crossref
239 locate entries and crossref'd entries.
241 *** In BibTeX mode the command fill-paragraph (bound to M-q) fills
242 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
244 ** When display margins are present in a window, the fringes are now
245 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
246 at the edges of the window.
248 ** A window may now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
249 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
251 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
252 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
253 or when the frame is resized.
255 ** New functions frame-current-scroll-bars and window-current-scroll-bars.
257 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
258 horisontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
260 ** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
262 ** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which may
263 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
265 If the configure option `--without-xim' was used to turn off use of
266 XIM by default, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn it on.
268 ** `describe-char' can show data from the Unicode database file. See
269 user option `unicode-data'.
271 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
273 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
274 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
276 ** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
277 Emacs will prompt her for confirmation.
279 ** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
281 ** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
282 and other common debugger commands.
286 The recent file list is now automatically cleanup when recentf mode is
287 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
290 With the more advanced option: `recentf-filename-handler', you can
291 specify a function that transforms filenames handled by recentf. For
292 example, if set to `file-truename', the same file will not be in the
293 recent list with different symbolic links.
295 To follow naming convention, `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-flag'
296 and `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag' respectively replace the
297 misnamed options `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p' and
298 `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The old names remain available as
299 aliases, but have been marked obsolete.
301 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
306 You can now put the init files .emacs and .emacs_SHELL under
307 ~/.emacs.d or directly under ~. Emacs will find them in either place.
309 ** partial-completion-mode now does partial completion on directory names.
311 ** skeleton.el now supports using - to mark the skeleton-point without
312 interregion interaction. @ has reverted to only setting
313 skeleton-positions and no longer sets skeleton-point. Skeletons
314 which used @ to mark skeleton-point independent of _ should now use -
315 instead. The updated skeleton-insert docstring explains these new
316 features along with other details of skeleton construction.
320 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.3. There have been major changes since
321 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
324 ** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
325 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given elisp
326 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
328 ** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
331 ** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
332 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
333 appears between the position information and the major mode.
335 ** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
336 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
339 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
340 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
341 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
342 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
346 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
347 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
348 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
352 ** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
353 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
354 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you will in fact be able
357 ** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
358 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
360 ** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
364 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
366 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
367 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
368 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
371 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
372 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
373 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
375 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
376 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
377 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories will be
378 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
379 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
381 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
382 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
383 t, and the status is shown.
385 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
386 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
389 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
390 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
391 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
394 ** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Tajik,
395 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
396 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
397 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
398 automatically according to the locale.)
400 ** Indian support has been updated.
401 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
402 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
403 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
407 ** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
408 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
409 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
410 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
411 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
415 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
416 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
417 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
420 ** Many new coding systems are available by loading the `code-pages'
421 library. These include complete versions of most of those in
422 codepage.el, based on Unicode mappings. `codepage-setup' is now
423 obsolete and is used only in the MS-DOS port of Emacs. windows-1252
424 and windows-1251 are preloaded since the former is so common and the
425 latter is used by GNU locales.
427 ** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
428 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences (mostly representing CJK
429 characters) are simply composed into single quasi-characters. User
430 option `utf-translate-cjk' arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK
431 character sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the
432 Mule-UCS system. This uses significant space, so is not the default.
433 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
434 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
435 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
436 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
437 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
439 ** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
440 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
441 fontset appropriately.
443 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
447 ** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
448 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
449 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
450 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
451 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
452 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
453 mule-unicode-... ones.
455 By default this translation will happen automatically on encoding.
456 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
457 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
460 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
461 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
462 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
463 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
464 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
466 ** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
467 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
468 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
469 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
471 ** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
472 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
473 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
477 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
478 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
479 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
482 ** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
483 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
486 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
487 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
488 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
492 ** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
493 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
495 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
496 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
497 program files that include other program files.
499 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
500 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
504 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
505 when Emacs visits them.
508 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
510 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
511 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
512 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
514 ** The new variable `x-select-request-type' controls how Emacs
515 requests X selection. The default value is nil, which means that
516 Emacs requests X selection with types COMPOUND_TEXT and UTF8_STRING,
517 and use the more appropriately result.
520 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
521 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
522 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
523 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
525 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
526 hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
527 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
528 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
529 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
530 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
532 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
533 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
536 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
538 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
539 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
540 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
541 TeX commands to use at startup.
542 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
543 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
545 *** New major mode doctex-mode for *.dtx files.
548 ** New display feature: focus follows the mouse from one Emacs window
549 to another, even within a frame. If you set the variable
550 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a
551 different Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can
552 be selected only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this
553 feature is not enabled.
556 ** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
557 description various information about a character, including its
558 encodings and syntax, its text properties, overlays, and widgets at
559 point. You can get more information about some of them, by clicking
560 on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
563 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
564 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
565 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
566 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
567 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
570 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
571 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
572 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
573 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
574 also disable mouse highlighting.
577 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
578 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
579 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
580 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
581 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
584 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
585 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
586 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
590 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
591 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
592 the mode line of the currently selected window.
594 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
595 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
598 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
599 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
600 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
601 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
602 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
603 current date and time, current line and column number in the
607 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
610 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mail
611 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
612 `display-time-mail-directory'.
615 ** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
618 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
621 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
622 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
623 argument it toggles the mode.
625 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
626 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
629 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
630 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
631 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
632 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
633 `inhibit-splash-screen').
635 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
638 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
639 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
640 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
641 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
642 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
643 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
644 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
645 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
646 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
649 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
650 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
651 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
652 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
656 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
659 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
661 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
662 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
663 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
664 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
667 ** Info-index offers completion.
670 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
674 ** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
675 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
676 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
677 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
680 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
682 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
684 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
687 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
688 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
690 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
691 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
693 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
695 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
696 run by the key sequence.
698 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
699 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
702 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
703 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
705 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
706 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
708 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
709 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
711 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
712 new-kill-line is on C-k
715 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
716 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
717 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
718 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
721 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
722 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
723 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
724 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
727 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
728 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
729 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
730 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
733 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
734 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep will automatically
735 detect whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
736 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
737 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
738 command lines to be used than was possible before.
741 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
742 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
743 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
744 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
745 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
746 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
747 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
750 ** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
751 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
752 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
753 under the "[State]" button.
755 ** The new customization type `float' specifies numbers with floating
756 point (no integers are allowed).
759 ** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
760 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
763 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
765 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
766 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
767 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
768 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
769 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
771 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
772 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
773 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
776 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
779 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
780 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
781 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
783 Added Customization Variables
785 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
787 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
788 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
789 java sources (previous method).
791 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
792 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
797 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
800 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
801 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
802 changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
805 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
806 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
807 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
808 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
809 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
810 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
813 ** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
814 types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
815 what external viewers to use and when.
818 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
819 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
820 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
821 is only rarely needed.
824 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
826 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
827 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
828 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
829 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
832 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
833 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
834 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
835 each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
836 for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
840 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
841 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
842 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
843 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
844 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
847 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
848 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
849 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
852 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
853 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
854 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
858 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
859 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... will cycle through the
860 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
863 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
864 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
868 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
869 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
870 affects the initial frame.
873 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
874 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
875 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
878 ** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
882 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
883 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
884 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
885 directory listing into a buffer.
888 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
889 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
891 ** Unexpected yanking of text due to accidental clicking on the mouse
892 wheel button (typically mouse-2) during wheel scrolling is now avoided.
893 This behaviour can be customized via the mouse-wheel-click-event and
894 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
897 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
898 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
899 may mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
900 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
901 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
902 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
903 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
904 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
907 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
908 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
909 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
910 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
911 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
914 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
915 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
918 ** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
919 of the recognized cursor types.
922 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
923 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
924 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
927 ** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
928 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
929 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic' now take an optional parameter MARK,
930 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
931 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
932 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
933 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
934 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
935 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
938 ** The new function `calendar-goto-day-of-year' (g D) prompts for a
939 year and day number, and moves to that date. Negative day numbers
940 count backward from the end of the year.
942 ** The function `simple-diary-display' now by default sets a header line.
943 This can be controlled through the variables `diary-header-line-flag'
944 and `diary-header-line-format'.
948 *** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
949 the read-only state of the buffer (toggle-read-only). We made this
950 change because we held a poll and found that many users were unhappy
951 with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this behavior, you
952 can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your .emacs:
954 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
956 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
959 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
960 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
961 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
962 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
963 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
966 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
971 *** When comparing directories.
972 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
973 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
974 from one directory to another.
977 *** When comparing files or buffers.
978 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
979 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
980 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
983 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
984 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
985 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
990 *** New regular expressions features
992 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
993 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
994 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
995 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
996 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
997 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
998 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
999 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
1000 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
1001 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
1002 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
1004 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc.
1005 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
1006 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
1009 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
1010 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
1011 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
1012 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
1014 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
1015 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
1016 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
1018 *** New language parsing features
1020 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
1021 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
1023 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
1024 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
1025 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
1028 **** New language PHP.
1029 Tags are functions, classes and defines.
1030 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
1032 **** New language HTML.
1033 Title and h1, h2, h3 are tagged. Also, tags are generated when name= is
1034 used inside an anchor and whenever id= is used.
1036 **** New default keywords for TeX.
1037 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
1040 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
1041 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
1042 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
1044 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
1046 *** Honour #line directives.
1047 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
1048 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
1049 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
1050 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
1051 writes tags pointing to the source file.
1053 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
1054 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
1055 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
1056 will read from standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to
1062 *** Font lock support.
1063 CC Mode now provides font lock support for all its languages. This
1064 supersedes the font lock patterns that have been in the core font lock
1065 package for C, C++, Java and Objective-C. Like indentation, font
1066 locking is done in a uniform way across all languages (except the new
1067 AWK mode - see below). That means that the new font locking will be
1068 different from the old patterns in various details for most languages.
1070 The main goal of the font locking in CC Mode is accuracy, to provide a
1071 dependable aid in recognizing the various constructs. Some, like
1072 strings and comments, are easy to recognize while others like
1073 declarations and types can be very tricky. CC Mode can go to great
1074 lengths to recognize declarations and casts correctly, especially when
1075 the types aren't recognized by standard patterns. This is a fairly
1076 demanding analysis which can be slow on older hardware, and it can
1077 therefore be disabled by choosing a lower decoration level with the
1078 variable font-lock-maximum-decoration.
1080 Note that the most demanding font lock level has been tuned with lazy
1081 fontification in mind, i.e. there should be a support mode that waits
1082 with the fontification until the text is actually shown
1083 (e.g. Just-in-time Lock mode, which is the default, or Lazy Lock
1084 mode). Fontifying a file with several thousand lines in one go can
1085 take the better part of a minute.
1087 **** The (c|c++|objc|java|idl|pike)-font-lock-extra-types variables
1088 are now used by CC Mode to recognize identifiers that are certain to
1089 be types. (They are also used in cases that aren't related to font
1090 locking.) At the maximum decoration level, types are often recognized
1091 properly anyway, so these variables should be fairly restrictive and
1092 not contain patterns for uncertain types.
1094 **** Support for documentation comments.
1095 There is a "plugin" system to fontify documentation comments like
1096 Javadoc and the markup within them. It's independent of the host
1097 language, so it's possible to e.g. turn on Javadoc font locking in C
1098 buffers. See the variable c-doc-comment-style for details.
1100 Currently two kinds of doc comment styles are recognized: Suns Javadoc
1101 and Autodoc which is used in Pike. This is by no means a complete
1102 list of the most common tools; if your doc comment extractor of choice
1103 is missing then please drop a note to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1105 **** Better handling of C++ templates.
1106 As a side effect of the more accurate font locking, C++ templates are
1107 now handled much better. The angle brackets that delimit them are
1108 given parenthesis syntax so that they can be navigated like other
1111 This also improves indentation of templates, although there still is
1112 work to be done in that area. E.g. it's required that multiline
1113 template clauses are written in full and then refontified to be
1114 recognized, and the indentation of nested templates is a bit odd and
1115 not as configurable as it ought to be.
1117 **** Improved handling of Objective-C and CORBA IDL.
1118 Especially the support for Objective-C and IDL has gotten an overhaul.
1119 The special "@" declarations in Objective-C are handled correctly.
1120 All the keywords used in CORBA IDL, PSDL, and CIDL are recognized and
1121 handled correctly, also wrt indentation.
1123 *** Support for the AWK language.
1124 Support for the AWK language has been introduced. The implementation is
1125 based around GNU AWK version 3.1, but it should work pretty well with
1126 any AWK. As yet, not all features of CC Mode have been adapted for AWK.
1129 **** Indentation Engine
1130 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
1132 AWK mode handles code formatted in the conventional AWK fashion: `{'s
1133 which start actions, user-defined functions, or compound statements are
1134 placed on the same line as the associated construct; the matching `}'s
1135 are normally placed under the start of the respective pattern, function
1136 definition, or structured statement.
1138 The predefined indentation functions haven't yet been adapted for AWK
1139 mode, though some of them may work serendipitously. There shouldn't be
1140 any problems writing custom indentation functions for AWK mode.
1142 The command C-c C-q (c-indent-defun) hasn't yet been adapted for AWK,
1143 though in practice it works properly nearly all the time. Should it
1144 fail, explicitly set the region around the function (using C-u C-SPC:
1145 C-M-h probably won't work either) then do C-M-\ (indent-region).
1148 There is a single level of font locking in AWK mode, rather than the
1149 three distinct levels the other modes have. There are several
1150 idiosyncrasies in AWK mode's font-locking due to the peculiarities of
1151 the AWK language itself.
1153 **** Comment Commands
1154 M-; (indent-for-comment) works fine. None of the other CC Mode
1155 comment formatting commands have yet been adapted for AWK mode.
1157 **** Movement Commands
1158 Most of the movement commands work in AWK mode. The most important
1159 exceptions are M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) and M-e
1160 (c-end-of-statement) which haven't yet been adapted.
1162 The notion of "defun" has been augmented to include AWK pattern-action
1163 pairs. C-M-a (c-awk-beginning-of-defun) and C-M-e (c-awk-end-of-defun)
1164 recognise these pattern-action pairs, as well as user defined
1167 **** Auto-newline Insertion and Clean-ups
1168 Auto-newline insertion hasn't yet been adapted for AWK. Some of
1169 the clean-ups can actually convert good AWK code into syntactically
1170 invalid code. These features are best disabled in AWK buffers.
1172 *** New syntactic symbols in IDL mode.
1173 The top level constructs "module" and "composition" (from CIDL) are
1174 now handled like "namespace" in C++: They are given syntactic symbols
1175 module-open, module-close, inmodule, composition-open,
1176 composition-close, and incomposition.
1178 *** New functions to do hungry delete without enabling hungry delete mode.
1179 The functions c-hungry-backspace and c-hungry-delete-forward can be
1180 bound to keys to get this feature without toggling a mode.
1181 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1183 *** Better control over require-final-newline.
1184 The variable that controls how to handle a final newline when the
1185 buffer is saved, require-final-newline, is now customizable on a
1186 per-mode basis through c-require-final-newline. The default is to set
1187 it to t only in languages that mandate a final newline in source files
1188 (C, C++ and Objective-C).
1190 *** Format change for syntactic context elements.
1191 The elements in the syntactic context returned by c-guess-basic-syntax
1192 and stored in c-syntactic-context has been changed somewhat to allow
1193 attaching more information. They are now lists instead of single cons
1194 cells. E.g. a line that previously had the syntactic analysis
1196 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
1200 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
1202 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
1205 This change might affect code that call c-guess-basic-syntax directly,
1206 and custom lineup functions if they use c-syntactic-context. However,
1207 the argument given to lineup functions is still a single cons cell
1208 with nil or an integer in the cdr.
1210 *** API changes for derived modes.
1211 There have been extensive changes "under the hood" which can affect
1212 derived mode writers. Some of these changes are likely to cause
1213 incompatibilities with existing derived modes, but on the other hand
1214 care has now been taken to make it possible to extend and modify CC
1215 Mode with less risk of such problems in the future.
1217 **** New language variable system.
1218 See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
1220 **** New initialization functions.
1221 The initialization procedure has been split up into more functions to
1222 give better control: c-basic-common-init, c-font-lock-init, and
1223 c-init-language-vars.
1225 *** Changes in analysis of nested syntactic constructs.
1226 The syntactic analysis engine has better handling of cases where
1227 several syntactic constructs appear nested on the same line. They are
1228 now handled as if each construct started on a line of its own.
1230 This means that CC Mode now indents some cases differently, and
1231 although it's more consistent there might be cases where the old way
1232 gave results that's more to one's liking. So if you find a situation
1233 where you think that the indentation has become worse, please report
1234 it to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1236 **** New syntactic symbol substatement-label.
1237 This symbol is used when a label is inserted between a statement and
1238 its substatement. E.g:
1244 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
1246 **** Syntactic indentation inside macros.
1247 The contents of multiline #define's are now analyzed and indented
1248 syntactically just like other code. This can be disabled by the new
1249 variable c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros. A new syntactic symbol
1250 cpp-define-intro has been added to control the initial indentation
1253 **** New lineup function c-lineup-cpp-define.
1254 Now used by default to line up macro continuation lines. The behavior
1255 of this function closely mimics the indentation one gets if the macro
1256 is indented while the line continuation backslashes are temporarily
1257 removed. If syntactic indentation in macros is turned off, it works
1258 much line c-lineup-dont-change, which was used earlier, but handles
1259 empty lines within the macro better.
1261 **** Automatically inserted newlines continues the macro if used within one.
1262 This applies to the newlines inserted by the auto-newline mode, and to
1263 c-context-line-break and c-context-open-line.
1265 **** Better alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1266 c-backslash-region tries to adapt to surrounding backslashes. New
1267 variable c-backslash-max-column which put a limit on how far out
1268 backslashes can be moved.
1270 **** Automatic alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1271 This is controlled by the new variable c-auto-align-backslashes. It
1272 affects c-context-line-break, c-context-open-line and newlines
1273 inserted in auto-newline mode.
1275 **** Line indentation works better inside macros.
1276 Regardless whether syntactic indentation and syntactic indentation
1277 inside macros are enabled or not, line indentation now ignores the
1278 line continuation backslashes. This is most noticeable when syntactic
1279 indentation is turned off and there are empty lines (save for the
1280 backslash) in the macro.
1282 *** indent-for-comment is more customizable.
1283 The behavior of M-; (indent-for-comment) is now configurable through
1284 the variable c-indent-comment-alist. The indentation behavior based
1285 on the preceding code on the line, e.g. to get two spaces after #else
1286 and #endif but indentation to comment-column in most other cases
1287 (something which was hardcoded earlier).
1289 *** New function c-context-open-line.
1290 It's the open-line equivalent of c-context-line-break.
1292 *** New lineup functions
1294 **** c-lineup-string-cont
1295 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
1298 result = prefix + "A message "
1299 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
1301 **** c-lineup-cascaded-calls
1302 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
1304 **** c-lineup-knr-region-comment
1305 Gives (what most people think is) better indentation of comments in
1306 the "K&R region" between the function header and its body.
1308 **** c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
1309 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks. Contributed by Kevin
1312 **** c-lineup-argcont
1313 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
1314 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1316 *** Better caching of the syntactic context.
1317 CC Mode caches the positions of the opening parentheses (of any kind)
1318 of the lists surrounding the point. Those positions are used in many
1319 places as anchor points for various searches. The cache is now
1320 improved so that it can be reused to a large extent when the point is
1321 moved. The less it moves, the less needs to be recalculated.
1323 The effect is that CC Mode should be fast most of the time even when
1324 opening parens are hung (i.e. aren't in column zero). It's typically
1325 only the first time after the point is moved far down in a complex
1326 file that it'll take noticeable time to find out the syntactic
1329 *** Statements are recognized in a more robust way.
1330 Statements are recognized most of the time even when they occur in an
1331 "invalid" context, e.g. in a function argument. In practice that can
1332 happen when macros are involved.
1334 *** Improved the way c-indent-exp chooses the block to indent.
1335 It now indents the block for the closest sexp following the point
1336 whose closing paren ends on a different line. This means that the
1337 point doesn't have to be immediately before the block to indent.
1338 Also, only the block and the closing line is indented; the current
1339 line is left untouched.
1341 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
1342 The function c-toggle-syntactic-indentation can be used to toggle
1343 syntactic indentation.
1345 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
1346 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
1349 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
1350 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
1353 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
1354 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
1355 whose names begin with space are omitted.
1358 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
1359 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
1360 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
1363 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
1364 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
1365 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
1368 ** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
1369 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
1370 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
1371 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
1372 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
1373 from the file name or buffer contents.
1376 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
1379 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
1380 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behavior of isearch
1381 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
1384 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
1387 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
1390 ** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
1391 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
1392 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
1395 ** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
1396 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
1399 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
1400 to support use of font-lock.
1403 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
1404 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
1408 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
1409 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
1410 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
1413 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
1414 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
1415 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
1416 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
1417 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
1418 candidate is a directory.
1421 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
1422 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
1423 it remains unchanged.
1426 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
1427 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
1428 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
1430 ** Compilation mode enhancements:
1432 *** New user option `compilation-environment'.
1433 This option allows you to specify environment variables for inferior
1434 compilation processes without affecting the environment that all
1435 subprocesses inherit.
1437 *** `next-error' now temporarily highlights the corresponding source line.
1439 ** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
1441 *** Grep commands now have their own submenu and customization group.
1443 *** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
1444 `grep-scroll-output' can be used to override the corresponding
1445 compilation mode settings for grep commands.
1447 *** Source line is temporarily highlighted when going to next match.
1449 *** New key bindings in grep output window:
1450 SPC and DEL scrolls window up and down. C-n and C-p moves to next and
1451 previous match in the grep window. RET jumps to the source line of
1452 the current match. `n' and `p' shows next and previous match in
1453 other window, but does not switch buffer. `{' and `}' jumps to the
1454 previous or next file in the grep output. TAB also jumps to the next
1458 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
1461 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
1462 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
1463 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
1466 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
1467 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
1470 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
1471 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
1472 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
1473 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
1474 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
1475 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
1479 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
1480 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
1481 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
1482 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
1483 sound support for those formats.
1486 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
1487 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
1490 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
1491 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
1492 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
1493 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
1496 ** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
1497 The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in
1498 much the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now
1499 adds these colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu
1500 for the default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground),
1501 and uses some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
1502 `list-colors-display' will show the list of System color names if you
1503 wish to use them in other faces.
1506 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
1507 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
1508 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
1509 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
1511 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
1512 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
1514 * New modes and packages in 21.4
1517 ** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
1518 shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
1520 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
1523 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1525 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
1526 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
1527 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
1528 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
1531 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1533 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
1534 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
1535 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
1536 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
1537 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
1538 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
1540 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
1541 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
1542 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
1543 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
1545 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
1546 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
1547 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
1548 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
1549 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
1550 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
1551 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
1553 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
1554 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
1555 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
1557 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
1558 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
1560 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
1561 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
1562 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
1563 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
1565 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
1566 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
1567 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
1568 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
1570 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
1571 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
1572 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
1573 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
1575 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
1576 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
1577 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
1578 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
1579 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
1581 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
1582 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
1583 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
1584 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
1585 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
1586 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
1588 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
1589 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
1590 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
1591 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
1592 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
1593 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
1594 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
1595 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
1596 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
1599 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
1600 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
1602 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
1603 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
1604 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
1605 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
1607 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
1610 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
1611 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
1612 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
1613 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
1614 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
1617 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
1618 the keyboard macro ring.
1620 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
1621 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
1623 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
1624 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
1625 this behaviour via the variable kmacro-call-repeat-key and
1626 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
1628 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
1629 C-x C-k SPC will step through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
1630 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
1633 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
1634 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
1635 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
1636 C-c C-i b, and so on.
1638 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1640 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
1641 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
1642 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
1643 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
1644 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
1645 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
1648 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1650 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
1651 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
1652 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
1653 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
1656 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
1658 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
1659 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
1660 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
1661 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
1662 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
1663 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
1664 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
1665 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
1666 `rsync' to do the copying).
1668 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
1672 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
1673 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
1674 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
1675 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
1676 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method may
1677 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
1680 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
1681 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
1682 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
1686 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
1687 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
1688 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
1689 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
1691 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
1694 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
1695 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
1697 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
1698 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
1699 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
1700 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
1701 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
1702 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
1705 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
1706 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
1707 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
1708 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
1711 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
1712 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
1713 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
1714 mode-lines in inverse-video.
1717 ** cplus-md.el has been removed to avoid problems with Custom.
1719 ** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
1720 timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
1722 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
1723 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
1724 in Indented-Text mode.
1726 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
1727 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
1728 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
1730 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the apperance of fringes.
1732 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
1733 configuration files.
1735 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
1737 ** New function `get-char-property-and-overlay' accepts the same
1738 arguments as `get-char-property' and returns a cons whose car is the
1739 return value of `get-char-property' called with those arguments and
1740 whose cdr is the overlay in which the property was found, or nil if
1741 it was found as a text property or not found at all.
1743 ** Mouse event enhancements:
1745 *** Mouse clicks on fringes now generates left-fringe or right-fringes
1746 events, rather than a text area click event.
1749 *** Mouse events now includes buffer position for all event types.
1752 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
1754 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
1757 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
1761 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types.
1764 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns actual glyph coordinates.
1767 *** Mouse events may now include image object in addition to string object.
1770 *** Mouse events include relative x and y pixel coordinates relative to
1771 the top left corner of the object (image or character) clicked on.
1773 *** New functions 'posn-object' and 'posn-object-x-y' return the image
1774 or string object of a mouse click, and the x and y pixel coordinates
1775 relative to the top left corner of that object.
1777 ** New function `force-window-update' can initiate a full redisplay of
1778 one or all windows. Normally, this is not needed as changes in window
1779 contents are detected automatically. However, certain implicit
1780 changes to mode lines, header lines, or display properties may require
1781 forcing an explicit window update.
1783 ** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
1784 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
1787 ** `split-string' now includes null substrings in the returned list if
1788 the optional argument SEPARATORS is non-nil and there are matches for
1789 SEPARATORS at the beginning or end of the string. If SEPARATORS is
1790 nil, or if the new optional third argument OMIT-NULLS is non-nil, all
1791 empty matches are omitted from the returned list.
1794 ** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
1797 ** If optional third argument APPEND to `add-to-list' is non-nil, a
1798 new element gets added at the end of the list instead of at the
1799 beginning. This change actually occurred in Emacs-21.1, but was not
1802 ** Major modes can define `eldoc-print-current-symbol-info-function'
1803 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
1807 ** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
1808 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
1812 ** The argument to forward-word, backward-word, forward-to-indentation
1813 and backward-to-indentation is now optional, and defaults to 1.
1816 ** (char-displayable-p CHAR) returns non-nil if Emacs ought to be able
1817 to display CHAR. More precisely, if the selected frame's fontset has
1818 a font to display the character set that CHAR belongs to.
1820 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
1821 does that, this value may not be accurate.
1824 ** The new function `window-inside-edges' returns the edges of the
1825 actual text portion of the window, not including the scroll bar or
1826 divider line, the fringes, the display margins, the header line and
1830 ** The new functions `window-pixel-edges' and `window-inside-pixel-edges'
1831 return window edges in units of pixels, rather than columns and lines.
1834 ** The kill-buffer-hook is now permanent-local.
1837 ** `select-window' takes an optional second argument `norecord', like
1841 ** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
1842 selected window without impacting the order of buffer-list.
1845 ** The `keymap' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
1846 text-properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
1847 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `local-map' property.
1850 ** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
1854 ** VC changes for backends:
1855 *** (vc-switches BACKEND OPERATION) is a new function for use by backends.
1856 *** The new `find-version' backend function replaces the `destfile'
1857 parameter of the `checkout' backend function.
1858 Old code still works thanks to a default `find-version' behavior that
1859 uses the old `destfile' parameter.
1862 ** The new macro dynamic-completion-table supports using functions
1863 as a dynamic completion table.
1865 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
1867 FUN is called with one argument, the string for which completion is required,
1868 and it should return an alist containing all the intended possible
1869 completions. This alist may be a full list of possible completions so that FUN
1870 can ignore the value of its argument. If completion is performed in the
1871 minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer from which the minibuffer was
1872 entered. dynamic-completion-table then computes the completion.
1875 ** The new macro lazy-completion-table initializes a variable
1876 as a lazy completion table.
1878 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN &rest ARGS)
1880 If the completion table VAR is used for the first time (e.g., by passing VAR
1881 as an argument to `try-completion'), the function FUN is called with arguments
1882 ARGS. FUN must return the completion table that will be stored in VAR. If
1883 completion is requested in the minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer
1884 from which the minibuffer was entered. The return value of
1885 `lazy-completion-table' must be used to initialize the value of VAR.
1888 ** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
1891 ** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
1892 for all (existing and future) frames.
1895 ** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
1898 ** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
1901 ** The macro `with-syntax-table' does not copy the table any more.
1904 ** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
1905 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
1906 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
1907 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
1908 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
1911 ** The function `number-sequence' returns a list of equally-separated
1912 numbers. For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9).
1913 By default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different separation
1914 as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns (1.5 3.5 5.5).
1917 ** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
1918 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
1919 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
1920 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
1923 ** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
1924 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
1927 ** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character,
1928 unless it is followed by a `-' in a character constant (e.g. ?\s-A),
1929 in which case it is still interpreted as the super modifier.
1930 In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
1933 ** New function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the multibyteness
1934 of a string given to a process's filter.
1937 ** New function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns t if
1938 a string given to a process's filter is multibyte.
1941 ** A filter function of a process is called with a multibyte string if
1942 the filter's multibyteness is t. That multibyteness is decided by the
1943 value of `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is
1944 created and can be changed later by `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
1947 ** If a process's coding system is raw-text or no-conversion and its
1948 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
1949 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
1950 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
1951 which was not compatible with the behaviour of file reading.
1954 ** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
1955 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
1958 ** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
1959 on garbage collection.
1962 ** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
1963 it is read from a file without decoding.
1966 ** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
1969 ** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
1970 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
1971 by calling `select-window'.
1974 ** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
1975 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
1976 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
1977 need to have a name.
1979 ** Byte compiler changes:
1982 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
1983 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
1984 Emacs and XEmacs and may sometimes make the result significantly more
1985 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
1986 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
1990 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
1991 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
1992 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
1993 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
1996 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
1997 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
1999 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
2000 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
2001 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
2002 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
2003 macro expansion), but such tests may be nested. Note that `when' and
2004 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
2007 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
2008 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
2011 ** The new translation table `translation-table-for-input'
2012 is used for customizing self-insertion. The character to
2013 be inserted is translated through it.
2016 ** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
2017 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
2018 current file redefined it).
2021 ** New Lisp library testcover.el works with edebug to help you determine
2022 whether you've tested all your Lisp code. Function testcover-start
2023 instruments all functions in a given file. Then test your code. Function
2024 testcover-mark-all adds overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to
2025 show where coverage is lacking. Command testcover-next-mark (bind it to
2026 a key!) will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
2028 *** Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely evaluated;
2029 a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same value. The red
2030 splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly complete their evaluation,
2031 such as `error'. The brown splotches are skipped for forms that are expected
2032 to always evaluate to the same value, such as (setq x 14).
2034 *** For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to help
2035 out the test coverage tool. The macro `noreturn' suppresses a red splotch.
2036 It is an error if the argument to `noreturn' does return. The macro 1value
2037 suppresses a brown splotch for its argument. This macro is a no-op except
2038 during test-coverage -- then it signals an error if the argument actually
2039 returns differing values.
2042 ** New function unsafep returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly
2043 do anything dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be
2044 unsafe (calls dangerous function, alters global variable, etc).
2047 ** The new variable `print-continuous-numbering', when non-nil, says
2048 that successive calls to print functions should use the same
2049 numberings for circular structure references. This is only relevant
2050 when `print-circle' is non-nil.
2052 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
2053 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
2056 ** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
2057 the scroll-bar-width frame parameter value is nil.
2060 ** The new function copy-abbrev-table returns a new abbrev table that
2061 is a copy of a given abbrev table.
2064 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
2065 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
2066 can start with this line:
2068 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
2071 ** A function's docstring can now hold the function's usage info on
2072 its last line. It should match the regexp "\n\n(fn.*)\\'".
2075 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
2076 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
2079 ** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional buffer
2080 argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted it defaults to
2084 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
2085 and `display-warning'.
2088 ** The functions all-completions and try-completion now accept lists
2089 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
2090 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
2094 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
2095 much pure storage it will approximately need.
2098 ** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
2099 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
2100 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
2101 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
2104 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
2105 of one coding system from another coding system.
2108 ** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
2109 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
2110 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
2111 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
2115 ** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
2116 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
2117 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
2118 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
2119 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
2120 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
2122 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
2123 confirmation as before.
2126 ** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
2128 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
2129 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
2130 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
2131 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
2133 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
2134 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
2135 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
2136 between the left and right fringe. For force a specific fringe width,
2137 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
2138 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
2140 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
2141 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
2142 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
2143 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
2146 ** Per-window fringes settings
2148 Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and position
2151 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
2152 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
2153 `set-window-fringes'.
2155 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
2156 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
2157 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
2158 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
2160 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
2161 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
2162 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
2163 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
2164 an update of the display margins.
2167 ** Per-window vertical scroll-bar settings
2169 Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
2170 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
2172 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
2173 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
2174 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
2175 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
2176 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2177 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2178 of the display margins.
2181 ** The function `set-window-buffer' now has an optional third argument
2182 KEEP-MARGINS which will preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
2183 and scroll-bar settings if non-nil.
2186 ** Renamed file hooks to follow the convention:
2187 find-file-hooks to find-file-hook,
2188 find-file-not-found-hooks to find-file-not-found-functions,
2189 write-file-hooks to write-file-functions,
2190 write-contents-hooks to write-contents-functions.
2191 Marked local-write-file-hooks as obsolete (use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook').
2194 ** The new variable `delete-frame-functions' replaces `delete-frame-hook'.
2195 It was renamed to follow the naming conventions for abnormal hooks. The old
2196 name remains available as an alias, but has been marked obsolete.
2199 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
2200 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
2201 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
2202 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
2203 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
2206 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
2207 to override the internal read-file-name function.
2210 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
2211 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
2212 will only show directories.
2215 ** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
2216 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
2217 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
2220 ** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
2221 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
2222 (require 'cl) when loaded.
2225 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
2226 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
2227 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
2229 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
2231 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
2232 declaration specifiers supported are:
2235 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
2238 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
2239 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
2242 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
2244 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
2245 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
2246 binding and lookup functionality.
2248 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
2249 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
2253 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
2254 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
2255 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
2256 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
2259 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
2260 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
2261 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
2262 map using define-key:
2264 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
2265 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
2267 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
2268 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
2270 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
2271 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
2272 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
2274 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
2276 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2277 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
2278 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
2279 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
2281 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
2282 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
2284 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
2285 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
2287 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
2288 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
2289 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
2290 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
2291 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
2292 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
2294 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
2295 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
2296 command was not remapped.
2299 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
2301 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
2302 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
2306 ** Atomic change groups.
2308 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
2309 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
2310 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
2312 (atomic-change-group
2314 (delete-region x y))
2316 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
2317 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
2318 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
2319 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
2321 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
2322 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
2324 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
2325 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
2326 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
2327 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
2329 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
2330 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
2333 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
2334 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
2335 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
2336 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
2338 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
2339 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
2340 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
2341 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
2342 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
2343 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
2346 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
2347 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
2348 returned values, like this:
2350 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
2351 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
2353 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
2354 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
2355 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
2357 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
2358 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
2359 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
2360 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
2364 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
2366 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
2367 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
2368 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
2369 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
2372 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
2374 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
2375 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
2376 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
2377 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
2380 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
2382 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
2383 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
2384 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
2387 ** New function insert-for-yank.
2389 This function normally works like `insert' but removes the text
2390 properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list. However, if the
2391 inserted text has a `yank-handler' text property on the first
2392 character of the string, the insertion of the text may be modified in
2393 a number of ways. See the description of `yank-handler' below.
2396 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
2398 This function works like `insert-buffer-substring', but removes the
2399 text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
2402 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
2404 This function is like insert-buffer-substring, but removes all
2405 text properties from the inserted substring.
2408 ** New `yank-handler' text property may be used to control how
2409 previously killed text on the kill-ring is reinserted.
2411 The value of the yank-handler property must be a list with one to four
2412 elements with the following format:
2413 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
2415 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
2416 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
2417 element on the kill-ring). If a yank-handler property is found,
2418 the normal behaviour of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
2420 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
2421 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
2422 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
2423 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
2424 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
2426 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
2427 yank-excluded-properties is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
2428 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
2429 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
2430 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
2431 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
2432 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
2433 FUNCTION may set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
2435 *** The functions kill-new, kill-append, and kill-region now have an
2436 optional argument to specify the yank-handler text property to put on
2439 *** The function yank-pop will now use a non-nil value of the variable
2440 `yank-undo-function' (instead of delete-region) to undo the previous
2441 yank or yank-pop command (or a call to insert-for-yank). The function
2442 insert-for-yank automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
2443 element of the string argument's yank-handler text property if present.
2446 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
2447 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
2449 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
2450 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
2451 defined with defface.
2454 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
2455 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
2456 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
2459 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
2460 help with handling relative face attributes.
2463 ** Enhancements to process support
2465 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
2466 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
2468 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
2469 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
2470 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
2472 *** Function signal-process now accepts a process object or process
2473 name in addition to a process id to identify the signalled process.
2475 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
2476 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
2478 The new functions process-get and process-put are used to access, add,
2479 and modify elements on this property list.
2481 The new low-level functions process-plist and set-process-plist are
2482 used to access and replace the entire property list of a process.
2485 ** Enhanced networking support.
2487 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
2488 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
2489 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
2491 - A server is started using :server t arg.
2492 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
2493 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
2494 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
2495 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
2496 - The process' property list may be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
2497 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
2498 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
2500 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
2501 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
2503 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
2505 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
2507 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
2508 without waiting for the connection to be established. It takes the
2509 filter and sentinel functions as arguments; when the non-blocking
2510 connect completes, the sentinel is called with a status string
2511 matching "open" or "failed".
2513 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
2515 This function creates a network server process for a TCP service.
2516 When a client connects to the specified service, a new subprocess
2517 is created to handle the new connection, and the sentinel function
2518 is called for the new process.
2520 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
2522 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
2523 and set the current address of the remote partner.
2525 *** New function format-network-address.
2527 This function reformats the lisp representation of a network address
2528 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
2529 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
2530 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
2531 string for other formatting options.
2533 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
2534 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
2535 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
2537 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
2538 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
2539 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
2540 the fifth is the port number.
2542 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
2543 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
2544 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
2545 no input is received in the stopped state.
2547 *** New function network-interface-list.
2549 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
2550 current network addresses.
2552 *** New function network-interface-info.
2554 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
2555 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
2558 ** New function copy-tree.
2561 ** New function substring-no-properties.
2564 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
2567 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
2570 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
2571 are now always lower case. If you specify the
2572 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
2573 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
2575 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
2576 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
2579 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
2580 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
2581 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
2582 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
2585 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
2586 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
2588 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
2589 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
2590 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
2593 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
2594 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
2597 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
2598 (function (lambda ()
2600 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
2601 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
2602 (function (lambda ()
2603 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
2606 ** File local variables.
2608 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
2609 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
2612 ** New function window-body-height.
2614 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
2618 ** New function format-mode-line.
2620 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
2621 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
2624 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
2626 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
2627 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
2630 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
2632 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' must not be used (as previously
2633 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
2634 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
2635 you specify the map to use as an argument.
2638 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
2640 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
2641 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
2642 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
2645 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
2647 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
2648 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
2649 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
2650 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
2651 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
2654 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
2655 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
2656 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
2657 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
2660 ** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
2661 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
2664 ** Mode line display ignores text properties as well as the
2665 :propertize and :eval forms in the value of a variable whose
2666 `risky-local-variable' property is nil.
2669 ** The new `%i' and `%I' constructs for `mode-line-format' can be used
2670 to display the size of the accessible part of the buffer on the mode
2674 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
2675 cl-indent package. The new user options
2676 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
2677 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
2678 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
2681 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
2682 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
2685 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
2687 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
2688 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
2689 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
2692 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
2694 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
2695 the time it takes to convert the format.
2697 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
2701 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
2702 over minor mode keymaps.
2705 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
2706 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
2709 ** At the end of a command, point moves out from within invisible
2710 text, in the same way it moves out from within text covered by an
2711 image or composition property.
2713 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
2714 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
2715 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
2716 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
2717 post-command-hook and thus does not care about intermediate states.
2720 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
2724 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
2725 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
2726 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
2727 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
2731 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
2734 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
2737 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
2738 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
2739 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
2740 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
2741 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
2742 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
2745 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
2746 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
2747 bindings of the parent keymap.
2750 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
2751 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
2752 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
2753 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
2754 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
2755 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
2763 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
2764 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
2765 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
2766 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
2769 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
2770 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
2772 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
2773 (the last prior group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
2776 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
2777 it receives a request from emacsclient.
2780 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
2781 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
2782 than 3 levels of nesting.
2785 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
2786 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
2790 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
2791 properties from surrounding text.
2794 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
2796 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
2797 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
2798 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
2801 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
2802 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
2806 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
2807 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
2808 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
2809 other properties than `face'.
2810 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
2811 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
2814 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
2815 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
2816 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors, or use
2817 the feature of specifying the face attributes :foreground and :background
2818 directly in the `face' property instead of using a named face.
2821 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
2822 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
2823 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
2826 ** define-minor-mode now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
2827 and simply passes them to defcustom, if applicable.
2830 ** define-derived-mode by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
2831 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
2834 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
2835 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
2836 and runs any code associated with the provided feature.
2839 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
2840 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
2841 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
2844 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
2845 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
2846 accepts a float as UID parameter.
2849 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
2852 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
2855 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
2856 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
2857 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
2858 the output of other GNU tools.
2861 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
2864 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
2867 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
2868 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
2871 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
2873 *** defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
2875 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
2876 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
2877 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
2878 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
2880 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
2881 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
2883 *** indirect-variable VARIABLE
2885 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
2886 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
2887 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
2889 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
2890 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
2893 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
2894 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
2897 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
2898 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
2901 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
2902 hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
2905 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
2906 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
2907 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
2909 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-key-sequence and the like, that
2910 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer, now display the prompt
2911 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
2913 ** New function x-send-client-message sends a client message when
2918 *** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
2919 GDB. You can interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but
2920 there are also further buffers which control the execution and describe the
2921 state of your program. It separates the input/output of your program from
2922 that of GDB and watches expressions in the speedbar. It also uses features of
2923 Emacs 21 such as the display margin for breakpoints, and the toolbar.
2925 Use M-x gdba to start GDB-UI.
2927 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
2928 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
2930 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
2931 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
2934 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
2935 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
2937 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
2938 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
2939 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
2940 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
2941 as help and apropos buffers.
2944 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
2946 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
2950 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
2952 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
2955 ** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
2956 as mule-utf-8. Coding system `utf-16-le-dos' is useful as the value
2957 of `selection-coding-system' in MS Windows, allowing you to paste
2958 multilingual text from the clipboard. Set it interactively with
2959 C-x RET x or in .emacs with `(set-selection-coding-system 'utf-16-le-dos)'.
2961 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
2964 ** Translation tables are available between equivalent characters in
2965 different Emacs charsets -- for instance `e with acute' coming from the
2966 Latin-1 and Latin-2 charsets. User options `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode'
2967 and `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' respectively turn on translation
2968 between ISO 8859 character sets (`unification') on encoding
2969 (e.g. writing a file) and decoding (e.g. reading a file). Note that
2970 `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is useful and safe, but
2971 `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' can cause text to change when you read
2972 it and write it out again without edits, so it is not generally advisable.
2973 By default `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is turned on.
2975 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
2976 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
2978 If you want the old behavior, set selection-coding-system to
2979 compound-text, which may be significantly more efficient. Using
2980 compound-text-with-extensions seems to be necessary only for decoding
2981 text from applications under XFree86 4.2, whose behaviour is actually
2982 contrary to the compound text specification.
2985 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
2987 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
2989 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
2992 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
2994 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
2996 X applications can use `extended segments' to encode characters in
2997 compound text that belong to character sets which are not part of the
2998 list of approved standard encodings for X, e.g. Big5. To paste
2999 selections with such characters into Emacs, use the new coding system
3000 compound-text-with-extensions as the value of selection-coding-system.
3002 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
3005 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
3006 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
3008 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
3009 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
3010 instead of using default-major-mode.
3012 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
3013 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
3014 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
3015 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
3016 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
3017 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
3018 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
3020 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
3024 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
3026 ** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
3027 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
3028 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
3030 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
3031 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
3034 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
3036 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
3037 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
3038 charsets in this release.
3040 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
3042 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
3044 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
3045 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
3048 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
3049 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
3050 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
3051 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
3052 necessary changes to unexec.
3054 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
3055 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
3057 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
3058 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
3060 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
3061 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
3063 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
3064 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
3065 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
3066 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
3067 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
3069 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
3070 new display features described below.
3073 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
3075 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
3077 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
3078 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
3079 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
3080 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
3083 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
3085 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
3086 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
3087 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
3088 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
3091 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
3092 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
3093 under Lisp changes, below.
3095 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
3097 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
3098 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
3099 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
3100 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
3101 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
3102 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
3105 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
3106 supported on character terminals.
3108 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
3109 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
3110 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
3111 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
3113 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
3117 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
3118 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
3119 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
3120 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
3123 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
3125 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
3126 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
3127 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
3128 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
3130 - User option: max-mini-window-height
3132 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
3133 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
3134 specifies a number of lines.
3138 - User option: resize-mini-windows
3140 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
3141 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
3142 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
3145 Default is `grow-only'.
3149 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
3150 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
3152 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
3154 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
3155 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
3158 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
3160 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
3161 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
3162 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
3164 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
3166 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
3167 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
3168 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
3169 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
3170 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
3173 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
3174 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
3175 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
3176 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
3177 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
3178 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
3180 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
3181 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
3182 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
3183 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
3184 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
3185 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
3187 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
3188 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
3189 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
3190 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
3191 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
3193 ** Tool bar support.
3195 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
3196 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
3197 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
3198 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
3199 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
3202 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
3203 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
3207 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
3208 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
3209 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
3211 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
3212 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
3213 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
3214 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
3216 ** Automatic Hscrolling
3218 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
3219 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
3222 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
3223 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
3224 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
3225 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
3226 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
3228 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
3229 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
3230 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
3231 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
3232 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
3233 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
3235 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
3236 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
3237 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
3238 customizing face `fringe'.
3240 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
3241 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
3242 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
3243 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
3244 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
3245 the window to be partially obscured.)
3247 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
3248 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
3249 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
3250 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
3252 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3254 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
3255 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
3256 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
3257 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
3258 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
3261 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
3263 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
3265 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
3267 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
3268 `*') toggles the status.
3270 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
3272 ** Hourglass pointer
3274 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
3275 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
3279 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
3280 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
3281 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
3284 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
3286 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
3287 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
3288 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
3291 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
3292 have to do anything to activate it.
3294 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
3296 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
3297 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
3299 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
3300 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
3301 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
3302 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
3303 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
3304 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
3305 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
3306 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
3308 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
3309 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
3310 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
3311 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
3312 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
3313 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
3315 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
3316 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
3318 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
3319 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
3322 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
3323 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
3324 beginning and end of the buffer.
3326 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
3327 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
3330 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
3331 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
3333 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
3334 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
3337 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
3338 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
3341 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
3343 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
3344 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
3345 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
3347 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
3348 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
3349 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
3351 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
3354 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
3356 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
3357 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
3358 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
3359 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
3360 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
3363 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
3364 all frames except the selected one.
3366 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
3367 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
3369 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
3370 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
3371 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
3372 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
3373 `Info-use-header-line'.
3375 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
3376 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
3377 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
3379 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
3381 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
3382 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
3385 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
3386 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
3387 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
3388 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
3390 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
3392 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
3393 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
3394 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
3395 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
3397 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
3398 point in a pop-up window.
3400 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
3401 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
3402 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
3404 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
3405 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
3407 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
3408 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
3409 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
3410 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
3412 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
3414 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
3415 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
3417 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
3418 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
3419 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
3421 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
3422 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
3425 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
3426 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
3427 file that is already visited under a different name.
3429 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
3430 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
3432 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
3433 and displays information about that.
3435 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
3436 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
3438 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
3439 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
3440 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
3441 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
3442 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
3443 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
3445 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
3446 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
3448 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
3449 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
3450 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
3451 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
3452 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
3453 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
3454 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
3456 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
3457 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
3459 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
3460 system for keyboard input.
3462 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
3463 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
3464 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
3465 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
3466 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
3467 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
3468 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
3469 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
3470 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
3472 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
3473 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
3475 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
3476 displays all characters in that character set.
3478 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
3479 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
3481 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
3482 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
3483 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
3485 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
3486 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
3487 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
3488 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
3489 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
3490 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
3493 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
3494 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
3497 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
3498 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
3499 Lisp Coding Convention".
3501 new command old-binding
3502 --- ------- -----------
3503 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
3504 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
3505 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
3507 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
3508 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
3509 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
3511 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
3512 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
3513 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
3514 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
3515 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
3516 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
3518 ** There are new Leim input methods.
3519 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
3520 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
3523 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
3524 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
3525 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
3526 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
3527 "`", you must type "=q".
3529 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
3530 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
3531 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
3532 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
3533 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
3536 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
3537 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
3538 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
3539 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
3541 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
3542 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
3543 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
3544 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
3546 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
3547 on the display using several methods
3549 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
3550 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
3551 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
3553 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
3554 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
3556 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
3558 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
3559 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
3561 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
3562 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
3563 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
3564 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
3566 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
3567 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
3568 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
3570 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
3571 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
3573 ** New X resources recognized
3575 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
3576 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
3577 is useful for debugging X problems.
3581 emacs.synchronous: true
3583 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
3584 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
3585 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
3586 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
3587 visual class names are
3596 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
3597 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
3600 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
3601 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
3602 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
3607 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
3609 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
3610 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
3611 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
3612 resource values are `true' or `on'.
3616 emacs.privateColormap: true
3618 ** Faces and frame parameters.
3620 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
3621 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3622 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
3623 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
3624 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
3625 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
3626 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
3628 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
3629 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
3630 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
3631 `default' face and vice versa.
3635 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
3637 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
3639 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
3640 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
3641 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
3642 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
3644 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
3645 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
3646 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
3648 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
3651 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
3653 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
3654 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
3655 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
3656 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
3658 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
3660 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
3662 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
3664 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
3667 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
3670 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
3672 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
3673 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
3674 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
3676 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
3677 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
3679 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
3680 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
3681 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
3683 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
3685 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
3686 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
3687 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
3688 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
3690 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
3691 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
3692 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
3693 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
3695 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
3696 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
3697 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
3700 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
3702 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
3703 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
3704 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
3706 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
3707 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
3708 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
3709 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
3710 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
3711 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
3713 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
3715 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
3716 notably at the end of lines.
3718 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
3719 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
3721 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
3723 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
3724 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
3726 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
3727 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
3728 after each match to get the replacement text.
3730 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
3731 you edit the replacement string.
3733 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
3734 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
3735 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
3737 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
3739 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
3740 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
3742 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
3743 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
3744 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
3745 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
3748 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
3749 read mail from the menu etc.
3751 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
3752 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
3753 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
3754 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
3756 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
3757 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
3759 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
3760 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
3761 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
3762 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
3763 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
3766 ** Customize changes
3768 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
3769 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
3770 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
3771 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
3772 earlier versions of Emacs.
3774 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
3775 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
3778 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
3779 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
3780 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
3781 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
3784 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
3785 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
3786 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
3787 already in your init file.
3789 ** New features in evaluation commands
3791 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
3792 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
3793 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
3794 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
3795 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
3797 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
3798 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
3799 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
3800 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
3803 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
3804 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
3806 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
3807 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
3809 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
3810 code when called with a prefix argument.
3814 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
3815 current user setups (although it's believed that these
3816 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
3817 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
3818 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
3819 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
3822 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
3823 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
3824 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
3827 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
3828 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
3829 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
3830 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
3832 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
3833 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
3835 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
3836 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
3838 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
3839 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
3840 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
3841 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
3843 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
3844 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
3845 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
3846 earlier statement. An example:
3848 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
3850 res += a[i]->offset;
3853 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
3854 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
3855 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
3856 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
3859 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
3862 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
3863 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
3864 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
3865 documentation or other natural language text.
3867 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
3868 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
3869 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
3870 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
3871 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
3872 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
3873 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
3875 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
3876 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
3877 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
3878 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
3880 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
3881 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
3882 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
3883 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
3886 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
3887 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
3888 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
3889 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
3890 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
3891 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
3892 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
3893 is reported afterwards.
3895 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
3896 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
3897 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
3899 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
3900 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
3901 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
3902 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
3903 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
3904 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
3907 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
3908 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
3909 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
3910 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
3911 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
3914 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
3915 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
3916 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
3917 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
3918 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
3919 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
3921 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
3922 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
3923 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
3924 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
3925 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
3926 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
3927 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
3928 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
3930 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
3931 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
3932 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
3933 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
3936 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
3937 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
3938 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
3939 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
3940 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
3941 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
3942 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
3943 function documentation for more info.
3945 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
3946 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
3947 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
3948 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
3949 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
3950 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
3951 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
3952 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
3954 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
3956 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
3957 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
3959 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
3960 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
3961 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
3962 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
3963 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
3966 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
3967 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
3968 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
3971 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
3972 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
3973 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
3974 chapter about this in the manual.
3976 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
3977 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
3978 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
3979 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
3980 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
3982 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
3983 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
3984 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
3986 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
3987 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
3989 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
3990 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
3991 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
3994 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
3995 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
3996 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
3997 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
4000 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
4001 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
4002 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
4003 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
4004 they were before the filling.
4006 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
4007 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
4008 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
4011 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
4012 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
4013 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
4014 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
4017 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
4018 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
4019 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
4020 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
4021 Thanks to Eric Eide.
4023 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
4024 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
4025 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
4027 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
4029 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
4030 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
4031 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
4032 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
4034 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
4035 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
4036 the column specified by comment-column.
4038 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
4039 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
4040 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
4041 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
4042 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
4043 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
4045 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
4046 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
4049 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
4051 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
4052 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
4053 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
4054 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
4057 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
4061 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
4062 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
4063 is, delete only empty directories.
4065 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
4066 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
4067 copy directories recursively.
4069 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
4070 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
4071 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
4073 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
4074 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
4077 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
4078 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
4079 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
4080 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
4081 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
4083 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
4086 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
4087 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
4088 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
4089 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
4093 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
4094 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
4095 internationalization and mail-fetching.
4097 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
4098 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
4100 If you used procmail like in
4102 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
4103 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
4104 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
4105 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
4107 this now has changed to
4110 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
4113 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
4114 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
4116 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
4117 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
4118 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
4119 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
4121 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
4122 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
4123 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
4125 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
4126 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
4127 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
4128 now just a compatibility layer.
4130 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
4133 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
4134 called to position point.
4136 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
4137 summary buffers and NOV files.
4139 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
4140 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
4142 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
4143 subtly different manner.
4145 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
4146 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
4147 ever-changing layouts.
4149 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
4151 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
4153 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
4155 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
4159 -------------------------
4163 C-c C-c q @quotation
4165 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
4168 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
4170 ** Changes in Outline mode.
4172 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
4173 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
4174 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
4176 ** Changes to Emacs Server
4178 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
4179 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
4180 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
4181 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
4182 buffers to kill, as before.
4184 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
4185 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
4188 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
4189 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
4191 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
4193 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
4194 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
4195 use. Default is 1000.
4197 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
4198 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
4200 ** Changes to hideshow.el
4202 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
4204 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
4205 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
4206 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
4207 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
4209 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
4210 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
4211 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
4214 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
4215 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
4216 the normal block-hiding function.
4218 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
4220 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
4221 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
4222 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
4223 for `hs-minor-mode'.
4225 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
4226 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
4228 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
4230 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
4231 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
4232 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
4234 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
4237 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
4240 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
4241 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
4242 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
4243 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
4244 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
4245 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
4247 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
4249 ** Changes to cmuscheme
4251 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
4252 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
4254 ** Changes in Font Lock
4256 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
4257 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
4259 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
4260 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
4262 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
4263 the face used for each string/comment.
4265 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
4266 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
4268 ** Changes to Shell mode
4270 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
4271 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
4272 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
4273 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
4275 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4277 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
4278 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
4280 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
4281 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
4282 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
4283 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
4284 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
4285 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
4287 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
4288 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
4289 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
4290 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
4291 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
4292 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
4293 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
4294 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
4296 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
4297 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
4299 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
4300 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
4301 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
4303 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
4304 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
4305 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
4307 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
4308 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
4309 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
4311 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
4312 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
4313 argument, it appends to the file.
4315 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
4316 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
4319 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
4322 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
4323 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
4324 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
4326 ** Changes to Rmail mode
4328 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
4329 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
4330 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
4331 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
4332 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
4335 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
4336 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
4337 regexp matching your mail addresses.
4339 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
4340 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
4341 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
4342 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
4343 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
4345 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
4348 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
4349 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
4352 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
4353 in which folder to put messages automatically.
4355 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
4356 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
4357 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
4359 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
4360 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
4362 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
4363 use the -f option when sending mail.
4365 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
4366 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
4367 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
4368 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
4369 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
4370 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
4372 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
4373 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
4374 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
4376 ** Changes to TeX mode
4378 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
4381 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
4383 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
4385 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
4387 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4389 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
4390 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
4391 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
4392 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
4393 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
4394 can be edited from that buffer.
4396 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
4397 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
4398 `A' to use all marked entries).
4400 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
4401 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
4403 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
4404 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
4405 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
4408 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
4409 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
4410 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
4411 in column 1 are always made leaves.
4413 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
4414 has the following new features:
4416 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
4417 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
4418 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
4419 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
4421 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
4422 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
4423 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
4424 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
4425 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
4428 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
4433 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
4434 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
4435 spell-checks the current buffer.
4437 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
4440 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
4441 correction is made and re-checked.
4443 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
4445 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
4448 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
4451 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
4454 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
4456 ** Makefile mode changes
4458 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
4460 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
4461 Fontlock mode is active.
4465 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
4466 so that searches can be resumed.
4468 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
4469 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
4470 that started the search.
4472 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
4473 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
4475 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
4477 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
4478 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
4479 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
4480 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
4481 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
4482 `secondary-selection'.
4484 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
4485 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
4486 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
4487 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
4488 usual snappy response.
4490 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
4491 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
4492 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
4493 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
4497 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
4498 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
4499 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
4500 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
4501 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
4502 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
4503 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
4504 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
4505 file is registered in that backend.
4507 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
4508 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
4509 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
4510 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
4511 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
4512 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
4514 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
4515 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
4516 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
4517 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
4518 where it doesn't make sense.)
4520 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
4521 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
4522 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
4526 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
4527 checks are always done now.
4529 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
4532 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
4533 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
4534 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
4536 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
4537 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
4538 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
4539 the working file (``merge news'').
4541 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
4542 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
4545 *** Multiple Backends
4547 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
4548 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
4549 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
4550 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
4553 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
4554 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
4555 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
4556 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
4558 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
4559 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
4560 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
4561 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
4562 current revision number from the more remote backend.
4564 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
4565 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
4566 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
4567 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
4569 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
4570 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
4571 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
4572 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
4576 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
4577 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
4578 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
4579 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
4580 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
4581 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
4582 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
4584 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
4585 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
4586 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
4587 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
4588 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
4589 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
4590 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
4591 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
4592 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
4593 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
4594 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
4597 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
4598 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
4599 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
4600 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
4601 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
4602 entire directory tree.
4604 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
4605 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
4606 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
4607 "watched" by other developers.)
4609 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
4610 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
4611 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
4612 starting at the given directory.
4614 *** Lisp Changes in VC
4616 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
4617 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
4618 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
4619 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
4620 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
4621 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
4622 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
4623 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
4624 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
4626 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
4627 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
4628 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
4629 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
4631 ** New modes and packages
4633 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
4634 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
4635 the default is not applicable.
4637 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
4638 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
4639 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
4643 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
4644 drawn, like this: | \ /
4648 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
4649 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
4650 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
4651 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
4652 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
4655 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
4656 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
4658 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
4661 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
4662 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
4663 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
4664 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
4666 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
4667 also do without the mouse.
4669 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
4670 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
4671 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
4672 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
4673 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
4675 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
4677 lines straight-lines
4679 poly-lines straight poly-lines
4681 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
4682 spray-can setting size for spraying
4683 vaporize line vaporize lines
4684 erase characters erase rectangles
4686 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
4687 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
4688 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
4691 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
4692 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
4693 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
4694 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
4696 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
4699 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
4700 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
4701 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
4702 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
4703 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
4704 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
4705 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
4706 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
4707 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
4709 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
4710 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
4711 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
4712 on certain projects.
4714 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
4715 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
4717 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
4719 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
4720 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
4721 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
4722 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
4723 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
4724 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
4725 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
4726 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
4728 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
4731 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
4732 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
4734 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
4735 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
4737 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
4738 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
4739 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
4740 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
4741 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
4743 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
4744 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
4745 separate Texinfo file.
4747 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
4748 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
4749 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
4750 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
4751 enter check-in log messages.
4753 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
4754 without invoking external programs.
4756 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
4757 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
4758 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
4759 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
4760 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
4762 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
4763 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
4765 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
4766 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
4768 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
4769 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
4770 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
4771 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
4772 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
4775 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
4776 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
4777 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
4778 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
4780 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
4781 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
4782 actually modifying content of a buffer.
4784 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
4787 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
4789 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
4791 ; comment (until end of line)
4795 $A default non-terminal
4796 $"C" default terminal
4797 $?C? default special
4798 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
4799 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
4800 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
4801 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
4802 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
4803 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
4804 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
4805 C+ one or more occurrences of C
4806 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
4807 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
4808 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
4809 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
4810 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
4811 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
4812 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
4814 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
4816 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
4817 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
4818 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
4819 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
4820 equal signs of assignments.
4822 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
4823 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
4825 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
4826 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
4827 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
4829 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
4831 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
4832 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
4833 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
4834 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
4835 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
4836 which answers different needs.
4838 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
4839 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
4840 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
4841 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
4842 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
4845 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
4846 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
4848 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
4850 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
4851 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
4852 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
4854 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
4856 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
4857 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
4858 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
4859 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
4860 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
4861 and background colors.
4863 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
4866 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
4869 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
4871 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
4873 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
4874 whitespace in a file.
4876 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
4877 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
4878 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
4879 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
4880 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
4881 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
4882 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
4884 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
4886 Here is an example of columns:
4889 dog pineapple car EXTRA
4890 porcupine strawberry airplane
4892 Doing the following settings:
4894 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
4895 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
4896 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
4897 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
4900 Selecting the lines above and typing:
4902 M-x delimit-columns-region
4906 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
4907 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
4908 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
4910 delim-col has the following options:
4912 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
4915 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
4916 between each column.
4918 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
4921 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
4924 delim-col has the following commands:
4926 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
4927 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
4929 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
4930 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
4931 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
4932 recent file list can be displayed:
4934 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
4935 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
4936 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
4938 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
4939 dynamically change the menu appearance.
4941 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
4944 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
4945 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
4946 specific to Message mode.
4948 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
4949 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
4950 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
4952 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
4953 interface to access directory servers using different directory
4954 protocols. It has a separate manual.
4956 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
4957 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
4959 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
4961 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
4962 minibuffer with completion.
4964 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
4965 with the diary features.
4967 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
4968 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
4970 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
4973 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
4974 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
4975 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
4976 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
4978 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
4979 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
4982 ** Changes in sort.el
4984 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
4985 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
4986 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
4989 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
4991 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
4992 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
4993 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
4995 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
4996 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
4998 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
4999 output ^M at the end of lines.
5001 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
5002 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
5004 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
5005 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
5008 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
5011 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
5012 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
5015 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
5016 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
5017 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
5018 nil -- just delete one character.
5020 Default value is `untabify'.
5022 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
5024 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
5025 symbol, not double-quoted.
5027 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
5028 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
5029 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
5030 moved to lisp/obsolete.
5032 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
5033 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
5034 `auto-compression-mode' command.
5036 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
5037 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
5038 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
5040 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
5041 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
5043 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
5044 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
5046 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
5047 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
5049 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
5050 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
5051 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
5052 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
5053 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
5054 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
5056 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
5057 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
5059 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
5061 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
5062 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
5064 ** Shell script mode changes.
5066 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
5067 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
5068 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
5072 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
5074 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
5075 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
5076 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
5077 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
5078 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
5080 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
5081 declarations when given the --declarations option.
5083 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
5084 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
5086 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
5087 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
5088 `template' keywords.
5090 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
5091 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
5093 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
5096 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
5098 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
5100 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
5103 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
5105 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
5106 variables are tagged.
5108 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
5110 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
5113 ** Changes in etags.el
5115 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
5116 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
5117 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
5119 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
5120 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
5122 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
5123 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
5124 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
5125 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
5127 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
5129 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
5130 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
5132 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
5134 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
5135 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
5136 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
5138 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
5139 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
5141 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
5142 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
5144 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
5145 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
5146 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
5147 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
5148 point will go to the beginning of the file.
5150 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
5151 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
5152 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
5154 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
5155 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
5156 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
5158 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
5159 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
5160 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
5162 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
5164 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
5166 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
5167 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
5168 expression from that list, are not checked.
5170 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
5171 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
5172 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
5173 the buffer, just like for the local files.
5175 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
5177 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
5178 displays local abbrevs, only.
5180 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
5181 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
5183 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
5184 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
5185 is measured in pixels.
5187 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
5188 to be visited as images.
5190 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
5191 were added to compile.el.
5193 ** Withdrawn packages
5195 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
5196 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
5198 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
5200 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
5203 * Incompatible Lisp changes
5205 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
5206 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
5207 See the sections below for details.
5209 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
5210 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
5211 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
5212 to remove the properties of the copy.
5214 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
5215 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
5216 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
5217 these properties are active.
5219 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
5220 ranges may affect some code.
5222 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
5223 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
5224 make a difference to some code.
5226 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
5227 operates on the minibuffer.
5229 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
5230 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
5231 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
5232 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
5233 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
5234 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
5235 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
5236 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
5237 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
5238 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
5239 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
5240 the buffer as multibyte characters.
5242 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
5243 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
5244 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
5246 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
5247 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
5248 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
5250 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
5251 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
5252 such as `mapconcat'.
5254 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
5257 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
5258 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
5259 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
5260 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
5261 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
5262 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
5263 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
5264 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
5266 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
5267 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
5268 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
5269 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
5270 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
5271 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
5272 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
5273 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
5274 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
5275 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
5278 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
5279 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
5281 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
5283 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
5284 allows the animated display of strings.
5286 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
5287 interactive form of a function.
5289 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
5290 between custom options. Example:
5292 (defcustom default-input-method nil
5293 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
5294 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
5295 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
5297 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
5298 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
5300 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
5301 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
5302 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
5304 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
5305 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
5306 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
5307 (signal or normal termination).
5309 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
5310 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
5312 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
5313 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
5315 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
5316 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
5318 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
5320 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
5321 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
5324 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
5326 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
5327 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
5328 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
5329 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
5330 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
5333 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
5334 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
5337 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
5338 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
5340 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
5341 with the more general `:mask' property.
5343 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
5345 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
5348 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
5349 is running in batch mode. For example,
5351 (message "%s" (read t))
5353 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
5356 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
5357 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
5359 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
5360 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
5363 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
5366 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
5368 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
5369 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
5371 - Function: remq ELT LIST
5373 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
5374 comparison is done with `eq'.
5376 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
5378 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
5379 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
5380 `key-and-value', in addition to `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
5382 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
5383 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
5384 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
5386 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
5387 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
5389 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
5390 function was declared obsolete.
5392 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
5393 retained as an alias).
5395 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
5396 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
5397 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
5399 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
5401 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
5403 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
5404 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
5405 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
5406 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
5407 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
5408 means never include the minibuffer window.
5410 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
5412 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
5414 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
5416 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
5417 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
5418 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
5419 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
5422 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
5423 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
5424 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
5425 minibuffer even if it is active.
5427 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
5428 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
5429 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
5430 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
5431 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
5432 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
5434 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
5435 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
5436 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
5437 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
5438 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
5439 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
5440 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
5442 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
5443 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
5444 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
5446 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
5447 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
5448 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
5449 Default value is nil.
5451 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
5454 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
5455 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
5456 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
5458 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
5459 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
5460 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
5462 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
5463 list of a primitive.
5465 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
5467 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
5468 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
5469 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
5470 than replacing the local map.
5472 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
5473 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
5474 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
5477 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
5479 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
5480 as promised long ago.
5482 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
5484 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
5485 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
5486 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
5489 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
5491 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
5492 regular expressions.
5494 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
5496 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
5500 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
5502 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
5506 matches string STRING literally.
5509 matches character CHAR literally.
5512 matches any character except a newline.
5515 matches any character
5518 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
5519 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
5525 matches any character not in SET
5528 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
5529 in the text being matched
5532 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
5535 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
5536 string being matched against.
5539 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
5540 string being matched against.
5543 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
5544 buffer being matched against.
5547 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
5548 buffer being matched against.
5551 matches the empty string, but only at point.
5554 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
5558 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
5561 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
5564 `(not word-boundary)'
5565 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
5569 matches 0 through 9.
5572 matches ASCII control characters.
5575 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
5578 matches space and tab only.
5581 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
5585 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
5589 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5590 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
5593 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5594 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
5597 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
5600 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
5603 matches anything lower-case.
5606 matches anything upper-case.
5609 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5610 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
5613 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
5616 matches anything that has word syntax.
5619 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
5620 of the following symbols.
5622 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
5623 `punctuation' (\\s.)
5626 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
5627 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
5628 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
5629 `string-quote' (\\s\")
5630 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
5632 `character-quote' (\\s/)
5633 `comment-start' (\\s<)
5634 `comment-end' (\\s>)
5636 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
5637 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
5639 `(category CATEGORY)'
5640 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
5641 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
5643 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
5645 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
5646 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
5650 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
5652 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
5653 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
5654 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
5655 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
5656 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
5657 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
5658 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
5659 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
5660 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
5661 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
5662 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
5671 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
5675 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
5682 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
5683 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
5685 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5686 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
5688 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5689 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
5690 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
5692 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5693 another name for `submatch'.
5695 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5696 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
5697 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
5700 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
5701 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
5702 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
5703 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
5704 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
5706 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
5707 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
5709 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
5710 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
5713 like `zero-or-more'.
5716 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
5719 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
5721 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
5722 matches one or more occurrences of A.
5728 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
5731 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
5733 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
5734 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
5740 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
5743 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
5746 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
5749 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
5752 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
5756 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
5758 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
5760 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
5761 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
5762 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
5763 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
5765 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
5766 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
5767 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
5768 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
5770 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
5771 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
5772 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
5774 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
5775 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
5776 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
5777 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
5778 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
5779 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
5780 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
5783 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
5785 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
5786 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
5787 character set as previously.
5789 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
5790 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
5791 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
5793 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
5794 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
5795 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
5796 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
5798 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
5799 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
5801 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
5802 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
5805 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
5806 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
5808 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
5809 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
5810 buffers and strings.
5812 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
5813 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
5814 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
5815 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
5816 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
5817 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
5818 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
5821 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
5822 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
5823 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
5825 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
5826 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
5827 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
5828 may differ between buffer and string text.
5830 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
5831 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
5833 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
5834 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
5835 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
5836 `composition' from STRING.
5838 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
5839 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
5841 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
5844 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
5845 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
5847 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
5848 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
5849 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
5850 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
5852 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
5853 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
5854 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
5855 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
5856 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
5857 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
5859 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
5860 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
5861 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
5863 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
5864 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
5865 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
5867 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
5868 have been introduced.
5870 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
5871 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
5872 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
5873 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
5874 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
5875 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
5876 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
5877 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
5878 their multibyte equivalent.
5880 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
5881 that offset in the file before writing.
5883 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
5884 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
5886 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
5887 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
5888 from which the command was issued.
5890 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
5891 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
5892 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
5893 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
5896 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
5897 to `window-buffer-height'.
5899 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
5901 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
5902 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
5903 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
5905 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
5908 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
5909 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
5911 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
5912 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
5913 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
5915 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
5916 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
5917 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
5918 is currently displayed in some window.
5920 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
5921 argument function's results.
5923 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
5924 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
5925 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
5926 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
5929 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
5930 header in the list of headers passed to it.
5932 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
5933 ignores differences in case and text representation.
5935 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
5936 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
5939 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
5940 nil don't display a cursor
5941 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
5942 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
5943 others display a box cursor.
5945 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
5946 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
5947 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
5948 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
5950 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
5951 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
5952 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
5953 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
5957 (string-to-syntax "()")
5960 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
5963 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
5964 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
5971 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
5976 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
5981 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
5988 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
5989 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
5992 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
5993 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
5994 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
5995 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
5997 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
5999 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
6000 for a regexp in a string.
6002 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
6003 `mouse-position-function'.
6005 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
6006 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
6008 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
6009 Keywords are now always considered constants.
6011 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
6014 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
6015 returned by function `recent-keys'.
6017 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
6018 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
6019 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
6020 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
6023 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
6024 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
6026 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
6027 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
6028 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
6029 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
6032 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
6033 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
6034 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
6035 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
6037 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
6038 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
6039 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
6041 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
6042 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
6045 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
6047 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
6048 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
6049 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
6052 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
6053 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
6054 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
6055 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
6056 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
6058 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
6059 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
6061 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
6062 instead of being optional.
6064 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
6065 modify read-only text.
6067 ** New functions and variables for locales.
6069 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
6070 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
6071 time functions like strftime. The new variables
6072 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
6073 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
6075 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
6076 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
6077 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
6078 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
6079 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
6080 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
6081 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
6083 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
6084 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
6085 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
6088 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
6089 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
6091 ** New function `propertize'
6093 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
6094 strings with text properties.
6096 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
6098 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
6099 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
6100 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
6101 specified value of that property. Example:
6103 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
6105 ** push and pop macros.
6107 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
6108 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
6109 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
6111 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
6112 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
6113 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
6115 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
6117 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
6118 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
6120 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
6121 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
6122 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
6123 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
6125 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
6126 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
6127 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
6128 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
6130 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
6131 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
6132 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
6135 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
6136 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
6137 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
6138 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
6139 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
6141 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
6143 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
6144 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6145 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6146 [:alpha:] matches letters.
6147 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6148 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6149 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
6150 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
6151 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
6152 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
6153 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6154 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
6155 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
6156 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
6157 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
6159 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
6161 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
6163 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
6165 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
6166 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
6170 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
6171 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
6172 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
6176 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
6177 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
6179 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
6181 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
6182 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
6183 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
6184 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
6185 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
6187 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
6189 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
6190 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
6191 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
6195 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
6196 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
6197 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
6198 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
6199 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
6201 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
6203 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
6205 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
6207 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
6209 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
6211 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
6214 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
6216 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
6218 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6220 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
6222 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
6224 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
6226 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6228 Returns the size of TABLE.
6230 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
6232 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
6234 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
6236 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
6238 - Function: clrhash TABLE
6242 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
6244 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
6247 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
6249 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
6250 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
6252 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
6254 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
6256 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
6258 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
6259 arguments KEY and VALUE.
6261 - Function: sxhash OBJ
6263 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
6265 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
6267 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
6268 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
6269 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
6270 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
6271 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
6273 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
6275 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
6276 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
6277 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
6279 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
6280 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
6282 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
6283 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
6285 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
6286 (sxhash (upcase a)))
6288 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
6289 'case-fold-string-hash))
6291 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
6293 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
6295 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
6296 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
6297 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
6299 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
6301 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
6302 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
6304 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
6305 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
6306 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
6307 is too short to reach that column.
6309 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
6310 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
6311 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
6312 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
6314 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
6315 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
6316 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
6318 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
6319 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
6321 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
6322 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
6324 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
6325 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
6326 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
6327 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
6328 temporary-file-directory instead.
6330 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
6331 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
6332 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
6333 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
6335 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
6336 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
6338 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
6340 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
6341 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
6342 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
6344 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
6346 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
6347 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
6348 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
6349 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
6350 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
6351 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
6353 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
6354 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
6355 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
6356 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
6358 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
6360 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
6361 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
6362 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
6365 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
6366 string where arguments appear in the result string.
6370 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
6372 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
6373 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
6376 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
6378 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
6380 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
6381 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
6384 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
6386 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
6387 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
6392 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
6393 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
6395 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
6396 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
6397 to enable sound support.
6399 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
6400 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
6401 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
6402 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
6403 sound to play, before playing the sound.
6405 The following sound properties are supported:
6409 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
6410 searched relative to `data-directory'.
6414 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
6415 may be present, but not both.
6419 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
6420 0..1. This property is optional.
6424 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
6425 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
6427 Other properties are ignored.
6429 An alternative interface is called as
6430 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
6432 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
6434 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
6437 ** Changes to garbage collection
6439 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
6440 of live and free strings.
6442 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
6443 strings that have been consed so far.
6446 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
6449 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
6452 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
6453 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
6454 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
6456 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
6458 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
6460 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
6463 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
6465 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
6467 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
6468 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
6469 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
6470 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
6471 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
6473 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
6476 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
6478 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
6479 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
6480 or omitted means use the selected frame.
6482 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
6483 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
6485 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
6488 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
6492 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
6494 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
6495 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
6497 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
6498 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
6499 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
6500 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
6501 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
6502 just display it black instead.
6504 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
6507 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
6511 ** New face implementation.
6513 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
6514 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
6518 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
6520 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
6522 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
6523 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
6525 3. Font height in 1/10pt
6527 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
6529 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
6531 6. Foreground color.
6533 7. Background color.
6535 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
6537 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
6539 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
6541 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
6543 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
6546 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
6547 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
6549 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
6550 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
6551 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
6552 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
6553 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
6554 attributes mentioned above.
6556 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
6557 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
6560 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
6561 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
6566 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
6567 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
6568 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
6569 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
6570 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
6571 results in a fully-specified face.
6573 *** Face realization.
6575 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
6576 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
6577 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
6578 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
6579 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
6580 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
6582 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
6583 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
6584 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
6585 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
6587 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
6588 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
6589 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
6590 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
6591 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
6593 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
6594 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
6595 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
6596 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
6597 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
6600 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
6601 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
6602 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
6603 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
6605 **** Clearing face caches.
6607 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
6608 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
6613 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
6614 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
6615 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
6617 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
6618 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
6619 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
6620 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
6621 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
6623 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
6624 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
6625 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
6627 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
6629 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
6630 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
6631 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
6632 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
6633 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
6634 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
6635 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
6637 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
6638 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
6641 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
6642 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
6645 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
6648 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
6653 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
6654 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
6657 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
6658 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
6659 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
6660 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
6661 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
6664 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
6666 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
6668 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
6670 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
6672 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
6673 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
6674 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
6676 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
6677 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
6678 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
6679 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
6680 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
6681 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
6682 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
6683 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
6684 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
6685 of the face font sort order.
6687 - Function: x-font-family-list
6689 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
6690 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
6691 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
6692 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
6694 - Variable: font-list-limit
6696 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
6697 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
6698 matching font. The default is currently 100.
6700 *** Setting face attributes.
6702 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
6703 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
6704 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
6707 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
6708 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
6710 The following attributes are recognized:
6714 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
6715 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
6716 and `?' are allowed.
6720 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
6721 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
6722 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
6723 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
6727 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
6728 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
6729 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
6730 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
6734 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
6735 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
6736 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
6740 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
6741 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
6744 `:foreground', `:background'
6746 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
6750 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
6751 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
6752 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
6757 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
6758 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
6759 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
6764 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
6765 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
6766 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
6767 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
6771 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
6772 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
6773 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
6774 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
6775 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
6776 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
6777 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
6778 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
6779 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
6780 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
6781 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
6782 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
6783 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
6784 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
6785 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
6786 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
6791 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
6792 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
6796 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
6797 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
6798 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
6799 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
6800 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
6801 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
6803 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
6804 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
6808 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
6809 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
6810 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
6813 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
6814 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
6815 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
6817 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
6822 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
6823 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
6824 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
6826 *** Face attributes and X resources
6828 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
6831 Face attribute X resource class
6832 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
6833 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
6834 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
6835 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
6836 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
6837 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
6838 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
6839 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
6840 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
6841 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
6842 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
6843 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
6844 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
6845 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
6846 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
6847 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
6848 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
6849 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
6850 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
6851 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
6853 *** Text property `face'.
6855 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
6856 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
6857 specification can be
6859 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
6861 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
6862 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
6863 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
6864 for face attribute names.
6866 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
6867 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
6868 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
6870 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
6872 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
6873 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
6874 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
6875 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
6876 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
6877 used to clear the mapping table.
6879 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
6881 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
6882 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
6883 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
6884 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
6885 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
6886 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
6887 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
6888 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
6889 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
6890 modify their color-related behavior.
6892 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
6895 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
6897 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
6898 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
6899 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
6900 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
6901 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
6902 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
6903 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
6904 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
6905 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
6907 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
6908 display can display image files.
6910 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
6912 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
6913 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
6914 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
6915 `Inviolable' option.
6917 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
6918 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
6919 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
6921 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
6923 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
6924 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
6925 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
6927 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
6928 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
6929 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
6930 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
6931 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
6932 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
6933 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
6936 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
6937 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
6938 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
6940 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
6942 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
6944 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
6946 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6947 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
6948 constrained position if that is different.
6950 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
6951 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
6952 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
6953 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
6954 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
6955 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
6956 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
6957 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
6958 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
6960 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
6961 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
6962 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
6963 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
6964 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
6966 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
6967 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
6969 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
6971 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
6973 Delete the field surrounding POS.
6974 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6975 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
6977 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
6979 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
6980 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6981 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
6982 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
6983 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
6985 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
6987 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
6988 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6989 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
6990 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
6991 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
6993 - Function: field-string &optional POS
6995 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
6996 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6997 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
6999 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
7001 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
7002 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7003 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7007 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
7008 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
7009 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
7010 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
7012 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
7013 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
7014 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
7015 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
7018 IMAGE is an image specification.
7020 *** Image specifications
7022 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
7023 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
7024 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
7025 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
7026 described below are ignored.
7028 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
7032 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
7033 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
7034 to use for its ascent.
7036 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
7037 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
7039 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
7040 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
7041 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
7042 overlays that apply to the image.
7046 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
7047 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
7048 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
7052 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
7057 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
7059 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
7060 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
7062 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
7063 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
7064 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
7065 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
7066 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
7067 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
7068 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
7069 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
7072 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
7074 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
7076 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
7077 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
7078 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
7079 of the factors' absolute values.
7081 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
7087 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
7093 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
7098 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
7099 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
7100 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
7101 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
7102 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
7103 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
7104 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
7107 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
7108 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
7113 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
7114 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
7115 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
7116 may be present in the image specification.
7120 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
7121 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
7122 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
7123 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
7125 *** Supported image types
7127 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
7129 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
7130 properties supported are:
7134 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
7135 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
7139 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
7140 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
7142 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
7143 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
7144 instead of a `:file' property.
7148 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
7152 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
7158 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
7159 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
7161 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
7163 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
7166 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
7167 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
7170 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
7172 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
7173 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
7174 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
7175 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
7177 Additional image properties supported are:
7179 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
7181 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
7182 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
7185 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
7186 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
7188 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
7189 to display compressed images.
7191 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
7193 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
7194 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
7199 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
7200 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
7204 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
7205 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
7207 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
7209 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
7210 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7213 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
7215 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
7216 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7219 **** GIF, image type `gif'
7221 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
7222 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
7224 Additional image properties supported are:
7228 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
7229 multi-image GIF file. An error is signaled if INDEX is too large.
7231 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
7232 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
7233 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
7236 (defun show-anim (file max)
7237 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
7238 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
7240 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
7243 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
7246 (goto-char (point-min))
7247 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
7248 (insert-image img "x"))
7249 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
7251 **** PNG, image type `png'
7253 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
7254 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7257 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
7259 Additional image properties supported are:
7263 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
7264 integer. This is a required property.
7268 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
7269 must be a integer. This is an required property.
7273 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
7274 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
7275 files. This is an required property.
7277 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
7282 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
7283 which are supported in the current configuration.
7285 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
7286 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
7287 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
7288 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
7289 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
7291 *** Simplified image API, image.el
7293 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
7294 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
7295 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
7296 define an image based on available image types. The functions
7297 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
7302 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
7305 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
7306 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
7307 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
7308 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
7309 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
7310 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
7311 of the display margins.
7313 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
7314 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
7315 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
7316 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
7321 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
7322 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
7323 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
7324 that have a `help-echo' property.
7326 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
7327 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
7328 the window in which the help was found.
7330 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
7331 `help-echo' text property was found.
7333 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
7334 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
7336 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
7337 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
7340 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
7341 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
7343 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
7344 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
7345 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
7346 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
7347 used as help string.
7349 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
7350 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
7351 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
7353 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
7355 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
7356 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
7358 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
7359 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
7360 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
7361 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
7364 (global-set-key [A-down]
7367 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
7368 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
7369 (global-set-key [A-up]
7372 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
7373 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
7375 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
7377 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
7378 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
7379 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
7380 is called with one argument, POS.
7382 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
7383 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
7384 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
7385 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
7386 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
7388 ** Tool bar support.
7390 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
7391 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
7392 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
7393 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
7394 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
7395 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
7397 *** Tool bar item definitions
7399 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
7400 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
7401 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
7403 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
7404 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
7405 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
7406 property (see below).
7408 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
7409 binding are currently ignored.
7411 The following properties are recognized:
7415 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
7420 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
7424 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
7425 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
7426 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
7428 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
7430 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
7431 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
7435 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
7436 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
7437 meaning of each of the four elements:
7439 Index Use when item is
7440 ----------------------------------------
7441 0 enabled and selected
7442 1 enabled and deselected
7443 2 disabled and selected
7444 3 disabled and deselected
7446 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
7447 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
7449 `:help HELP-STRING'.
7451 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
7452 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
7454 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
7455 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
7456 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
7459 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
7460 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
7461 buffer-locally to override the global map.
7463 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
7465 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
7466 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
7467 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
7469 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
7470 raised when the mouse moves over them.
7472 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
7473 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
7474 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
7475 vertical margins . Default is 1.
7477 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
7478 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
7480 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
7482 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
7485 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
7486 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
7487 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
7489 is the original tool bar item definition, then
7491 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
7493 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
7496 ** Mode line changes.
7498 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
7500 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
7501 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
7502 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
7504 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
7505 a `local-map' text property.
7507 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
7508 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
7510 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
7511 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
7512 `local-map' property.
7514 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
7515 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
7518 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
7519 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
7521 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
7522 variable mode-line-format to nil.
7524 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
7526 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
7527 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
7528 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
7529 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
7532 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
7535 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
7536 position in the header-line.
7538 ** Text property `display'
7540 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
7541 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
7542 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
7543 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
7544 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
7546 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
7548 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
7549 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
7551 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
7552 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
7553 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
7554 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
7555 simpler form STRING as property value.
7557 *** Variable width and height spaces
7559 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
7560 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
7561 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
7562 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
7563 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
7564 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
7565 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
7567 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
7568 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
7569 properties described below.
7571 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
7572 characters having the `display' property.
7576 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
7577 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
7579 - :relative-width FACTOR
7581 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
7582 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
7583 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
7584 width of that character by FACTOR.
7588 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
7589 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
7591 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
7595 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
7598 - :relative-height FACTOR
7600 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
7601 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
7605 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
7606 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
7607 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
7610 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
7614 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
7615 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
7616 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
7617 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
7618 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
7619 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
7620 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
7621 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
7622 as display specification.
7624 *** Other display properties
7626 - (space-width FACTOR)
7628 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
7629 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
7634 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
7636 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
7637 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
7638 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
7639 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
7640 a font is available counts as a step.
7642 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
7643 as tall as the frame's default font.
7645 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
7646 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
7648 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
7649 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
7653 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
7654 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
7655 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
7656 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
7657 `height' subproperty.
7659 *** Conditional display properties
7661 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
7662 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
7663 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
7664 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
7665 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
7666 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
7667 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
7668 different when object is a string.
7670 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
7673 ** New menu separator types.
7675 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
7676 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
7677 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
7678 to specify other menu separator types.
7680 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
7682 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
7685 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
7687 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
7689 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
7691 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
7693 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
7695 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
7697 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
7699 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
7701 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
7703 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
7704 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
7706 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
7708 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
7710 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
7712 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
7714 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
7716 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
7718 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
7720 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
7722 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
7724 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
7726 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
7728 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
7730 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
7732 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
7734 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
7735 the corresponding single-line separators.
7737 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
7739 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
7740 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
7741 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
7742 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
7743 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
7744 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
7745 default foreground is black.
7747 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
7748 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
7749 `ScrollBarBackground').
7751 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
7752 settings for scroll bar colors.
7754 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
7755 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
7757 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
7758 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
7759 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
7760 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
7761 the original window start.
7763 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
7764 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
7765 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
7767 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
7769 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
7770 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
7771 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
7772 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
7774 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
7775 fixed-width and fixed-height.
7777 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
7779 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
7780 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
7781 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
7782 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
7783 temporarily to nil, for example
7785 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
7786 (enlarge-window 10))
7788 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
7789 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
7791 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
7792 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
7793 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
7794 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
7795 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
7796 support a vertical-bar cursor).
7800 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
7802 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
7805 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
7807 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
7809 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
7810 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
7811 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
7812 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
7813 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
7815 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
7819 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
7821 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
7825 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7827 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
7828 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
7830 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
7832 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
7834 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
7835 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
7836 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
7838 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
7839 is the one that is used.
7841 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
7842 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
7843 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
7844 separate from the command's regular output.
7845 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
7846 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
7847 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
7850 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
7851 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
7852 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
7853 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
7855 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
7856 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
7857 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
7858 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
7860 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
7861 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
7862 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
7863 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
7865 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
7866 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
7867 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
7868 they never ignore case.
7870 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
7871 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
7872 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
7873 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
7874 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
7875 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
7876 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
7878 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
7879 the same format that was used in the file before.
7881 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
7882 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
7884 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
7885 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
7886 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
7888 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
7889 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
7890 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
7891 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
7892 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
7893 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
7894 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
7896 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
7897 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
7898 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
7899 format. You can now customize these variables.
7901 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
7902 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
7903 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
7904 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
7906 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
7907 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
7908 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
7910 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
7911 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
7912 doesn't have any effect.
7914 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
7917 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
7918 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
7919 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
7921 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
7922 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
7923 `auto-show-mode' command.
7925 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
7926 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
7927 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
7928 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
7929 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
7931 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
7932 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
7934 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
7935 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
7936 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
7938 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
7939 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
7940 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
7941 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
7943 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
7945 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
7946 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
7947 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
7948 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
7949 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
7951 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
7952 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
7954 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
7955 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
7956 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
7957 `?' on other systems.
7959 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
7960 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
7963 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
7964 current codepage when it starts.
7968 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
7969 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
7970 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
7971 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
7972 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
7973 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
7977 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
7978 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
7980 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
7981 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
7982 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
7983 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
7984 buffer-file-coding-system.
7986 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
7987 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
7990 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
7991 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
7992 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
7993 list of possible coding systems.
7997 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
7998 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
7999 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
8000 docstring for details.
8002 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
8003 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
8004 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
8005 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
8006 lineup functions use this feature currently.
8008 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
8009 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
8011 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
8012 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
8014 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
8015 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
8016 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
8017 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
8020 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
8021 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
8023 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
8024 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
8025 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
8026 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
8028 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
8029 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
8030 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
8031 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
8032 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
8034 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
8036 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
8038 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
8039 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
8041 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
8043 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
8044 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
8045 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
8046 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
8047 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
8051 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
8052 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
8053 Gnus manual for the full story.
8055 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
8056 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
8057 group, which is created automatically.
8059 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
8062 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
8064 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
8065 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
8067 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
8070 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
8072 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
8073 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
8075 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
8077 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
8078 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
8080 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
8081 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
8083 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
8084 control over simplification.
8086 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
8088 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
8091 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
8093 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
8095 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
8096 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
8097 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
8099 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
8100 `a' forces normal posting method.
8102 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
8105 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
8108 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
8109 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
8111 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
8114 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
8116 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
8118 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
8119 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
8121 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
8122 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
8124 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
8126 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
8129 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
8130 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
8132 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
8133 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
8135 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
8137 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
8139 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
8141 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
8143 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
8144 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
8145 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
8147 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
8148 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
8149 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
8150 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
8151 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
8153 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
8154 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
8155 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
8156 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
8158 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
8159 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
8160 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
8163 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
8165 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
8166 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
8168 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
8169 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
8170 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
8171 removed from the label.
8173 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
8174 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
8176 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
8177 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
8179 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
8180 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
8183 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
8185 ** New/deleted modes and packages
8187 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
8188 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
8190 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
8191 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
8192 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
8194 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
8195 changes with a special face.
8197 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
8198 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
8199 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
8201 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
8203 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
8204 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
8205 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
8206 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
8207 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
8209 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
8210 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
8211 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
8213 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
8214 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
8215 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
8216 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
8217 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
8218 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
8219 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
8220 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
8221 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
8223 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
8224 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
8225 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
8226 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
8227 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
8230 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
8231 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
8232 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
8233 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
8234 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
8235 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
8237 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
8238 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
8239 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
8240 was not documented clearly before.
8242 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
8243 This includes Tetris and Snake.
8245 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
8247 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
8248 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
8249 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
8250 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
8252 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
8253 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
8254 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
8256 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
8258 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
8259 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
8261 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
8262 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
8265 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
8266 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
8267 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
8268 file names and attributes are returned.
8270 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
8271 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
8272 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
8273 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
8276 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
8277 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
8279 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
8281 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
8282 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
8283 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
8286 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
8287 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
8290 The new function process-running-child-p
8291 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
8292 terminal to its own child process.
8294 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
8295 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
8296 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
8297 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
8299 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
8300 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
8302 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
8303 :included is an alias for :visible.
8305 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
8306 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
8307 to move or copy menu entries.
8309 ** Multibyte editing changes
8311 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
8312 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
8313 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
8314 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
8315 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
8316 (setq char (sref str idx)
8317 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
8318 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
8320 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
8321 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
8322 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
8324 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
8325 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
8326 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
8328 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
8330 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
8331 across the boundary.
8333 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
8334 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
8335 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
8336 contains 8-bit characters.
8337 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
8338 contains invalid characters.
8340 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
8341 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
8342 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
8343 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
8346 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
8347 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
8348 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
8349 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
8351 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
8352 compose Thai characters in a string.
8354 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
8355 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
8356 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
8357 menus should always use the third argument.
8359 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
8360 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
8361 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
8362 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
8364 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
8365 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
8366 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
8367 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
8369 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
8370 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
8371 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
8374 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
8376 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
8377 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
8378 requested feature cannot be loaded.
8380 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
8381 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
8382 means to clear out that attribute.
8384 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
8385 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
8387 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
8388 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
8389 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
8390 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
8392 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
8393 the gap of the current buffer.
8395 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
8396 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
8399 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
8400 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
8401 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
8402 it back in after any modifications have been made.
8404 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
8406 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
8407 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
8408 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
8409 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
8410 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
8412 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
8413 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
8414 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
8415 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
8416 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
8418 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
8419 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
8420 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
8422 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
8423 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
8424 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
8425 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
8426 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
8429 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
8430 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
8431 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
8432 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
8434 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
8436 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
8437 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
8438 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
8439 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
8441 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
8442 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
8443 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
8444 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
8445 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
8446 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
8447 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
8450 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
8453 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
8454 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
8455 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
8456 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
8457 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
8459 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
8460 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
8461 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
8462 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
8464 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
8465 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
8466 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
8467 something that most users not do.
8469 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
8470 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
8471 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
8474 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
8477 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
8478 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
8479 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
8480 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
8483 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
8484 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
8485 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
8486 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
8487 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
8490 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
8491 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
8492 to be confused by TeX commands.
8494 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
8495 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
8496 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
8497 of various alternative replacements and actions.
8499 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
8500 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
8501 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
8502 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
8503 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
8505 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
8506 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
8508 ** Changes in input method usage.
8510 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
8511 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
8514 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
8516 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
8517 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
8519 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
8520 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
8522 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
8524 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
8526 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
8527 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
8529 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
8530 given in the following case:
8531 o When you are using a complex input method.
8532 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
8534 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
8535 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
8536 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
8537 setting it to t is helpful.
8539 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
8541 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
8543 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
8544 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
8545 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
8546 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
8549 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
8550 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
8551 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
8554 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
8556 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
8558 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
8559 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
8561 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
8562 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
8563 its owner and group.
8565 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
8566 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
8568 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
8569 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
8571 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
8572 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
8573 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
8574 by the left edge of the rectangle.
8576 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
8577 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
8578 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
8579 for writing keyboard macros.
8581 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
8582 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
8583 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
8584 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
8585 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
8588 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
8590 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
8591 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
8594 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
8595 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
8596 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
8597 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
8599 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
8600 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
8601 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
8603 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
8604 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
8605 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
8606 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
8608 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
8609 failure if the command produces no output.
8611 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
8612 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
8615 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
8616 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
8617 function and variable names.
8619 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
8620 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
8621 file-coding-system-alist.
8623 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
8624 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
8625 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
8626 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
8627 according to the current fontset.
8629 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
8631 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
8632 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
8633 nonascii-insert-offset.
8635 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
8636 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
8637 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
8638 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
8640 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
8641 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
8643 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
8644 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
8646 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
8647 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
8650 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
8651 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
8653 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
8654 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
8655 all variables that have documentation.
8657 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
8658 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
8659 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
8660 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
8661 it should show; the default is 20.
8663 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
8664 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
8667 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
8668 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
8669 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
8670 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
8671 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
8672 Newly added options are included as well.
8674 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
8675 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
8676 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
8678 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
8681 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
8682 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
8684 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
8685 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
8688 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
8689 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
8692 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
8693 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
8694 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
8695 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
8698 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
8700 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
8701 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
8702 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
8704 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
8705 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
8706 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
8711 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
8712 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
8714 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
8715 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
8717 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
8718 read and post multi-lingual articles.
8720 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
8721 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
8722 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
8723 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
8724 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
8725 made invisible again.
8727 ** Mail reading and sending changes
8729 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
8730 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
8731 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
8734 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
8735 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
8736 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
8737 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
8738 rmail-default-body-file.
8740 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
8741 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
8742 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
8744 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
8745 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
8746 is evaluated to insert the signature.
8748 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
8749 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
8750 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
8751 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
8752 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
8753 especially interested in trying feedmail.
8755 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
8756 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
8757 provided by feedmail are:
8759 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
8760 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
8761 there is also a queue for draft messages
8763 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
8764 be prompted for confirmation
8766 **** does smart filling of address headers
8768 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
8769 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
8770 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
8772 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
8773 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
8774 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
8775 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
8779 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
8780 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
8782 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
8783 run Dired on the directory name at point.
8785 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
8786 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
8787 for a specified regexp.
8791 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
8794 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
8795 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
8798 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
8799 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
8800 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
8801 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
8803 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
8804 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
8805 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
8806 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
8807 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
8809 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
8810 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
8811 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
8812 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
8813 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
8815 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
8816 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
8817 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
8818 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
8820 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
8821 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
8822 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
8824 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
8825 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
8826 session to resolve them.
8828 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
8829 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
8830 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
8833 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
8834 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
8835 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
8836 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
8837 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
8838 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
8841 ** Changes in Font Lock
8843 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
8844 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
8845 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
8846 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
8847 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
8849 ** Frame name display changes
8851 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
8852 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
8853 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
8854 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
8856 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
8857 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
8860 ** Comint (subshell) changes
8862 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
8863 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
8864 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
8866 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
8868 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
8869 that is, the line after the last line you got.
8870 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
8872 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
8873 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
8876 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
8877 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
8878 previously sent input.
8880 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
8881 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
8882 as the search string.
8884 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
8885 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
8889 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
8890 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
8891 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
8894 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
8895 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
8896 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
8897 style is still the default however.
8899 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
8901 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
8902 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
8903 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
8905 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
8906 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
8908 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
8909 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
8911 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
8912 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
8914 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
8915 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
8917 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
8918 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
8919 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
8920 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
8922 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
8924 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
8925 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
8926 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
8928 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
8929 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
8930 expanding dynamically.
8932 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
8933 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
8935 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
8936 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
8937 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
8938 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
8940 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
8942 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8944 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
8945 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
8946 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
8947 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
8948 against the first word in the title.
8950 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
8951 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
8952 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
8953 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
8954 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
8955 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
8957 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
8958 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
8959 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
8960 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
8962 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
8964 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
8965 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
8966 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
8967 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
8968 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
8969 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
8971 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
8972 Editing group once the package is loaded.
8974 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
8975 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
8976 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
8978 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
8979 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
8983 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
8984 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
8985 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
8987 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
8988 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
8989 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
8990 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
8993 o URLs are automatically skipped
8994 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
8996 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
8998 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
9000 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
9001 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
9002 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
9003 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
9005 *** New recursive parser.
9007 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
9008 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
9009 recursive parser scans the individual files.
9011 *** Parsing only part of a document.
9013 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
9014 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
9015 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
9017 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
9019 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
9021 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
9023 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
9025 *** Using multiple selection buffers
9027 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
9028 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
9030 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
9032 *** References to external documents.
9034 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
9035 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
9036 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
9037 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
9038 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
9039 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
9040 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
9042 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
9044 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
9045 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
9047 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
9048 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
9050 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
9052 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
9053 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
9055 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
9057 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
9058 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
9059 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
9060 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
9061 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
9062 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
9065 *** Support for the varioref package
9067 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
9071 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
9072 and citations are created. These hooks are
9073 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
9074 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
9076 *** Citations outside LaTeX
9078 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
9079 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
9081 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
9083 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
9084 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
9087 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
9089 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
9090 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
9091 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
9092 directories that contain the same file name.
9094 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
9095 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
9096 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
9097 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
9098 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
9099 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
9100 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
9103 ** New modes and packages
9105 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
9106 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
9107 it, but some do not.
9109 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
9112 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
9113 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
9116 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
9118 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
9119 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
9120 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
9121 established system of notation similar to Chess.
9123 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
9124 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
9125 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
9127 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
9128 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
9129 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
9130 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
9131 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
9134 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
9135 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
9137 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
9138 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
9139 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
9140 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
9142 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
9144 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
9145 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
9146 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
9147 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
9148 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
9149 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
9150 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
9151 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
9152 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
9153 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
9154 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
9156 Platform-specific modes:
9158 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
9159 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
9160 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
9161 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
9162 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
9163 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
9164 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
9165 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
9166 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
9168 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9170 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
9171 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
9172 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
9173 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
9175 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
9176 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
9177 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
9179 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
9180 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
9181 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
9182 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
9184 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
9185 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
9186 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
9189 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
9190 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
9191 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
9192 current input method for reading this one event.
9194 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
9195 now control whether to output certain characters as
9196 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
9197 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
9198 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
9199 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
9201 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9203 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
9204 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
9206 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
9207 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
9208 always increases point by 1.
9210 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
9211 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
9213 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
9215 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
9216 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
9217 default value changed. For example,
9219 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
9224 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
9227 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
9228 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
9229 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
9230 `:version' in the top level group.
9232 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
9234 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
9235 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
9237 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
9238 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
9239 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
9242 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
9243 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
9246 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
9247 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
9248 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
9250 ** Frame-local variables.
9252 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
9253 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
9254 local bindings for that variable.
9256 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
9257 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
9258 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
9261 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
9262 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
9263 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
9264 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
9266 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
9267 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
9268 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
9269 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
9271 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
9272 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
9273 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
9274 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
9275 See the documentation in sregex.el.
9277 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
9278 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
9279 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
9280 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
9282 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
9283 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
9285 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
9286 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
9287 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
9289 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
9290 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
9291 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
9292 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
9294 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
9295 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
9298 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
9299 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
9300 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
9301 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
9302 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
9304 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
9305 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
9306 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
9307 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
9309 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
9310 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
9311 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
9312 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
9313 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
9315 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
9316 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
9317 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
9318 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
9320 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
9321 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
9322 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
9324 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
9325 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
9326 was directed to display this buffer.
9328 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
9329 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
9330 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
9331 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
9332 set-window-configuration.
9334 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
9335 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
9336 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
9337 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
9339 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
9340 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
9341 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
9343 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
9344 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
9345 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
9347 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
9348 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
9350 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
9351 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
9353 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
9354 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
9355 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
9357 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
9358 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
9359 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
9360 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
9364 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
9365 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
9368 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
9369 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
9370 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
9371 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
9372 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
9374 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
9376 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
9377 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
9378 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
9379 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
9382 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
9383 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
9384 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
9385 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
9386 The supported properties include
9388 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
9390 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
9391 item should appear in the menu.
9393 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
9394 which will be REAL-BINDING.
9395 It should return a binding to use instead.
9397 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
9398 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
9399 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
9400 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
9401 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
9404 This means that the command normally has no
9405 keyboard equivalent.
9406 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
9407 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
9408 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
9409 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
9410 value says whether this button is currently selected.
9412 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
9413 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
9415 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
9419 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
9420 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
9421 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
9422 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
9424 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
9426 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
9427 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
9428 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
9429 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
9430 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
9431 forward, away from the user.
9433 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
9435 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
9436 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
9437 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
9438 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
9439 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
9441 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
9443 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
9444 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
9445 that were dragged and dropped.
9447 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
9449 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
9451 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
9452 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
9453 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
9455 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
9456 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
9457 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
9459 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
9460 in Emacs 19 and before.
9462 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
9463 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
9465 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
9466 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
9467 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
9468 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
9470 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
9471 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
9472 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
9473 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
9474 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
9476 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
9477 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
9478 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
9479 consistent with the new representation.
9481 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
9482 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
9483 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
9484 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
9486 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
9487 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
9488 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
9490 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
9491 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
9492 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
9494 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
9495 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
9496 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
9498 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
9499 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
9501 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
9502 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
9504 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
9505 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
9506 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
9507 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
9509 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
9510 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
9512 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
9513 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
9514 buffer or string being searched.
9516 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
9517 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
9518 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
9519 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
9520 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
9521 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
9522 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
9524 *** Structure of coding system changed.
9526 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
9527 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
9528 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
9529 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
9530 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
9531 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
9532 define-coding-system-alias.
9534 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
9535 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
9536 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
9537 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
9538 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
9539 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
9540 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
9543 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
9544 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
9545 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
9546 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
9548 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
9549 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
9550 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
9551 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
9553 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
9554 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
9555 This function requires a user interaction.
9557 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
9558 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
9559 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
9560 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
9561 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
9562 select-safe-coding-system.
9564 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
9565 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
9566 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
9569 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
9570 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
9571 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
9573 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
9574 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
9575 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
9576 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
9578 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
9579 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
9580 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
9583 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
9584 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
9586 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
9587 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
9588 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
9589 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
9590 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
9591 range of characters.
9593 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
9594 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
9596 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
9597 in the current buffer at position POS.
9599 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
9600 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
9601 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
9602 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
9603 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
9604 binding input-method-function to nil.
9606 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
9607 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
9608 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
9609 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
9610 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
9612 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
9613 subsequent events of a key sequence.
9615 *** You can customize any language environment by using
9616 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
9618 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
9619 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
9620 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
9621 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
9622 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
9624 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
9626 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
9627 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
9628 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
9631 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
9632 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
9634 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
9635 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
9636 in your .emacs file.)
9638 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
9639 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
9641 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
9642 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
9644 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
9645 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
9648 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
9649 delete the character before point, as usual.
9651 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
9652 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
9653 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
9655 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
9656 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
9657 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
9658 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
9659 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
9662 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
9663 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
9664 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
9665 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
9666 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
9668 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
9669 and is an alias for it.
9671 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
9672 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
9674 ** Scrolling changes
9676 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
9677 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
9679 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
9680 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
9683 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
9684 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
9685 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
9686 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
9688 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
9689 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
9690 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
9691 recenters the window.
9693 ** International character set support (MULE)
9695 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
9696 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
9697 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
9698 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
9699 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
9700 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
9702 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
9703 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
9704 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
9705 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
9706 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
9708 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
9709 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
9710 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
9711 language, to make it possible to type them.
9713 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
9714 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
9716 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
9717 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
9719 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
9721 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
9723 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
9724 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
9725 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
9726 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
9727 characters for their work until they want to change.
9731 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
9732 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
9733 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
9734 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
9735 support several input methods.
9737 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
9738 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
9741 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
9742 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
9743 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
9744 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
9745 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
9748 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
9749 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
9750 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
9751 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
9752 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
9754 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
9755 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
9756 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
9757 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
9759 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
9760 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
9761 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
9762 the first guess is wrong.
9764 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
9765 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
9767 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
9768 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
9769 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
9770 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
9772 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
9773 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
9774 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
9775 translate automatically to and from either one.
9777 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
9779 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
9780 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
9781 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
9784 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
9785 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
9786 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
9787 multibyte characters in that buffer.
9789 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
9790 character conversion as well.
9792 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
9794 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
9795 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
9796 requires using many fonts.
9798 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
9799 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
9801 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
9802 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
9803 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
9804 you would use a font.
9806 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
9807 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
9808 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
9810 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
9811 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
9814 *** Defining fontsets.
9816 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
9817 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
9818 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
9820 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
9821 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
9822 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
9823 standard fontset are created automatically.
9825 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
9826 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
9827 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
9828 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
9829 name is `fontset-startup'.
9831 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
9832 The resource value should have this form:
9833 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
9834 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
9835 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
9836 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
9837 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
9838 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
9839 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
9840 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
9841 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
9843 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
9844 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
9845 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
9847 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
9848 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
9850 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
9851 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
9852 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
9853 Here is the substitution rule:
9854 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
9855 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
9856 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
9857 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
9858 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
9860 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
9861 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
9862 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
9864 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
9865 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
9866 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
9867 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
9870 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
9871 defaults for a particular choice of language.
9873 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
9874 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
9875 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
9876 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
9877 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
9878 system for new files that you create.
9880 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
9881 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
9882 whole Emacs session.
9884 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
9885 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
9886 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
9888 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
9889 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
9890 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
9891 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
9892 coding systems that Emacs supports.
9894 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
9895 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
9896 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
9897 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
9898 is used for *the immediately following command*.
9900 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
9901 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
9903 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
9904 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
9906 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
9907 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
9909 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
9910 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
9911 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
9912 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
9915 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
9916 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
9917 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
9918 translated into that character code.
9920 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
9921 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
9923 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
9925 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
9926 the coding system for keyboard input.
9928 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
9929 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
9930 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
9932 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
9934 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
9935 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
9936 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
9937 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
9938 designed to work with terminals.
9940 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
9941 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
9942 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
9943 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
9944 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
9945 in the corresponding buffer.
9947 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
9949 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
9950 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
9951 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
9953 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
9954 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
9955 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
9958 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
9959 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
9961 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
9962 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
9963 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
9964 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
9966 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
9967 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
9968 related information.
9970 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
9971 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
9974 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
9975 information about the support for a particular language.
9976 You specify the language as an argument.
9978 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
9979 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
9982 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
9983 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
9984 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
9985 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
9987 A alternativnyj (Russian)
9989 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
9990 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
9991 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
9992 E euc-japan (Japanese)
9993 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
9994 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
9995 K euc-korea (Korean)
9998 S shift_jis (Japanese)
10001 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
10002 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10003 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
10004 v viqr (Vietnamese)
10007 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
10008 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
10009 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
10010 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
10012 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
10013 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
10015 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
10016 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
10017 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
10018 Rmail files themselves.
10020 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
10021 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
10023 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
10026 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
10027 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
10028 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
10029 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
10030 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
10032 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
10033 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
10034 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
10037 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
10038 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
10039 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
10040 without any conversion.
10042 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
10043 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
10044 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
10045 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
10047 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
10048 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
10050 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
10051 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
10053 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
10054 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
10056 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
10057 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
10058 in the buffer before point.
10060 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
10061 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
10064 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
10065 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
10067 ** File locking works with NFS now.
10069 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
10070 in the same directory as FILENAME.
10072 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
10073 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
10074 can become a bottleneck.
10076 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
10077 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
10078 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
10079 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
10080 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
10081 so useful that the change is worth while.
10083 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
10084 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
10085 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
10086 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
10088 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
10089 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
10092 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
10093 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
10094 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
10096 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
10097 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
10098 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
10100 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
10101 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
10102 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
10104 ** Changes in View mode.
10106 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
10107 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
10109 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
10110 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
10112 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
10115 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
10116 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
10118 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
10119 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
10120 not just the selected window.
10122 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
10123 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
10124 turns View mode on or off.
10126 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
10127 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
10128 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
10130 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
10131 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
10133 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
10134 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
10135 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
10136 which version to compare with.
10138 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
10139 blocks if a match is inside the block.
10141 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
10142 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
10143 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
10144 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
10146 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
10147 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
10148 blocks, all of them or none.
10150 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
10151 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
10152 confirmation first.
10154 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
10155 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
10156 However, the mode will not be changed if
10157 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
10158 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
10159 not suitable for ordinary files, or
10160 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
10162 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
10164 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
10165 these commands do not change the major mode.
10167 ** M-x occur changes.
10169 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
10170 it performs a case-sensitive search.
10172 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
10173 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
10174 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
10176 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
10177 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
10178 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
10179 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
10180 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
10182 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
10183 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
10184 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
10185 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
10187 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
10188 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
10189 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
10191 ** Outline mode changes.
10193 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
10195 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
10197 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
10198 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
10199 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
10200 was already active.
10202 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
10203 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
10204 get confused by it.
10206 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
10207 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
10209 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
10211 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
10212 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
10213 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
10214 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
10216 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
10217 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
10218 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
10220 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
10221 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
10224 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
10225 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
10226 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
10227 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
10229 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
10230 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
10231 can be. The default value is 30.
10233 ** Changes in Mail mode.
10235 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
10236 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
10237 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
10238 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
10239 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
10242 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
10243 compose-mail-other-frame.
10245 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
10246 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
10247 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
10248 buffer that shows the original message.
10250 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
10251 with separator lines around the contents.
10253 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
10254 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
10255 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
10256 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
10258 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
10260 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
10261 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
10262 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
10263 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
10265 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
10266 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
10269 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
10270 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
10273 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
10274 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
10275 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
10276 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
10278 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
10279 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
10280 be taken to be magic.
10282 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
10283 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
10284 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
10286 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
10287 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
10289 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
10290 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
10292 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
10294 new key dired.el binding old key
10295 ------- ---------------- -------
10296 * c dired-change-marks c
10298 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
10299 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
10300 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
10302 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
10303 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
10304 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
10305 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
10306 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
10307 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
10311 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
10312 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
10313 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
10314 each time you run it.
10316 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
10317 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
10319 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
10320 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
10321 means to move in the opposite direction.
10323 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
10324 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
10326 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
10327 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
10328 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
10329 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
10334 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
10336 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
10339 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
10340 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
10342 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
10345 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
10347 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
10349 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
10351 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
10352 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
10353 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
10355 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
10357 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
10359 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
10360 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
10362 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
10363 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
10364 used to pick articles.
10366 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
10367 another have been added.
10369 `M-x gnus-change-server'
10371 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
10372 generating lines in buffers.
10374 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
10377 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
10379 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
10381 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
10383 *** Scores can be decayed.
10385 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
10387 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
10388 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
10390 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
10393 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
10395 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
10396 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
10398 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
10400 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
10401 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
10403 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
10404 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
10406 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
10409 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
10410 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
10412 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
10414 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
10416 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
10418 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
10420 Use the `Y c' command.
10422 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
10424 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
10426 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
10428 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
10429 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
10431 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
10433 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
10435 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
10436 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
10438 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
10440 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
10441 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
10442 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
10443 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
10446 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
10447 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
10448 particular news group. This can be done by:
10450 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
10452 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
10453 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
10454 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
10455 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
10456 for reading and posting).
10458 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
10459 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
10460 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
10461 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
10464 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
10465 default. Here are some of these default settings:
10467 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
10468 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
10469 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
10470 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
10471 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
10473 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
10474 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
10476 ** CC mode changes.
10478 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
10479 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
10480 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
10481 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
10482 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
10485 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
10486 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
10487 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
10488 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
10489 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
10490 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
10492 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
10493 of the current buffer.
10495 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
10496 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
10497 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
10499 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
10500 style that the Python developers like.
10502 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
10503 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
10504 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
10506 ** VC Changes [new]
10508 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
10509 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
10510 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
10512 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
10513 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
10516 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
10517 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
10519 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
10520 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
10521 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
10522 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
10524 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
10525 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
10527 ** Calendar changes.
10529 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
10530 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
10531 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
10532 following/previous years.
10534 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
10535 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
10536 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
10537 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
10538 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
10539 supposed attribute of God.
10541 ** ps-print changes
10543 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
10546 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
10548 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
10549 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
10550 printer system has this behavior, set variable
10551 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
10553 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
10554 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
10555 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
10557 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
10558 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
10560 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
10561 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
10562 printing for your printer.
10564 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
10565 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
10567 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
10568 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
10570 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
10571 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
10572 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
10573 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
10574 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
10575 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
10576 The default value is nil.
10578 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
10579 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
10581 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
10582 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
10583 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
10584 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
10585 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
10586 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
10587 color). The default is 0 ("black").
10589 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
10590 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
10592 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
10593 The default is 0 ("black").
10595 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
10596 The default is 0 ("black").
10598 border-width Specify the border width.
10599 The default is 0.4.
10601 Any other property is ignored.
10603 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
10604 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
10607 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
10608 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
10609 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
10610 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
10611 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
10612 controlling headers.
10614 *** Color management (subgroup)
10616 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
10619 *** Face Management (subgroup)
10621 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
10622 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
10623 background should be used. Valid values are:
10625 t always use face background color.
10626 nil never use face background color.
10627 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
10629 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
10631 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
10634 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
10635 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
10637 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
10640 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
10641 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
10642 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
10644 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
10648 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
10652 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
10656 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
10660 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
10662 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
10664 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
10667 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
10668 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
10669 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
10671 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
10672 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
10673 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10674 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10675 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10679 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10680 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10681 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10684 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
10685 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
10686 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
10687 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
10688 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
10689 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10690 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10691 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10692 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
10693 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
10694 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
10697 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
10699 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
10702 *** Printer management (subgroup)
10704 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
10705 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
10706 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
10707 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
10710 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
10711 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
10712 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
10714 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
10715 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
10718 *** Page settings (subgroup)
10720 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
10721 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
10722 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
10723 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
10724 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
10725 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
10728 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
10729 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
10730 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
10732 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
10733 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
10734 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
10735 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
10736 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
10737 its TO, are ignored.
10739 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
10740 pages. Valid values are:
10742 nil print all pages.
10744 `even-page' print only even pages.
10746 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
10748 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
10749 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
10750 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
10751 print only the even sheet of paper.
10753 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
10754 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
10755 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
10756 only the odd sheet of paper.
10758 Any other value is treated as nil.
10760 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
10761 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
10762 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
10764 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
10766 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
10767 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
10769 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
10770 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
10771 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
10772 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
10773 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
10774 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
10775 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
10777 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
10778 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
10779 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
10780 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
10781 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
10782 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
10783 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
10785 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
10787 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
10788 messages should be sent.
10790 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
10791 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
10792 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
10794 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
10796 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
10797 points for line numbers.
10799 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
10800 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
10802 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
10803 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
10804 to 2, the printing will look like:
10816 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
10817 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
10820 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
10821 zebra stripe is to be printed.
10823 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
10825 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
10826 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
10827 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
10828 3, the output will look like:
10842 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
10843 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
10845 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
10846 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
10849 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
10850 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
10853 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
10855 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
10856 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
10858 ** hideshow changes.
10860 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
10863 *** Support for java-mode added.
10865 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
10866 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
10868 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
10869 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
10870 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
10872 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
10873 robust and a lot faster.
10875 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
10877 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
10878 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
10879 documentation for more details.
10881 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
10883 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
10884 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
10885 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
10886 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
10887 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
10889 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
10890 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
10891 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
10892 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
10898 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
10899 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
10900 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
10901 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
10902 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
10903 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
10905 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
10907 *** Maximum decoration
10909 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
10910 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
10911 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
10912 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
10913 to get the old behavior.
10917 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
10919 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
10920 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
10922 *** Configurable support
10924 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
10925 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
10926 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
10927 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
10928 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
10929 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
10930 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
10932 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
10933 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
10934 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
10936 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
10938 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
10939 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
10942 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
10944 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
10950 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
10951 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
10952 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
10953 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
10955 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
10957 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
10958 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
10959 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
10961 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
10963 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
10964 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
10965 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
10966 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
10967 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
10968 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
10969 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
10971 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
10972 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
10973 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
10974 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
10975 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
10976 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
10978 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
10980 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
10981 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
10982 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
10983 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
10985 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
10988 ** Ada mode changes.
10990 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
10991 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
10992 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
10993 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
10996 *** There are two new commands:
10997 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
10998 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
11000 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
11001 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
11002 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
11004 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
11005 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
11006 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
11008 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
11009 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
11010 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
11011 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
11013 ** Scheme mode changes.
11015 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
11016 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
11017 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
11018 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
11021 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
11022 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
11023 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
11024 variables as buffer-local variables.
11026 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
11027 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
11029 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
11031 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
11032 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
11033 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
11034 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
11036 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
11037 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
11040 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
11041 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
11042 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
11043 option takes precedence.
11045 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
11046 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
11047 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
11049 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
11050 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
11053 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
11054 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
11056 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
11057 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
11060 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
11061 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
11062 these register values no longer become completely useless.
11063 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
11064 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
11065 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
11067 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
11068 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
11069 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
11070 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
11072 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
11073 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
11074 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
11075 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
11076 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
11078 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
11079 since it applies only to the current frame.
11081 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
11082 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
11083 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
11085 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
11086 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
11087 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
11088 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
11089 instead of just the file you are editing.
11093 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
11094 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
11095 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
11096 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
11097 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
11100 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
11101 knows which kind of label is needed.
11103 C-c ) reftex-reference
11104 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
11105 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
11107 C-c [ reftex-citation
11108 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
11109 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
11111 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
11112 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
11115 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
11116 can quickly jump to every section.
11118 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
11119 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
11120 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
11121 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
11122 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
11124 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
11126 *** Info documentation is now available.
11128 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
11129 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
11131 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
11132 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
11134 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
11135 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
11137 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
11138 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
11139 appropriate functions.
11141 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
11142 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
11144 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
11147 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
11148 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
11150 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
11151 shall be delimited.
11153 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
11154 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
11155 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
11157 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
11158 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
11159 prefixed with `ALT'.
11161 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
11162 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
11163 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
11166 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
11167 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
11168 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
11170 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
11171 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
11173 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
11174 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
11175 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
11177 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
11179 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
11181 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
11182 from alien sources.
11184 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
11185 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
11188 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
11191 *** Added support for imenu.
11193 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
11194 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
11195 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
11196 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
11198 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
11199 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
11201 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
11203 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
11205 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
11206 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
11207 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
11210 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
11211 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
11213 ** browse-url changes
11215 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
11216 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
11217 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
11218 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
11219 customization variables.
11221 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
11223 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
11224 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
11225 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
11227 ** Changes in Ediff
11229 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
11230 pops up the Info file for this command.
11232 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
11233 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
11234 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
11237 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
11238 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
11239 files in the same directory.
11241 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
11242 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
11243 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
11245 ** Changes in Viper
11247 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
11248 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
11250 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
11251 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
11252 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
11253 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
11254 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
11255 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
11256 color when Viper is in insert state.
11257 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
11258 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
11259 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
11263 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
11264 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
11265 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
11266 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
11267 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
11269 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
11271 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
11272 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
11274 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
11275 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
11276 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
11278 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
11279 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
11280 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
11281 methods and protocols.
11283 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
11284 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
11285 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
11288 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
11289 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
11290 at least M times and as many as N times.
11292 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
11293 in files has changed slightly.
11295 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
11296 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
11297 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
11298 with old time-stamp-format values.
11300 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
11301 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
11302 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
11305 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
11306 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
11307 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
11308 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
11309 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
11310 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
11312 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
11313 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
11314 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
11316 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
11317 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
11318 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
11319 recommended now will continue to work then.
11321 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
11324 ** There are some additional major modes:
11326 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
11327 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
11328 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
11330 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
11331 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
11334 ** New Lisp packages include:
11336 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
11338 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
11339 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
11341 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
11343 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
11346 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
11347 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
11350 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
11351 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
11352 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
11353 strings or comments.
11355 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
11356 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
11357 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
11358 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
11361 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
11362 can visit them by short forms of their names.
11364 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
11365 Emacs Lisp function at point.
11367 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
11369 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
11370 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
11372 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
11374 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
11376 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
11378 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
11379 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
11381 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
11382 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
11383 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
11384 original place after inserting the copy.
11386 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
11389 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
11390 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
11391 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
11393 Enable mouse-drag with:
11394 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
11396 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
11398 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
11399 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
11401 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
11402 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
11406 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
11407 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
11408 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
11409 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
11410 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
11411 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
11412 instance) and vice versa.
11414 To use this package load it using
11415 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
11416 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
11417 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
11418 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
11419 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
11420 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
11422 *** Interface to ph.
11424 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
11426 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
11427 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
11430 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
11432 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
11433 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
11434 while the real cursor does not move.
11436 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
11437 for visiting your favorite web sites.
11439 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
11440 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
11444 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
11445 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
11446 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
11447 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
11449 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
11451 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
11453 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
11455 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
11456 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
11457 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
11458 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
11459 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
11461 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
11462 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
11463 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
11464 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
11465 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
11466 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
11468 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
11470 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
11471 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
11472 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
11473 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
11475 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
11476 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
11478 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
11479 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
11482 ** Basic Lisp changes
11484 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
11485 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
11487 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
11488 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
11491 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
11493 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
11495 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
11496 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
11498 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
11499 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
11502 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
11504 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
11506 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
11508 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
11509 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
11510 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
11513 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
11514 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
11515 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
11517 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
11518 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
11519 adding one of these suffixes.
11521 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
11522 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
11523 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
11525 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
11526 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
11528 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
11530 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
11531 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
11533 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
11534 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
11536 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
11538 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
11539 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
11541 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
11542 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
11543 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
11544 works using `save-current-buffer'.
11546 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
11547 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
11550 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
11551 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
11552 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
11555 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
11556 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
11559 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
11561 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
11562 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
11563 Then it returns that string.
11565 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
11567 (with-output-to-string
11568 (princ "The buffer is ")
11569 (princ (buffer-name)))
11571 returns "The buffer is foo".
11573 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
11576 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
11577 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
11578 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
11580 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
11581 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
11583 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
11584 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
11585 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
11586 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
11587 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
11588 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
11590 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
11591 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
11592 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
11595 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
11596 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
11597 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
11598 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
11599 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
11601 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
11602 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
11603 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
11604 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
11606 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
11607 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
11609 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
11611 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
11612 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
11613 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
11614 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
11617 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
11618 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
11621 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
11623 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
11624 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
11625 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
11626 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
11627 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
11629 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
11631 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
11632 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
11633 more than the number of characters.
11635 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
11636 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
11637 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
11638 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
11639 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
11640 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
11642 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
11643 and returns a string containing those characters.
11645 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
11646 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
11647 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
11648 character, sref signals an error.
11650 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
11651 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
11652 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
11654 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
11655 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
11656 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
11658 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
11659 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
11660 to a vector of the characters in it.
11662 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
11663 of a string. You call it as follows:
11665 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
11667 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
11668 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
11669 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
11670 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
11671 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
11673 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
11674 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
11676 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
11677 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
11679 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
11680 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
11681 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
11682 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
11684 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
11686 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
11688 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
11689 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
11690 are not included in the resulting value.
11692 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
11693 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
11694 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
11695 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
11697 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
11698 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
11699 character extends across that column), then the padding character
11700 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
11701 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
11702 column START-COLUMN.
11704 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
11705 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
11706 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
11707 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
11708 changed text, before the change.
11710 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
11711 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
11712 one character set for each script, not for each language.
11714 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
11716 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
11718 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
11719 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
11721 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
11722 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
11723 which identify the character within that character set.
11725 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
11726 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
11727 opposite of split-char.
11729 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
11730 of all the characters between BEG and END.
11732 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
11733 of all the characters in a string.
11735 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
11736 and specifying coding systems.
11738 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
11739 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
11740 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
11741 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
11742 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
11743 as what to do about code conversion.)
11745 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
11746 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
11748 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
11749 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
11750 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
11752 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
11753 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
11754 to match against a file name.
11756 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
11757 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
11758 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
11759 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
11760 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
11761 specifies the coding system for encoding.
11763 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
11764 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
11766 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
11767 the coding system to use for network sockets.
11769 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
11770 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
11771 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
11774 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
11775 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
11776 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
11777 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
11778 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
11779 specifies the coding system for encoding.
11781 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
11782 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
11784 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
11785 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
11786 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
11787 start the subprocess.
11789 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
11790 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
11791 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
11792 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
11793 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
11795 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
11796 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
11799 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
11800 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
11801 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
11802 connection permanently or until overridden.
11804 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
11805 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
11806 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
11807 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
11808 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
11809 system for one operation at a time.
11811 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
11812 files, subprocesses or network connections.
11814 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
11815 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
11816 The value is a cons cell,
11817 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
11818 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
11819 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
11820 input to the subprocess.
11822 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
11823 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
11825 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
11826 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
11827 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
11829 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
11830 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
11831 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
11832 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
11835 Thus, instead of writing
11837 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
11838 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
11840 you would now write this:
11842 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
11843 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
11847 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
11848 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
11849 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
11850 for a description of them.
11852 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
11853 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
11855 (defgroup ispell nil
11856 "Spell checking using Ispell."
11859 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
11860 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
11861 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
11862 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
11863 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
11865 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
11866 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
11867 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
11868 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
11869 first-level subgroups.
11871 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
11873 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
11874 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
11878 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
11879 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
11880 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
11881 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
11882 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
11883 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
11885 ** Text property changes
11887 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
11890 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
11891 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
11892 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
11893 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
11894 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
11896 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
11897 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
11898 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
11899 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
11901 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
11902 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
11903 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
11905 ** Changes in invisibility features
11907 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
11908 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
11909 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
11910 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
11911 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
11912 make the overlay visible.
11914 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
11915 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
11916 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
11917 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
11918 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
11919 t when it should hide it.
11921 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
11923 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
11924 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
11925 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
11926 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
11927 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
11928 Here is an example of how to do this:
11930 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
11931 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
11932 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
11933 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
11936 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
11939 ;; When done with the overlays:
11940 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
11941 ;; Or respectively:
11942 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
11944 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
11946 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
11947 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
11948 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
11949 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
11951 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
11952 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
11953 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
11955 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
11956 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
11958 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
11959 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
11961 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
11962 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
11963 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
11965 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
11966 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
11967 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
11968 determine the syntax type of the character.
11970 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
11971 of the current buffer.
11973 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
11974 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
11975 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
11977 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
11978 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
11979 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
11980 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
11981 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
11983 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
11986 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
11987 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
11988 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
11990 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
11991 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
11992 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
11993 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
11994 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
11996 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
11997 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
11998 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
12000 ** Changes in face features
12002 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
12003 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
12005 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
12006 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
12008 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
12009 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
12011 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
12012 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
12014 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
12015 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
12016 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
12017 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
12020 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
12021 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
12023 ** Changes in file-handling functions
12025 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
12026 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
12027 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
12028 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
12030 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
12033 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
12034 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
12036 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
12037 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
12039 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
12040 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
12042 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
12043 character code conversion as well as other things.
12045 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
12046 (formerly it did not).
12048 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
12049 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
12051 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
12052 instead of constant strings.
12054 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
12055 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
12056 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
12058 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
12059 in the same way as before.
12061 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
12062 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
12063 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
12065 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
12066 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
12067 else, and returns nil.
12069 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
12070 directory cannot be listed.
12072 ** Changes in minibuffer input
12074 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
12075 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
12076 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
12077 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
12080 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
12081 It is available through the history command M-n.
12083 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
12084 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
12085 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
12086 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
12087 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
12089 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
12090 argument in this way.
12092 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
12093 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
12094 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
12096 ** Echo area features
12098 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
12099 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
12100 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
12101 after the echo area is cleared.
12103 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
12104 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
12106 ** Keyboard input features
12108 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
12109 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
12111 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
12112 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
12113 by keyboard macros.
12115 ** Frame-related changes
12117 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
12118 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
12119 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
12121 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
12122 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
12123 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
12125 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
12126 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
12127 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
12128 in the selected frame.
12130 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
12131 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
12132 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
12134 ** X Windows features
12136 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
12137 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
12138 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
12140 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
12141 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
12143 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
12144 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
12145 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
12147 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
12148 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
12150 ** Subprocess features
12152 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
12153 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
12156 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
12157 and returns the output from the command as a string.
12159 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
12160 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
12162 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
12163 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
12165 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
12166 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
12167 goes after the other menu items.
12169 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
12170 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
12171 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
12174 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
12175 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
12177 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
12178 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
12181 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
12182 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
12183 but its hook is still run.
12185 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
12186 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
12188 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
12189 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
12190 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
12192 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
12193 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
12194 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
12197 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
12198 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
12200 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
12201 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
12202 functions like display-time.
12204 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
12205 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
12207 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
12208 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
12209 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
12211 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
12212 if there is an error in compilation.
12214 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
12215 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
12216 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
12217 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
12219 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
12220 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
12221 the *scratch* buffer.
12223 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
12224 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
12225 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
12226 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
12228 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
12229 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
12230 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
12232 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
12233 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
12234 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
12235 and compose-mail-other-frame.
12237 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
12238 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
12239 full name of the specified user will be returned.
12241 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
12242 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
12243 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
12244 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
12245 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
12248 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
12249 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
12250 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
12251 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
12253 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
12254 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
12255 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
12256 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
12258 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
12260 ** imenu.el changes.
12262 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
12263 item from menu created by imenu.
12265 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
12266 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
12267 select one of those items.
12269 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
12271 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
12272 Copyright information:
12274 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
12276 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
12277 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
12278 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
12279 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
12281 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
12282 of this document, or of portions of it,
12283 under the above conditions, provided also that they
12284 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
12288 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
12291 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793