1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.4
20 ** The MS-Windows build prefers libpng version 1.14 or later.
21 Versions of libpng before 1.14 had security issues, so we now
22 recommend to use version 1.14 or later. Precompiled Windows binaries
23 require version 1.14 or later. See README.W32 and nt/INSTALL for
24 details and pointers to URLs where the latest libpng can be
28 * Changes in Emacs 23.4 on non-free operating systems
30 ** The MS-Windows port can now use more than 500MB of heap.
31 Depending on the available virtual memory, Emacs on Windows can now
32 have up to 2GB of heap space. This allows, e.g., to visit several
33 large (> 256MB) files in the same session.
36 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.3
38 ** New configure option --with-crt-dir specifies the location of your
39 crt*.o files, if they are in a non-standard location. This is only
40 used on x86-64 and s390x GNU/Linux architectures.
42 * Changes in Emacs 23.3
44 ** The last-resort backup file `%backup%~' is now written to
45 `user-emacs-directory', instead of the user's home directory.
47 ** If Emacs creates `user-emacs-directory', that directory's
48 permissions are now set to rwx------, ignoring the umask.
51 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.3
55 *** The appt-add command takes an optional argument, the warning time.
56 This can be used in place of the default appt-message-warning-time.
60 *** You can allow inferior Python processes to load modules from the
61 current directory by setting `python-remove-cwd-from-path' to nil.
65 *** The default value of `rmail-enable-mime' is now t. Rmail decodes
66 MIME contents automatically. You can customize the variable
67 `rmail-enable-mime' back to `nil' to disable this automatic MIME
70 *** The command `rmail-mime' change the displaying of a MIME message
71 between decoded presentation form and raw data if `rmail-enable-mime'
72 is non-nil. And, with prefix argument, it change only the displaying
73 of the MIME entity at point.
75 *** The new command `rmail-mime-next-item' (bound to TAB) moves point
76 to the next item of MIME message.
78 *** The new command `rmail-mime-previous-item' (bound to backtab) moves
79 point to the previous item of MIME message.
81 *** The new command `rmail-mime-toggle-hidden' (RET) hide or show the
82 body of the MIME entity at point.
84 ** VC and related modes
86 *** New VC command `vc-log-incoming', bound to `C-x v I'.
87 This shows a log of changes to be received with a pull operation.
88 For Git, this runs "git fetch" to make the necessary data available
89 locally; this requires version 1.7 or newer.
91 *** New VC command `vc-log-outgoing', bound to `C-x v O'.
92 This shows a log of changes to be sent in the next commit.
94 *** New VC command vc-find-conflicted-file.
96 *** The 'g' key in VC diff, log, log-incoming and log-outgoing buffers
97 reruns the corresponding VC command to compute an up to date version
100 *** vc-dir for Bzr supports viewing shelve contents and shelving snapshots.
102 *** Special markup can be added to log-edit buffers.
103 You can add headers specifying additional information to be supplied
104 to the version control system. For example:
106 Author: J. R. Hacker <jrh@example.com>
108 Actual text of log entry...
110 Bazaar recognizes the headers "Author", "Date" and "Fixes".
111 Git, Mercurial, and Monotone recognize "Author" and "Date".
112 Any unknown header is left as is in the message, so it is not lost.
116 *** lmenu.el and cl-compat.el are now obsolete.
119 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.3
121 ** smie.el is a generic navigation and indentation engine.
122 It takes a simple BNF description of the grammar, and provides both
123 sexp-style navigation (jumping over begin..end pairs) as well as
124 indentation, which can be adjusted via ad-hoc indentation rules.
127 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.3
129 ** posn-col-row now excludes the header line from the row count
130 If the frame has a header line, posn-col-row will count row numbers
131 starting from the first line of text below the header line.
134 * Lisp changes in Emacs 23.3
136 ** `e' and `pi' are now called `float-e' and `float-pi'.
137 The old names are obsolete.
139 ** The use of unintern without an obarray arg is now obsolete.
141 ** The function `princ-list' is now obsolete.
143 ** The yank-handler argument to kill-region and friends is now obsolete.
145 ** New function byte-to-string, like char-to-string but for bytes.
148 * Changes in Emacs 23.3 on non-free operating systems
150 ** The NeXTstep port can have different modifiers for the left and right
151 alt/option key by customizing the value for ns-right-alternate-modifier.
154 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.2
156 ** New configure options for Emacs developers.
157 These are not new features; only the configure flags are new.
159 *** --enable-profiling builds Emacs with profiling enabled.
160 This might not work on all platforms.
162 *** --enable-checking[=OPTIONS] builds emacs with extra runtime checks.
164 ** `make install' now consistently ignores umask, creating a
165 world-readable install.
167 ** Emacs compiles with Gconf support, if it is detected.
168 Use the configure option --without-gconf to disable this.
169 This is used by the `font-use-system-font' feature (see below).
171 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.2
173 ** The command-line option -Q (--quick) also inhibits loading X resources.
174 However, if Emacs is compiled with the Lucid or Motif toolkit, X
175 resource settings for the graphical widgets are still applied.
176 On Windows, the -Q option causes Emacs to ignore Registry settings,
177 but environment variables set on the Registry are still honored.
179 *** The new variable `inhibit-x-resources' shows whether X resources
182 ** New command-line option -mm (--maximized) maximizes the initial frame.
184 * Changes in Emacs 23.2
186 ** The maximum size of buffers (and the largest fixnum) is doubled.
187 On typical 32bit systems, buffers can now be up to 512MB.
189 ** The default value of `trash-directory' is now nil.
190 This means that `move-file-to-trash' trashes files according to
191 freedesktop.org specifications, the same method used by the Gnome,
192 KDE, and XFCE desktops. (This change has no effect on Windows, which
193 uses `system-move-file-to-trash' for trashing.)
195 ** The pointer now becomes invisible when typing.
196 Customize `make-pointer-invisible' to disable this feature.
200 *** Emacs can use the system default monospaced font in Gnome.
201 To enable this feature, set `font-use-system-font' to non-nil (it is
202 nil by default). If the system default changes, Emacs changes also.
203 This feature requires Gconf support, which is automatically included
204 at compile-time if configure detects the gconf libraries (you can
205 disable this with the configure option --without-gconf).
207 *** On X11, Emacs reacts to Xft changes made by configuration tools,
208 via the XSETTINGS mechanism. This includes antialias, hinting,
209 hintstyle, RGBA, DPI and lcdfilter changes.
211 ** Killing a buffer with a running process now asks for confirmation.
212 To remove this query, remove `process-kill-buffer-query-function' from
213 `kill-buffer-query-functions', or set the appropriate process flag
214 with `set-process-query-on-exit-flag'.
216 ** File-local variable changes
218 *** Specifying a minor mode as a local variables enables that mode,
219 unconditionally. The previous behavior, toggling the mode, was
220 neither reliable nor generally desirable.
222 *** There are new commands for adding and removing file-local variables:
223 `add-file-local-variable', `delete-file-local-variable',
224 `add-file-local-variable-prop-line', and
225 `delete-file-local-variable-prop-line'.
227 *** There are new commands for adding and removing directory-local variables,
228 and copying them to and from file-local variable lists:
229 `add-dir-local-variable', `delete-dir-local-variable',
230 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals',
231 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals-prop-line' and
232 `copy-file-locals-to-dir-locals'.
234 ** Internationalization changes
236 *** Unibyte sessions are now considered obsolete.
237 This refers to the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable as well as the
238 --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte command line
239 arguments. Customizing enable-multibyte-characters and setting
240 default-enable-multibyte-characters are also deprecated.
242 *** New coding system `utf-8-hfs'.
243 This is suitable for default-file-name-coding-system on Mac OS X; see
244 international/ucs-normalize.el.
246 ** Function arguments in *Help* buffers are now shown in upper-case.
247 Customize `help-downcase-arguments' to t to show them in lower-case.
249 ** New command `async-shell-command', bound globally to `M-&'.
250 This executes the command asynchronously, similar to calling `M-!' and
251 manually adding an ampersand to the end of the command. With `M-&',
252 you don't need the ampersand. The output appears in the buffer
253 `*Async Shell Command*'.
255 ** When running in a new enough xterm (newer than version 242), Emacs
256 asks xterm what the background color is and it sets up faces
257 accordingly for a dark background if needed (the current default is to
258 consider the background light).
261 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.2
263 ** Kill-ring and selection changes
265 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, any active region automatically
266 becomes the primary selection (for interaction with other window
267 applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
268 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
270 *** When `save-interprogram-paste-before-kill' is non-nil, the kill
271 commands save the interprogram-paste selection into the kill ring
272 before doing anything else. This avoids losing the selection.
274 *** When `kill-do-not-save-duplicates' is non-nil, identical
275 subsequent kills are not duplicated in the `kill-ring'.
277 ** Completion changes
279 *** The new command `completion-at-point' provides mode-sensitive completion.
281 *** tab-always-indent set to `complete' lets TAB do completion as well.
283 *** The new completion-style `initials' is available.
284 For instance, this can complete M-x lch to list-command-history.
286 *** The new variable `completions-format' determines how completions
287 are displayed in the *Completions* buffer. If you set it to
288 `vertical', completions are sorted vertically in columns.
290 ** The default value of `blink-matching-paren-distance' is increased.
292 ** M-n provides more default values in the minibuffer for commands
293 that read file names. These include the file name at point (when ffap
294 is loaded without ffap-bindings), the file name on the current line
295 (in Dired buffers), and the directory names of adjacent Dired windows
296 (for Dired commands that operate on several directories, such as copy,
299 ** M-r is bound to the new `move-to-window-line-top-bottom'.
300 This moves point to the window center, top and bottom on successive
301 invocations, in the same spirit as the C-l (recenter-top-bottom)
304 ** The new variable `recenter-positions' determines the default
305 cycling order of C-l (`recenter-top-bottom').
307 ** The abbrevs file is now a file named abbrev_defs in
308 user-emacs-directory; but the old location, ~/.abbrev_defs, is used if
312 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
314 ** The bookmark menu has a narrowing search via bookmark-bmenu-search.
318 *** The Calc settings file is now a file named calc.el in
319 user-emacs-directory; but the old location, ~/.calc.el, is used if
322 *** Graphing commands (`g f' etc.) now work on MS-Windows, if you have
323 the native Windows port of Gnuplot version 3.8 or later installed.
325 ** Calendar and diary
327 *** Fancy diary display is now the default.
328 If you prefer the simple display, customize `diary-display-function'.
330 *** The diary's fancy display now enables view-mode.
332 *** The command `calendar-current-date' accepts an optional argument
333 giving an offset from today.
337 *** The default value for `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is nil.
338 This means Desktop will try restoring all buffers, when you restart
339 your Emacs session. Also, `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is only
340 effective for buffers that have no associated file. If you want to
341 exempt buffers that do correspond to files, customize the value of
342 `desktop-files-not-to-save' instead.
346 *** The new variable `dired-auto-revert-buffer', if non-nil, causes
347 Dired buffers to be reverted automatically on revisiting them.
351 *** When `doc-view-continuous' is non-nil, scrolling a line
352 on the page edge advances to the next/previous page.
356 *** Elint now uses compilation-mode.
358 *** Elint can now scan individual files and whole directories,
359 and can be run in batch mode.
361 *** Elint does a more thorough initialization, and recognizes more built-in
362 functions and variables. Customize `elint-scan-preloaded' if you want
363 to sacrifice some accuracy for a faster startup.
365 *** Elint attempts some basic understanding of featurep and (f)boundp tests.
367 *** Customize `elint-ignored-warnings' to suppress some warnings.
371 *** Toolbar functionality for reverse debugging. Display of STL
372 collections as watch expressions. These features require GDB 7.0 or later.
376 *** A new command `zrgrep' searches recursively in gzipped files.
380 *** The new command `Info-virtual-index' bound to "I" displays a menu of
381 matched topics found in the index.
383 *** The new command `info-finder' replaces finder.el with a virtual Info
384 manual that generates an Info file which gives the same information
385 through a menu structure.
387 ** LaTeX mode now provides completion (via completion-at-point).
389 ** Message mode is now the default mode for composing mail.
391 The default for `mail-user-agent' is now message-user-agent, so the
392 C-x m (`compose-mail') command uses Message mode instead of Mail mode.
394 Message mode has been included in Emacs, as part of the Gnus package,
395 for several years. It provides several features that are absent in
396 Mail mode, such as MIME handling.
398 *** If the user has not customized mail-user-agent, `compose-mail'
399 checks for Mail mode customizations, and issues a warning if these
400 customizations are found. This alerts users who may otherwise be
401 unaware that their mail configuration has changed.
403 To disable this check, set compose-mail-user-agent-warnings to nil.
405 ** The default value of mail-interactive is t, since Emacs 23.1.
406 (This was not announced at the time.) It means that when sending mail,
407 Emacs will wait for the process sending mail to return. If you
408 experience delays when sending mail, you may wish to set this to nil.
410 ** nXML mode is now the default for editing XML files.
412 ** pcomplete provides a new command `pcomplete-std-completion' which
413 is similar to `pcomplete' but using the standard completion UI code.
415 ** Shell (and other comint modes)
417 *** M-s is no longer bound to `comint-next-matching-input'.
419 *** M-r is now bound to `comint-history-isearch-backward-regexp'.
420 This starts an incremental search of the comint/shell input history.
422 *** ansi-color is now enabled by default in Shell mode.
423 To disable it, set ansi-color-for-comint-mode to nil.
427 *** New connection methods "rsyncc", "imap" and "imaps".
428 On systems which support GVFS-Fuse, Tramp offers also the new
429 connection methods "dav", "davs", "obex" and "synce".
431 ** VC and related modes
433 *** When using C-x v v or C-x v i on a unregistered file that is in a
434 directory not controlled by any VCS, ask the user what VC backend to
435 use to create a repository, create a new repository and register the
438 *** New command `vc-root-print-log', bound to `C-x v L'.
439 This displays a `*vc-change-log*' buffer showing the history of the
440 version-controlled directory tree as a whole.
442 *** New command `vc-root-diff', bound to `C-x v D'.
443 This is similar to `vc-diff', but compares the entire directory tree
444 of the current VC directory with its working revision.
446 *** `C-x v l' and `C-x v L' do not show the full log by default.
447 The number of entries shown can be chosen interactively with a prefix
448 argument, or by customizing vc-log-show-limit. The `*vc-change-log*'
449 buffer now contains buttons at the end of the buffer, which can be
450 used to increase the number of entries shown. RCS, SCCS, and CVS do
451 not support this feature.
453 *** vc-annotate supports annotations through file copies and renames,
454 it displays the old names for the files and it can show logs/diffs for
455 the corresponding lines. Currently only Git and Mercurial take
456 advantage of this feature.
458 *** The log command in vc-annotate can display a single log entry
459 instead of redisplaying the full log. The RCS, CVS and SCCS VC
460 backends do not support this.
462 *** When a file is not found, VC will not try to check it out of RCS anymore.
464 *** Diff and log operations can be used from Dired buffers.
468 **** The short log format for git makes use of the graph display,
469 so it's not supported on git versions earlier than 1.5.6.
471 **** vc-dir uses the --relative option of git, and so requires at least
474 **** Support for operating with stashes has been added to vc-dir:
475 the stash list is displayed in the *vc-dir* header, stashes can be
476 created, removed, applied and their content displayed.
478 *** vc-bzr supports operating with shelves: the shelve list is
479 displayed in the *vc-dir* header, shelves can be created, removed and applied.
481 *** log-edit-strip-single-file-name controls whether or not single filenames
482 are stripped when copying text from the ChangeLog to the *VC-Log* buffer.
486 *** Interactively `multi-isearch-buffers' and `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp'
487 read buffer names to search, one by one, ended with RET. With a prefix
488 argument, they ask for a regexp, and search in buffers whose names match
489 the specified regexp. Interactively `multi-isearch-files' and
490 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' read file names to search, one by one,
491 ended with RET. With a prefix argument, they ask for a wildcard, and
492 search in file buffers whose file names match the specified wildcard.
494 *** Autorevert Tail mode now works also for remote files.
496 *** The new eshell built-in commands `su' and `sudo' support Tramp.
497 Thus, they change `default-directory' to reflect the new user id, and
498 let commands run under that user's permissions. This works even when
499 `default-directory' is already remote. Calling the external commands
500 is possible via `*su' or `*sudo', respectively.
504 *** sym-comp.el is now obsolete, superseded by completion-at-point.
506 *** lucid.el and levents.el are now obsolete.
509 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
511 ** CEDET (the Collection of Emacs Development Tools) is now in Emacs.
512 This is a collection of packages to aid with using Emacs as an IDE
513 (integrated development environment):
515 *** The Semantic package allows the use of parsers to intelligently
516 edit and navigate source code. Parsers for C/C++, Java, Javascript,
517 and several other languages are included by default, and Semantic can
518 also interface with external tools such as GNU Global and GNU Idutils.
520 To enable Semantic, use the global minor mode `semantic-mode'.
521 See the Semantic manual for details.
523 *** EDE (Emacs Development Environment) is a package for managing code
524 projects, including features such as automatic Makefile generation.
526 To enable EDE, use the minor mode `global-ede-mode'.
527 See the EDE manual for details.
529 *** SRecode is a library for recoding Semantic tags back into source
530 code. It is currently used by some parts of Semantic and EDE; in the
531 future, it may be used for code generation features.
533 *** The EIEIO library implements a subset of the Common Lisp Object
534 System (CLOS). It is used by the other CEDET packages.
536 ** mpc.el is a front end for the Music Player Daemon. Run it with M-x mpc.
538 ** htmlfontify.el turns a fontified Emacs buffer into an HTML page.
540 ** js.el is a new major mode for JavaScript files.
542 ** imap-hash.el is a new library to address IMAP mailboxes as hashtables.
545 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.2
547 ** The Lisp reader turns integers that are too large/small into floats.
548 For instance, on machines where `536870911' is the largest integer,
549 reading `536870912' gives the floating-point object `536870912.0'.
551 This change only concerns the Lisp reader; it does not affect how
552 actual integer objects overflow.
554 ** Several obsolete functions removed.
555 The functions have been obsolete since Emacs 19, and are unlikely to
558 time-stamp-month-dd-yyyy, time-stamp-dd/mm/yyyy, time-stamp-mon-dd-yyyy
559 time-stamp-dd-mon-yy, time-stamp-yy/mm/dd, time-stamp-yyyy/mm/dd,
560 time-stamp-yyyy-mm-dd, time-stamp-yymmdd, time-stamp-hh:mm:ss,
561 time-stamp-hhmm, baud-rate
563 ** Support for generating Emacs 18 compatible bytecode (by setting
564 the variable `byte-compile-compatibility') has been removed.
566 ** In image-mode.el `image-mode-maybe' is obsolete.
567 Instead, you can either use `image-mode' (which displays an image file
568 as the actual image initially), or `image-mode-as-text' (when you want
569 to display an image file as text initially). `image-mode-as-text' is a
570 combination of a non-image mode from `auto-mode-alist' (or Fundamental
571 mode) and `image-minor-mode'. `image-minor-mode' provides a `C-c C-c'
572 key binding to toggle image display.
573 `image-toggle-display-text' removes image properties.
574 `image-toggle-display-image' adds image properties.
575 `image-toggle-display' toggles between `image-mode-as-text' and `image-mode'.
578 * Lisp changes in Emacs 23.2
580 ** All the default-FOO variables that hold the default value of the FOO
581 variable, are now declared obsolete.
583 ** read-key is a function halfway between read-event and read-key-sequence.
584 It reads a single key, but obeys input and escape sequence decoding.
586 ** Frame parameter changes
588 *** You can give the `fullscreen' frame parameter the value `maximized'.
589 This maximizes the frame.
591 *** The new frame parameter `sticky' makes Emacs frames sticky in
594 ** Completion changes
596 *** completion-base-size is obsoleted by completion-base-position.
597 This change causes a few backward incompatibilities, mostly with
598 choose-completion-string-functions where the `mini-p' argument has
599 been replaced by a `base-position' argument, and where the `base-size'
600 argument is now always nil.
602 *** New function `completion-in-region' to use the standard completion
603 facilities on a particular region of text.
605 *** The 4th arg to all-completions (aka hide-spaces) is declared obsolete.
607 *** completion-annotate-function specifies how to compute annotations
608 for completions displayed in *Completions*.
610 ** Minibuffer changes
612 *** read-file-name-predicate is obsolete. It was used to pass the predicate
613 to read-file-name-internal because read-file-name-internal abused its `pred'
614 argument to pass the current directory, but this hack is not needed
617 ** Changes to file-manipulation functions
619 *** `delete-directory' has an optional parameter RECURSIVE.
621 *** New function `copy-directory', which copies a directory recursively.
623 ** called-interactively-p now takes one argument and replaces interactive-p
624 which is now marked obsolete.
626 ** New function set-advertised-calling-convention makes it possible
627 to obsolete arguments as well as make some arguments mandatory.
629 ** You can control which binding is preferentially shown in menus and
630 docstrings by adding a `:advertised-binding' property to the corresponding
631 command's symbol. That property can hold a single binding or a list
634 ** Network and process changes
636 *** start-process-shell-command and start-file-process-shell-command
637 now only take a single `command' argument.
639 *** The new variable `process-file-side-effects' should be set to nil
640 if a `process-file' call does not change a remote file. This allows
641 file name handlers such as Tramp to optimizations.
643 *** make-network-process can now also create `seqpacket' Unix sockets.
647 *** eval-next-after-load is obsolete.
649 *** New hook `after-load-functions' run after loading an Elisp file.
651 ** Byte compilation changes
653 *** Changing the file-names generated by byte-compilation by redefining
654 the function `byte-compile-dest-file' before loading bytecomp.el is obsolete.
655 Instead, customize byte-compile-dest-file-function.
657 *** `byte-compile-warnings' has new members, `constants' and `suspicious'.
659 ** New macro with-silent-modifications to tweak text properties without
660 affecting the buffer's modification state.
662 ** Hash tables have a new printed representation that is readable.
663 The feature `hashtable-print-readable' identifies this new
666 ** New functions for performing Unicode normalization:
667 ucs-normalize-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-NFD-string,
668 ucs-normalize-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-NFC-string,
669 ucs-normalize-NFKD-region, ucs-normalize-NFKD-string,
670 ucs-normalize-NFKC-region, ucs-normalize-NFKC-string,
671 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-string,
672 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-string.
674 ** Face aliases can now be marked as obsolete, using the macro
675 `define-obsolete-face-alias'.
677 ** New function `window-full-height-p', analogous to the full-width version.
680 * Changes in Emacs 23.2 on non-free operating systems
682 ** On MS-Windows, `display-time' now displays the system load average
683 as well as the time, as it does on GNU and Unix.
686 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
688 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
689 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
690 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
693 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
694 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
696 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
697 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
699 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
700 where Emacs is running).
702 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
704 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
707 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
709 ** Changes to image support
711 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
714 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
716 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
718 ** New NeXTstep-based port.
719 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
720 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
722 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
723 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
724 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
725 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
727 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
728 Use the NeXTstep port, described above.
730 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
733 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
734 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
736 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
738 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
740 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
742 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
743 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
744 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
746 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
748 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
751 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
753 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
755 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
757 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
759 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
760 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
762 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
763 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
764 you need control over which C compiler is used.
766 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
768 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
769 or any later version.
771 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
772 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
773 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
775 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
777 ** Improved X Window System support
779 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
780 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
781 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
782 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
783 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
784 There may be problems if a display exits unexpectedly and Emacs is compiled
785 with Gtk+, see etc/PROBLEMS.
787 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
788 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
790 *** Emacs starts in the background, as a daemon, when given the
791 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
792 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
793 terminal frames using emacsclient.
795 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
796 --alternate-editor="" is used (or when the evironment variable
797 ALTERNATE_EDITOR is set to "") and emacsclient cannot connect to an
800 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
801 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
803 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
804 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
805 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
806 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
807 for details about XEmbed.
809 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
810 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
811 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
812 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
813 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
815 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
816 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
817 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
818 active frame and INACTIVE is the opacity of non-active frames.
820 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
821 opacity; the default is 20.
823 ** Internationalization changes
825 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
826 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
828 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
829 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs' (`emacs-internal' is an alias
830 for this). This encoding is backward-compatible with Unicode's UTF-8
831 encoding. The internal encoding previously used by Emacs,
832 `emacs-mule', is still available for reading and writing files.
834 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
835 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
836 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
837 or 22 are loaded correctly as `emacs-mule' (whether or not they
838 contain multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it
839 may be worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be
840 shared with older Emacsen.
842 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
844 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
845 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
846 as tables of unicodes.
848 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
849 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
850 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
852 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
853 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
855 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
856 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
857 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
859 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
860 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
861 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
864 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
865 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
866 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
867 the mode-line mouse menu.
871 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
872 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
873 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
874 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
875 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
877 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
878 "Save Options" item is used.
880 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
881 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
882 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
884 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
885 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
886 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
887 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
889 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
890 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
891 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
895 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
896 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
898 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
899 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
901 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
902 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
904 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
906 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
907 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
909 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
910 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
911 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
912 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
914 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
915 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
916 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
917 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
919 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
920 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
921 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
922 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
924 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
927 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
929 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
930 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
931 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
932 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
933 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
935 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
936 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
939 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
940 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
941 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
944 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
946 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
947 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
948 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
949 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
952 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
954 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
955 on the regexp command prefix map.
957 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
958 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
961 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
962 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
963 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
964 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
965 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
966 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
968 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
969 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
970 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
971 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
972 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
973 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
975 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound from
976 `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the global
977 prefix map `M-o', which is intended for such formatting commands.
979 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
980 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
981 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
982 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
983 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
987 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
989 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
990 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
991 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
992 behavior (i.e., motion by logical lines based on buffer contents
995 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
996 invokes `suspend-frame'. These changes are for compatibility with the
997 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
1001 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
1003 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
1005 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
1008 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
1009 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
1011 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
1012 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
1015 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
1018 *** The variable `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty
1019 active region in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on
1022 ** Temporarily active regions
1024 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
1025 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
1026 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
1027 region, similar to mouse-selection.
1029 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
1030 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
1031 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
1032 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
1033 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
1036 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1038 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
1039 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
1040 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
1041 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
1042 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
1043 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
1044 to create the file or buffer.
1046 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
1047 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
1048 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
1049 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
1051 *** The rules for performing completion have been changed.
1052 When generating completion alternatives, Emacs now takes the
1053 minibuffer text after point, if any, into account: this text is
1054 treated as a substring of the remaining part of the completion
1055 alternative (i.e., the part not matched by the minibuffer text before
1056 point). If no completion alternatives are found this way, Emacs
1057 attempts to perform partial-completion. If still no completion
1058 alternatives are found, we fall back on the Emacs 22 rules for
1059 performing completion.
1061 The new variable `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your
1062 favorite completion style.
1064 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
1065 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
1066 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
1067 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
1068 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
1069 searching minibuffer completion items.
1071 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
1073 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
1074 name of the current buffer.
1076 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
1077 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
1078 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
1079 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
1080 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
1082 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
1083 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
1084 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
1085 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
1087 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
1088 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
1089 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
1090 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
1091 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
1093 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
1094 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
1095 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
1096 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
1097 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
1098 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
1099 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
1101 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
1102 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
1104 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
1105 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
1107 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
1108 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
1110 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
1111 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
1112 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
1116 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
1117 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
1118 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
1120 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
1121 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
1122 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
1123 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
1125 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
1126 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
1127 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
1128 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
1130 *** The commands buffer-face-mode and buffer-face-set can be used to
1131 remap the default face in the current buffer. See "Buffer Face mode",
1132 under New Modes and Packages.
1134 ** Primary selection changes
1136 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
1137 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
1139 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
1140 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
1141 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
1142 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
1143 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
1144 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
1145 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
1146 New Modes and Packages, below.
1148 ** Window management changes
1150 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
1151 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
1152 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
1154 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
1155 vertically and horizontally.
1157 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
1158 is on a different frame.
1160 ** Miscellaneous changes:
1162 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
1163 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
1164 successive invocations.
1166 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
1168 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
1169 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
1170 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
1172 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
1173 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
1174 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
1176 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
1177 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
1178 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
1179 run processes remotely.
1181 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
1184 *** The value of comment-style now defaults to `indent'.
1185 Thefore, comment-start markers are inserted at the current indentation
1186 of the region to comment, rather than the leftmost column.
1188 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
1189 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
1191 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
1192 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
1193 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
1194 convenience alias for this function.
1196 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
1197 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
1198 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
1200 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
1201 kill into the password.
1203 *** Tooltip frame parameters `font' and `color' in `tooltip-frame-parameters'
1204 are ignored. Customize the `tooltip' face instead.
1206 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
1208 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
1210 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
1211 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
1212 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
1214 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
1216 ** Buffer Face mode is a minor mode for remapping the default face in
1217 the current buffer. The variable `buffer-face-mode-face' specifies
1218 the face to remap to. The command `buffer-face-set' prompts for a
1219 face name, sets `buffer-face-mode-face' to it, and enables
1220 buffer-face-mode. See "Face changes", under Editing Changes, for a
1221 description of face remapping.
1223 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
1224 See http://xkcd.com/378/
1226 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
1228 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
1229 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
1230 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
1232 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
1233 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
1234 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
1236 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
1238 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
1239 the postscript file.
1241 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
1242 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
1243 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
1244 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
1246 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
1247 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
1249 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
1252 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
1253 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
1254 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
1255 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
1258 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
1261 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
1262 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
1263 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
1265 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
1266 any invalid parts of your document.
1268 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
1269 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
1270 allowed by the schema in that context.
1272 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
1273 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
1274 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
1275 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
1276 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
1277 MS-Windows and Solaris.
1279 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
1280 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
1283 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
1285 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
1287 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
1288 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
1289 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
1290 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
1291 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
1292 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
1294 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
1295 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
1296 requires D-Bus for communication.
1298 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
1299 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
1300 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
1301 which have installed this software.
1303 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
1304 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
1305 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
1306 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
1307 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
1308 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
1309 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
1310 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
1311 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
1314 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
1316 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
1318 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
1319 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
1321 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
1323 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
1324 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
1326 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
1328 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
1330 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
1331 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
1333 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
1334 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
1335 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
1339 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
1341 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
1343 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
1344 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
1345 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
1349 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
1351 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
1352 `string', disabled by default.
1354 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
1355 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
1357 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
1361 *** bookmark.el saves bookmarks in a pre-Emacs-23-incompatible file format
1362 bookmark.el can read a .emacs.bmk file saved by an older Emacs, but an
1363 older Emacs cannot read one saved by Emacs 23.
1365 ** Calendar and diary
1367 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
1368 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
1369 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
1370 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
1372 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
1373 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
1374 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
1375 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
1376 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
1377 using the new names.
1379 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
1381 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
1382 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
1384 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
1385 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
1387 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
1388 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
1390 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
1391 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
1395 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
1396 associated with the current log entry.
1398 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
1399 source code associated with a log entry.
1401 ** Compile and grep modes
1403 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
1404 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
1405 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
1407 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
1408 the first error encountered during compilations.
1410 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
1411 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
1413 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
1414 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
1415 C++ sources and headers.
1419 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
1420 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
1421 considered for update.
1423 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
1424 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
1428 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
1429 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
1433 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
1434 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
1435 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
1437 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
1438 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
1439 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
1441 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
1442 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
1446 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
1447 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
1450 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
1451 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
1452 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
1455 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
1456 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
1457 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
1458 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
1459 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
1460 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
1461 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
1462 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
1464 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
1465 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
1466 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
1468 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
1469 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
1470 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
1471 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
1472 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
1473 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
1474 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
1478 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
1479 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
1481 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
1482 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
1484 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
1488 *** The Gnus package has been updated
1489 There are many new features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
1490 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
1492 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
1493 saving articles, drafts, and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
1494 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
1495 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
1497 *** Passwords are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
1498 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
1499 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
1500 authentication respectively.
1504 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
1505 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
1507 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
1508 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
1510 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits one to specify a new
1511 position for point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
1515 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
1516 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
1517 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
1518 while Isearch is active.
1520 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
1521 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
1522 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
1523 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
1524 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
1526 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
1527 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
1528 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
1530 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
1531 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
1532 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
1533 if there is one (e.g. going from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
1534 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
1536 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
1537 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
1540 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
1541 `isearch-fail' face.
1543 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
1544 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
1545 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
1546 documentation for Isearch mode. All the other Help commands exit
1547 Isearch mode and execute their global definitions.
1549 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
1550 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
1554 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.2. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1557 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
1558 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
1560 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
1561 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
1562 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
1563 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
1567 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
1568 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
1569 corresponding remote host.
1573 *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
1574 Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
1575 and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
1577 The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
1578 automatically converts it to mbox format. This is a one-time
1579 conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
1580 your machine and on the size of the file. You should find the rest of
1581 Rmail usage unaltered.
1583 However, M-x set-rmail-inbox-list now lasts only for one session
1584 because there is no way to save the list of inbox files in an
1587 Also, whereas with Babyl format M-x find-file would switch to Rmail
1588 mode, with mbox format this is no longer the case (there being no way
1589 to add an "-*- rmail-*-" cookie to an mbox file). Use C-u M-x rmail
1592 If you have written any extensions to Rmail, they are likely to need
1593 updating. Conceptually, the Rmail buffer that you see is no longer
1594 just a narrowed portion of the whole. So you cannot access the whole
1595 of a message (or message collection) by a simple save-restriction and
1596 widen. Instead, there are two buffers: the rmail-buffer, and the
1597 rmail-view-buffer. The former is the buffer that you see, the latter
1598 is invisible. Most of the time, the invisible `view' buffer contains
1599 the full contents of the Rmail file, and the Rmail buffer contains a
1600 decoded copy of the current message (with only a subset of the
1601 headers). In this state, Rmail is said to be `swapped'.
1603 You may find the following functions useful:
1605 `rmail-get-header' and `rmail-set-header' get or set the value of a
1606 message header, whether or not it is currently visible.
1608 `rmail-apply-in-message' is a general purpose function that calls a
1609 function (with arguments) which you specify on the full text of a given
1610 message. To further narrow to just the headers, search forward for "\n\n".
1612 *** The new command `rmail-mime' displays MIME messages.
1613 It is bound to `v' in Rmail buffers and summaries. It displays plain
1614 text and multipart messages in a temporary buffer, and offers buttons
1615 to save attachments.
1617 *** The command `rmail-redecode-body' no longer accepts the optional arg RAW.
1618 Since Rmail now holds messages in their original undecoded form in a
1619 separate buffer, `rmail-redecode-body' no longer encodes the original
1620 message, and therefore there should be no need to avoid encoding it.
1622 *** The o command is now `rmail-output'. It is an all-purpose command
1623 for copying messages from Rmail and appending them to files. It
1624 handles Babyl-format files as well as mbox-format files, and it
1625 handles both kinds properly when they are visited in Emacs. It always
1626 copies the full headers of the message.
1628 *** The C-o command is now `rmail-output-as-seen'. It uses
1629 the message as displayed, appending it to an mbox file.
1631 *** The modified status of the Rmail buffer is reported in the mode-line.
1632 Previously, this information was hidden.
1636 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
1637 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
1642 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
1643 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
1644 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
1645 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
1650 *** New connection methods.
1651 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
1652 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
1653 "tunnel" and "socks".
1656 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
1657 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
1659 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
1660 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead, multi hops
1661 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
1663 *** More default settings.
1664 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
1665 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
1667 *** Connection information is cached.
1668 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
1669 connections is kept persistently in a file. The name of this file is
1670 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
1672 *** Control of remote processes.
1673 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
1674 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
1676 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
1677 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
1678 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
1680 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
1681 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
1684 ** VC and related modes
1686 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
1687 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
1688 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
1689 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
1692 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
1693 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
1694 directory or a set of files/directories.
1696 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
1697 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
1698 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
1699 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
1700 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
1701 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
1702 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
1704 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
1706 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
1708 *** In VC Annotate mode, the key bindings have changed to use lower
1709 case keys instead of the upper case keys used in the past.
1711 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1712 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1713 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
1714 line" menu entry does the same thing.
1716 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
1718 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1721 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1722 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1725 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1726 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1727 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1729 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1730 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1731 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1733 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1735 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1737 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of a maintainer able
1738 to update it to the new VC.
1742 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1743 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1744 on the corresponding remote system.
1746 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1747 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1749 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1750 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1751 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1753 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1754 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1756 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1757 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1759 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1761 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1762 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1764 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1765 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1767 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supersedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1769 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1770 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1772 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1773 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1775 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1777 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1779 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1780 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1781 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1783 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1785 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1786 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1789 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1790 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1791 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1792 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1794 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1795 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1797 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1798 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1801 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1803 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1804 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1805 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1806 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1807 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1809 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1810 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1811 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1812 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1813 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1815 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1816 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1817 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1819 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1820 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1821 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1822 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1823 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1825 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1826 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1827 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1828 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1829 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1831 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1832 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1833 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1834 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1835 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1836 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1838 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1839 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1840 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1841 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1842 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1843 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1844 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1845 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1846 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1849 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1851 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1853 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1854 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1856 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1857 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1858 that range have the same value.
1862 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1864 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1865 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1866 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1869 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1870 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1871 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1872 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1873 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1874 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1875 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1877 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1878 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1880 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1881 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1883 ** Internationalization changes
1885 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1887 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1890 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1891 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1892 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1894 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1895 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1896 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1898 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1899 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1901 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1902 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1904 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1905 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1907 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1908 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1910 *** The meaning of NAME argument of `set-fontset-font' is changed.
1911 Previously nil is accepted as the default fontset. Now, nil is for
1912 the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the default fontset.
1914 *** The meaning of FONTSET argument of `print-fontset' is changed.
1915 Now, nil is for the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the
1918 ** If a function in write-region-annotate-functions returns with a
1919 different buffer current, Emacs no longer kills that buffer
1920 automatically. This behavior existed in previous versions of Emacs,
1921 but was undocumented. To kill a buffer after write-region, give the
1922 variable `write-region-post-annotation-function' a buffer-local value
1925 ** The variable temp-file-name-pattern has been removed.
1926 This variable was only used by call-process-region, which now uses
1927 temporary-file-directory instead.
1929 ** The COUNT and SYSTEM-FLAG arguments to define-abbrev have been
1930 removed. The function now takes extra arguments for specifying
1931 arbitrary abbrev properties.
1933 ** end-of-defun-function is now guaranteed to work only when called
1934 from the start of a defun. It must now leave point exactly at the end
1935 of defun, since `end-of-defun' now itself moves forward over
1936 whitespace after calling it.
1939 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1941 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1942 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1943 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1944 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1945 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1948 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `process-attributes'
1949 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1950 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1951 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1952 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1954 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1955 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1957 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1958 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1959 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1961 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1964 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1965 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1966 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1967 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1969 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1971 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1972 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1973 strings on the kill ring.
1975 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1976 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1981 ((debug error) nil))
1983 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1985 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count given to
1986 `beginning-of-defun'. (N.B. `end-of-defun-function' doesn't take any
1989 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1990 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1991 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1992 remote connection has been established already.
1994 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1995 undefined functions.
1997 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1999 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
2000 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
2001 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
2003 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
2004 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
2005 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
2007 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
2008 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
2009 interactive forms to subroutines.
2013 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
2014 an active region that they should operate on.
2016 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
2017 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
2018 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
2019 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
2020 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
2022 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
2023 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
2024 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
2025 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
2026 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
2028 ** Emacs session information
2030 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
2031 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
2033 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
2035 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
2036 Emacs initialization.
2038 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
2040 *** display-buffer tries to be smarter when splitting windows.
2041 The new option split-window-preferred-function lets you specify your own
2042 function to pop up new windows. Its default value split-window-sensibly
2043 can split a window either vertically or horizontally, whichever seems
2044 more suitable in the current configuration. You can tune the behavior
2045 of split-window-sensibly by customizing split-height-threshold and the
2046 new option split-width-threshold. Both options now take the value nil
2047 to inhibit splitting in one direction. Setting split-width-threshold to
2048 nil inhibits horizontal splitting and gets you the behavior of Emacs 22
2049 in this respect. In any case, display-buffer may now split the largest
2050 window vertically even when it is not as wide as the containing frame.
2052 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
2053 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
2055 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have a new optional
2056 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
2057 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
2059 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
2060 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
2063 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
2064 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
2066 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
2068 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
2069 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
2070 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
2071 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
2072 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
2074 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
2075 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
2076 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
2078 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
2079 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
2081 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
2082 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
2084 ** Search and replacement changes
2086 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
2088 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
2089 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
2091 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
2092 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
2093 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
2096 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
2097 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
2098 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
2099 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
2100 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
2102 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
2103 for search related commands.
2105 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
2106 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
2108 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
2109 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
2111 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
2112 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
2113 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
2114 unless it ends in whitespace.
2116 ** File handling changes
2118 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
2119 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
2121 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
2122 variables defined in the current buffer.
2126 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
2127 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
2128 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
2129 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
2130 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
2132 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
2133 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
2134 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
2135 Editing Changes, above).
2139 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
2142 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
2145 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
2147 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
2151 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
2152 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
2153 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
2154 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
2155 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
2157 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
2158 returns its output as a list of lines.
2160 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
2162 *** In multibyte buffers and strings, characters are represented by
2163 UTF-8 byte sequences. The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF
2164 with no gap; code points 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the
2165 same code points, while code points 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit
2168 *** Generic characters no longer exist.
2170 *** The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may
2171 belong to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
2172 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
2174 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
2175 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
2177 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
2178 characters for display.
2180 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
2181 positional codes instead of just 2.
2183 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
2185 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
2186 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
2188 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
2189 priorities of charsets.
2191 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
2192 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
2193 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
2194 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
2195 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
2198 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
2199 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
2200 entries in that range of characters.
2202 *** Use of `translation-table-for-input' for character code unification
2203 is now obsolete, since Emacs 23.1 and later uses Unicode as basis for
2204 internal representation of characters.
2208 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
2209 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
2211 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
2213 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
2215 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
2217 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
2219 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
2221 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
2223 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
2224 a character code property.
2228 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
2229 search for a word boundary.
2231 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
2233 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
2235 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
2236 property on printing a string.
2238 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
2240 ** Code conversion changes
2242 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
2243 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
2245 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
2246 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
2247 conversion should go.
2249 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
2250 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
2253 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
2254 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
2255 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
2258 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
2262 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
2263 coding system priority order.
2265 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
2266 encodable by the specified coding systems.
2268 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
2270 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
2273 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
2274 ordered by their priorities.
2276 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
2278 **** `coding-system-from-name' returns a coding system matching with
2281 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
2282 It has three functionalities:
2283 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
2284 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
2285 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
2286 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
2288 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
2290 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
2292 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
2295 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
2296 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
2299 ** Changes related to the new font backend
2301 *** Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource
2302 "FontBackend". For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
2304 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
2306 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
2307 available on your graphic device.
2309 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
2310 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
2311 currently `x' and `xft'.
2313 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
2314 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
2319 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
2321 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
2323 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
2325 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
2327 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
2329 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
2331 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
2333 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
2335 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
2336 entity, or font object.
2338 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
2340 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
2342 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
2343 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
2345 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
2347 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
2348 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
2349 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
2350 takes a frame argument.
2352 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
2353 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
2355 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
2356 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
2358 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
2361 *** A new `terminal' data type.
2362 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
2363 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
2365 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
2366 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
2367 which is not used directly any more.
2371 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
2372 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
2373 file-local variables.
2375 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
2376 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
2377 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
2378 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
2380 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
2381 deleting a terminal.
2385 **** `delete-terminal'
2391 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
2393 ** Redisplay changes
2395 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
2396 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
2398 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
2399 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
2400 This is convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer
2401 position (e.g. in before/after-strings).
2403 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
2405 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
2406 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
2407 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
2408 times the default column width.
2410 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
2411 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
2414 *** The new variables `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' specify display
2415 specs which are appended at display-time to every continuation line
2416 and non-continuation line, respectively. In addition, Emacs
2417 recognizes the `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' text or overlay
2418 properties; these have the same effects as the variables of the same
2419 name, but take precedence.
2421 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
2423 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2425 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
2427 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
2428 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
2430 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
2431 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
2432 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
2433 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
2435 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
2436 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
2438 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
2439 attributes of a given face.
2441 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
2442 string of days, hours, etc.
2444 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
2447 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
2448 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
2449 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
2451 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
2453 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
2454 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
2456 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
2457 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
2458 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
2460 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
2461 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
2464 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
2465 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
2466 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
2468 ** Miscellaneous new variables
2470 *** `auto-save-include-big-deletions', if non-nil, means auto-save is
2471 not turned off automatically after a big deletion.
2473 *** `read-circle', if nil, disables the reading of recursive Lisp
2474 structures using the #N= and #N# syntax.
2476 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
2477 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
2479 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
2480 marker used for window-point.
2482 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
2483 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
2486 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
2487 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
2490 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
2492 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
2494 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
2495 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
2497 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
2499 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
2500 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
2501 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
2502 of multiple buffers. Top-level functions `multi-isearch-buffers',
2503 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
2504 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
2505 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
2507 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
2508 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
2511 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2512 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2514 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2515 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2516 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2517 (at your option) any later version.
2519 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2520 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2521 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2522 GNU General Public License for more details.
2524 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2525 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2530 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"