1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 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 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
51 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available
52 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
53 automatically select it.
56 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
58 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
59 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
60 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
62 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
63 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
65 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used.
68 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
70 ** emacsclient changes
72 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
73 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
74 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
77 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
79 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
80 error, its exit status is 1.
82 ** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
84 ** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
85 `completing-read-function'
87 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
90 ** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
92 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
93 initial documentation.
95 To turn this on in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
96 `bidi-display-reordering' to a non-nil value. The default is nil.
98 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
99 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
100 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
101 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
102 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
103 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
105 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
106 value of paragraph base direction at point.
108 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
109 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
112 Note that some advanced display features, such as overlay strings and
113 `display' text properties, do not yet work correctly when
114 bidirectional text is reordered for display.
116 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
117 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
119 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
120 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
121 is taken from the desktop settings.
123 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
124 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
125 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
128 ** ImageMagick support.
129 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
130 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
131 libraries if they are present at build time. To disable this, use
132 the configure option `--without-imagemagick'.
134 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
135 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
136 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
137 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
139 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
141 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
142 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
144 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
145 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
147 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
148 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
149 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
152 ** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts
153 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
154 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
155 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
156 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
157 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
158 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
160 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
161 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
163 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
165 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
166 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
168 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
169 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
170 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
171 context in their return values.
173 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
174 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
176 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
177 for remote machines which support SELinux.
180 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
181 higher-resolution time stamps.
183 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
184 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
186 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
187 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
188 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
190 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
191 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
192 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
193 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
195 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
196 scroll a line instead of full screen.
198 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
199 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
203 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
204 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
206 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
207 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
209 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
210 for `list-colors-display'.
212 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
213 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
214 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
216 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
217 selected for installation.
219 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
221 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
222 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
223 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
224 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
226 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
227 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
228 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
232 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
234 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
235 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
236 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
237 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
239 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
240 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
241 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
242 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
244 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
245 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
247 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
248 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
250 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
253 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
258 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
262 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
265 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
267 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
269 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
271 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
272 also deletes newlines around point.
276 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
277 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
278 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
281 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to C-d and [delete].
282 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
283 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
285 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
286 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
287 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
288 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
290 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
292 ** Selection changes.
294 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
295 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
296 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
297 use the primary selection.
299 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
300 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
302 *** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
303 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
304 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
305 the kill-ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
306 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
308 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
309 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
310 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
311 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
312 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
314 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
315 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
316 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
318 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
319 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
320 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
321 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
323 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
324 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
326 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
327 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
328 between applications.
330 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
332 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
333 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
334 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
335 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
337 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
339 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
340 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
341 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
343 ** The command shell prompts for the shell path name, when the default
344 directory is a remote file name and neither environment variable
345 $ESHELL nor variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
348 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
350 ** The compile.el mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
351 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
353 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
355 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
356 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
357 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
359 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
360 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
362 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
364 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
366 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
368 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse 7z archives.
370 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
371 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
373 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers, in certain modes
374 (eg dired, vc-dir, log-edit). For example, adding
375 "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your .dir-locals.el file,
376 will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should
377 call `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
380 ** You can prevent directory local variables from applying to subdirectories.
381 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
382 settings to indicate said section should not be applied to subdirectories.
386 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
387 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
388 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
389 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
392 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
393 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
394 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
395 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
399 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
400 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
401 exists, that is used instead.
403 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
404 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
406 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
407 You can get a comparable behavior with:
408 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
409 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
411 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
413 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
415 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
417 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
420 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
421 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
424 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
425 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
426 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
429 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
430 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
434 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
435 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
436 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
438 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
439 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
441 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
443 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
444 choose a color via list-colors-display.
448 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
449 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
452 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
453 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
455 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
457 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
459 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
460 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
461 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
462 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
465 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
466 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
467 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
468 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
469 creating the session.
471 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
472 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
473 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
474 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
475 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
477 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
478 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
479 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
480 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
481 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
482 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
483 `sql-send-*' functions.
485 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
486 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
487 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
488 connection is established.
490 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
491 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
492 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
493 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
494 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
495 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
496 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
497 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
498 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
499 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
500 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
501 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
504 (database :default DEF
506 :completion COMPLETE)
509 :completion COMPLETE)
511 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
512 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
513 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
515 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
516 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
517 possible values or a function returning such a list).
519 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
520 An alist for recording different username, database and server
521 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
522 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
524 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
526 (setq sql-connection-alist
527 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
528 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
529 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
531 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
533 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
535 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
536 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
537 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
538 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
540 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
541 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
542 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
543 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
544 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
546 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
547 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
548 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
549 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
552 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
553 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
554 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
555 session and save them as a new connection.
557 *** List database objects and details.
558 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
559 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
560 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
562 **** List all objects.
563 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
564 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
565 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceding the command by
566 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
567 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
568 separate window in view-mode.
570 **** List Table details.
571 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
572 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
573 the list of columns in the relation. Preceding the command with the
574 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
575 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
577 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
578 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
579 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
581 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
582 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
583 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
584 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
585 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
587 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
588 This prevents the command interpreter for MySQL and Postgres from
589 listing object name completions when being sent text via
590 `sql-send-*' functions.
592 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
594 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
596 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
597 superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
598 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
601 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
602 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
603 threads simultaneously.
607 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
608 system or session bus.
610 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
611 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
614 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
615 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
619 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
621 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
622 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
624 ** VC and related modes
626 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
627 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
628 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
629 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
631 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
633 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
635 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
636 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
637 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
638 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
640 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
642 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
643 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
644 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
645 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
647 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
649 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
650 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
655 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
657 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
660 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
662 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
663 and electric-layout-mode.
665 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
667 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
668 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
669 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
670 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
673 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
674 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
676 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
677 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
679 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
682 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
684 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
685 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
686 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
687 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
689 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
690 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
691 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
692 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
694 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
695 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
696 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
699 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
701 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
703 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
704 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
705 programmer-visible consequences.
707 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
710 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
711 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
712 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
713 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
714 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
715 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
717 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
718 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
719 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
720 has now been removed.
722 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
724 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
726 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
727 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
728 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
729 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
730 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
731 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
732 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
735 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
737 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
738 font-lock-defaults-alist
740 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
741 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
743 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
746 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
748 ** byte-compile-disable-print-circle is obsolete.
749 ** deferred-action-list and deferred-action-function are obsolete.
750 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
751 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
752 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
753 jumping all the way to the top-level.
755 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
756 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
758 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
759 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
760 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
763 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
764 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
765 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
766 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
767 Together with this new variable come a new hook
768 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
769 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
770 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
773 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
776 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
777 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
778 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
779 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
781 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
782 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
783 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
784 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
786 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
788 ** New completion style `substring'.
790 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
791 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
792 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
795 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
796 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
797 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
801 *** When the image type is one of listed in `image-animated-types'
802 and the number of sub-images in the image is more than one, then the
803 new function `create-animated-image' creates an animated image where
804 sub-images are displayed successively with the duration defined by
805 `image-animate-max-time' and the delay between sub-images defined
806 by the Graphic Control Extension of the image.
808 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
810 ** XML and HTML parsing
812 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
813 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
814 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
815 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
816 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
818 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
824 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
826 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
827 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
828 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
829 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
830 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
831 displayed with a "spinning bar".
834 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
836 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
839 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
840 included in binary distribution.
842 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
845 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
846 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
848 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
849 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
850 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
851 (at your option) any later version.
853 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
854 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
855 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
856 GNU General Public License for more details.
858 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
859 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
864 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"