1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2006-05-31
3 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
4 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5 See the end of the file for license conditions.
8 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
9 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
11 This file is about changes in emacs version 20.
15 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
17 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
20 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
22 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
24 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
25 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
26 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
27 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
28 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
30 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
35 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
37 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
41 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
43 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
44 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
48 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
50 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
52 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
53 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
54 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
56 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
57 is the one that is used.
59 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
60 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
61 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
62 separate from the command's regular output.
63 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
64 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
65 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
68 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
69 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
70 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
71 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
73 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
74 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
75 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
76 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
78 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
79 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
80 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
81 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
83 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
84 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
85 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
86 they never ignore case.
88 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
89 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
90 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
91 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
92 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
93 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
94 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
96 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
97 the same format that was used in the file before.
99 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
100 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
102 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
103 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
104 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
106 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
107 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
108 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
109 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
110 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
111 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
112 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
114 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
115 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
116 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
117 format. You can now customize these variables.
119 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
120 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
121 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
122 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
124 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
125 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
126 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
128 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
129 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
130 doesn't have any effect.
132 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
135 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
136 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
137 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
139 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
140 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
141 `auto-show-mode' command.
143 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
144 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
145 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
146 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
147 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
149 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
150 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
152 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
153 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
154 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
156 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
157 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
158 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
159 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
161 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
163 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
164 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
165 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
166 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
167 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
169 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
170 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
172 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
173 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
174 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
175 `?' on other systems.
177 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
178 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
181 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
182 current codepage when it starts.
186 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
187 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
188 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
189 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
190 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
191 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
195 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
196 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
198 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
199 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
200 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
201 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
202 buffer-file-coding-system.
204 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
205 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
208 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
209 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
210 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
211 list of possible coding systems.
215 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
216 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
217 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
218 docstring for details.
220 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
221 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
222 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
223 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
224 lineup functions use this feature currently.
226 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
227 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
229 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
230 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
232 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
233 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
234 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
235 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
238 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
239 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
241 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
242 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
243 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
244 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
246 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
247 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
248 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
249 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
250 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
252 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
254 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
256 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
257 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
259 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
261 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
262 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
263 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
264 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
265 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
269 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
270 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
271 Gnus manual for the full story.
273 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
274 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
275 group, which is created automatically.
277 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
280 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
282 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
283 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
285 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
288 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
290 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
291 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
293 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
295 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
296 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
298 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
299 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
301 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
302 control over simplification.
304 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
306 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
309 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
311 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
313 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
314 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
315 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
317 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
318 `a' forces normal posting method.
320 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
323 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
326 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
327 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
329 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
332 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
334 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
336 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
337 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
339 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
340 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
342 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
344 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
347 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
348 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
350 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
351 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
353 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
355 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
357 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
359 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
361 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
362 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
363 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
365 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
366 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
367 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
368 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
369 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
371 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
372 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
373 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
374 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
376 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
377 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
378 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
381 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
383 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
384 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
386 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
387 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
388 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
389 removed from the label.
391 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
392 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
394 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
395 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
397 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
398 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
401 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
403 ** New/deleted modes and packages
405 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
406 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
408 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
409 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
410 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
412 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
413 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
414 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
417 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
419 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
420 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
421 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
422 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
423 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
425 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
426 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
427 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
429 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
430 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
431 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
432 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
433 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
434 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
435 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
436 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
437 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
439 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
440 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
441 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
442 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
443 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
446 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
447 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
448 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
449 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
450 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
451 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
453 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
454 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
455 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
456 was not documented clearly before.
458 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
459 This includes Tetris and Snake.
462 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
464 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
465 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
466 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
467 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
469 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
470 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
471 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
473 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
475 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
476 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
478 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
479 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
482 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
483 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
484 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
485 file names and attributes are returned.
487 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
488 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
489 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
490 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
493 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
494 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
496 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
498 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
499 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
500 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
503 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
504 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
507 The new function process-running-child-p
508 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
509 terminal to its own child process.
511 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
512 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
513 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
514 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
516 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
517 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
519 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
520 :included is an alias for :visible.
522 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
523 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
524 to move or copy menu entries.
526 ** Multibyte editing changes
528 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
529 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
530 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
531 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
532 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
533 (setq char (sref str idx)
534 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
535 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
537 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
538 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
539 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
541 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
542 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
543 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
545 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
547 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
550 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
551 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
552 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
553 contains 8-bit characters.
554 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
555 contains invalid characters.
557 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
558 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
559 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
560 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
563 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
564 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
565 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
566 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
568 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
569 compose Thai characters in a string.
571 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
572 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
573 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
574 menus should always use the third argument.
576 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
577 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
578 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
579 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
581 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
582 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
583 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
584 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
586 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
587 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
588 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
591 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
593 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
594 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
595 requested feature cannot be loaded.
597 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
598 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
599 means to clear out that attribute.
601 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
602 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
604 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
605 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
606 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
607 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
609 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
610 the gap of the current buffer.
612 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
613 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
616 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
617 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
618 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
619 it back in after any modifications have been made.
623 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
625 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
626 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
627 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
628 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
629 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
631 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
632 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
633 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
634 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
635 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
637 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
638 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
639 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
641 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
642 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
643 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
644 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
645 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
648 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
649 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
650 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
651 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
654 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
656 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
657 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
658 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
659 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
661 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
662 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
663 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
664 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
665 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
666 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
667 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
670 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
673 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
674 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
675 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
676 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
677 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
679 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
680 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
681 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
682 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
684 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
685 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
686 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
687 something that most users not do.
689 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
690 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
691 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
694 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
697 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
698 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
699 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
700 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
703 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
704 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
705 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
706 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
707 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
710 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
711 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
712 to be confused by TeX commands.
714 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
715 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
716 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
717 of various alternative replacements and actions.
719 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
720 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
721 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
722 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
723 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
725 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
726 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
728 ** Changes in input method usage.
730 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
731 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
734 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
736 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
737 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
739 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
740 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
742 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
744 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
746 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
747 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
749 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
750 given in the following case:
751 o When you are using a complex input method.
752 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
754 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
755 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
756 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
757 setting it to t is helpful.
759 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
761 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
763 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
764 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
765 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
766 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
769 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
770 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
771 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
776 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
778 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
779 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
781 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
782 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
785 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
786 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
788 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
789 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
791 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
792 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
793 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
794 by the left edge of the rectangle.
796 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
797 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
798 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
799 for writing keyboard macros.
801 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
802 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
803 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
804 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
805 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
808 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
810 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
811 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
814 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
815 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
816 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
817 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
819 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
820 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
821 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
823 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
824 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
825 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
826 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
828 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
829 failure if the command produces no output.
831 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
832 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
835 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
836 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
837 function and variable names.
839 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
840 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
841 file-coding-system-alist.
843 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
844 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
845 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
846 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
847 according to the current fontset.
849 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
851 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
852 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
853 nonascii-insert-offset.
855 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
856 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
857 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
858 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
860 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
861 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
863 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
864 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
866 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
867 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
870 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
871 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
873 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
874 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
875 all variables that have documentation.
877 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
878 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
879 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
880 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
881 it should show; the default is 20.
883 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
884 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
887 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
888 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
889 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
890 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
891 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
892 Newly added options are included as well.
894 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
895 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
896 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
898 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
901 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
902 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
904 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
905 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
908 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
909 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
912 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
913 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
914 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
915 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
918 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
920 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
921 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
922 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
924 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
925 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
926 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
931 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
932 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
934 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
935 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
937 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
938 read and post multi-lingual articles.
940 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
941 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
942 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
943 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
944 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
945 made invisible again.
947 ** Mail reading and sending changes
949 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
950 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
951 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
954 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
955 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
956 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
957 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
958 rmail-default-body-file.
960 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
961 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
962 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
964 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
965 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
966 is evaluated to insert the signature.
968 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
969 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
970 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
971 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
972 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
973 especially interested in trying feedmail.
975 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
976 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
977 provided by feedmail are:
979 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
980 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
981 there is also a queue for draft messages
983 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
984 be prompted for confirmation
986 **** does smart filling of address headers
988 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
989 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
990 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
992 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
993 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
994 /usr/lib/sendmail, and Emacs Lisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
995 function for something else (10-20 lines of Lisp code).
999 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
1000 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
1002 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
1003 run Dired on the directory name at point.
1005 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
1006 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
1007 for a specified regexp.
1011 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
1014 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
1015 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
1018 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
1019 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
1020 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
1021 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
1023 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
1024 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
1025 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
1026 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
1027 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
1029 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
1030 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
1031 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
1032 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
1033 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
1035 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
1036 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
1037 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
1038 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
1040 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
1041 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
1042 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
1044 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
1045 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
1046 session to resolve them.
1048 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
1049 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
1050 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
1053 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
1054 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
1055 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
1056 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
1057 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
1058 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
1061 ** Changes in Font Lock
1063 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
1064 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
1065 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
1066 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
1067 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
1069 ** Frame name display changes
1071 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
1072 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
1073 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
1074 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
1076 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
1077 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
1080 ** Comint (subshell) changes
1082 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
1083 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
1084 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
1086 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
1088 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
1089 that is, the line after the last line you got.
1090 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
1092 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
1093 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
1096 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
1097 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
1098 previously sent input.
1100 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
1101 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
1102 as the search string.
1104 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
1105 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
1109 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
1110 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
1111 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
1114 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
1115 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
1116 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
1117 style is still the default however.
1119 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
1121 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
1122 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
1123 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
1125 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
1126 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
1128 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
1129 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
1131 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
1132 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
1134 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
1135 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
1137 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
1138 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
1139 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
1140 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
1142 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
1144 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
1145 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
1146 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
1148 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
1149 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
1150 expanding dynamically.
1152 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
1153 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
1155 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
1156 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
1157 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
1158 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
1160 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
1162 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
1164 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
1165 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
1166 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
1167 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
1168 against the first word in the title.
1170 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
1171 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
1172 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
1173 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
1174 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
1175 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
1177 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
1178 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
1179 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
1180 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
1182 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
1184 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
1185 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
1186 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
1187 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
1188 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
1189 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
1191 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
1192 Editing group once the package is loaded.
1194 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
1195 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
1196 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
1198 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
1199 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
1203 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
1204 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
1205 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
1207 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
1208 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
1209 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
1210 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
1213 o URLs are automatically skipped
1214 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
1216 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
1218 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
1220 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
1221 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
1222 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
1223 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
1225 *** New recursive parser.
1227 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
1228 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
1229 recursive parser scans the individual files.
1231 *** Parsing only part of a document.
1233 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
1234 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
1235 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
1237 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
1239 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
1241 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
1243 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
1245 *** Using multiple selection buffers
1247 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
1248 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
1250 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
1252 *** References to external documents.
1254 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
1255 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
1256 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
1257 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
1258 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
1259 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
1260 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
1262 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
1264 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
1265 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
1267 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
1268 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
1270 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
1272 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
1273 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
1275 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
1277 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
1278 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
1279 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
1280 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
1281 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
1282 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
1285 *** Support for the varioref package
1287 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
1291 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
1292 and citations are created. These hooks are
1293 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
1294 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
1296 *** Citations outside LaTeX
1298 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
1299 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
1301 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
1303 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
1304 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
1307 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
1309 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
1310 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
1311 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
1312 directories that contain the same file name.
1314 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
1315 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
1316 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
1317 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
1318 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
1319 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
1320 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
1323 ** New modes and packages
1325 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
1326 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
1327 it, but some do not.
1329 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
1332 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
1333 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
1336 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
1338 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
1339 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
1340 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
1341 established system of notation similar to Chess.
1343 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
1344 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
1345 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
1347 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
1348 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
1349 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc.); others are implementations of
1350 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
1351 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
1354 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
1355 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
1357 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
1358 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
1359 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
1360 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
1362 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
1364 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
1365 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
1366 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
1367 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
1368 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc.)
1369 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
1370 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
1371 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
1372 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
1373 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
1374 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
1376 Platform-specific modes:
1378 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
1379 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
1380 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
1381 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
1382 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
1383 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
1384 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
1385 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
1386 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
1389 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
1391 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
1392 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
1393 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
1394 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
1396 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
1397 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
1398 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
1400 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
1401 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
1402 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
1403 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
1405 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
1406 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
1407 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
1410 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
1411 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
1412 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
1413 current input method for reading this one event.
1415 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
1416 now control whether to output certain characters as
1417 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
1418 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
1419 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
1420 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
1423 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
1425 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
1426 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
1428 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
1429 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
1430 always increases point by 1.
1432 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
1433 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
1435 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
1437 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
1438 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
1439 default value changed. For example,
1441 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
1446 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
1449 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
1450 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
1451 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
1452 `:version' in the top level group.
1454 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
1456 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
1457 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
1459 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
1460 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
1461 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
1464 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
1465 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
1468 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
1469 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
1470 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
1472 ** Frame-local variables.
1474 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
1475 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
1476 local bindings for that variable.
1478 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
1479 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
1480 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
1483 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
1484 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
1485 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
1486 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
1488 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
1489 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
1490 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
1491 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
1493 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
1494 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
1495 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
1496 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
1497 See the documentation in sregex.el.
1499 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
1500 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
1501 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
1502 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
1504 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
1505 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
1507 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
1508 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
1509 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
1511 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
1512 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
1513 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
1514 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
1516 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
1517 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
1520 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
1521 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
1522 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
1523 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
1524 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
1526 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
1527 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
1528 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
1529 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
1531 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
1532 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
1533 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
1534 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
1535 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
1537 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
1538 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
1539 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
1540 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
1542 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
1543 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
1544 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
1546 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
1547 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
1548 was directed to display this buffer.
1550 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
1551 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
1552 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
1553 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
1554 set-window-configuration.
1556 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
1557 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
1558 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
1559 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
1561 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
1562 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
1563 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
1565 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
1566 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
1567 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
1569 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
1570 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
1572 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
1573 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
1575 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
1576 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
1577 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
1579 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
1580 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
1581 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
1582 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
1586 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
1587 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
1590 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
1591 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
1592 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
1593 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
1594 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
1596 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
1598 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
1599 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
1600 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
1601 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
1604 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
1605 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
1606 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
1607 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
1608 The supported properties include
1610 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
1612 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
1613 item should appear in the menu.
1615 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
1616 which will be REAL-BINDING.
1617 It should return a binding to use instead.
1619 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
1620 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
1621 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
1622 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
1623 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
1626 This means that the command normally has no
1627 keyboard equivalent.
1628 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
1629 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
1630 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
1631 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
1632 value says whether this button is currently selected.
1634 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
1635 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
1637 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
1641 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
1642 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
1643 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
1644 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
1646 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
1648 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
1649 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
1650 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
1651 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
1652 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
1653 forward, away from the user.
1655 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
1657 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
1658 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
1659 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
1660 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
1661 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
1663 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
1665 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
1666 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
1667 that were dragged and dropped.
1669 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
1671 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
1673 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
1674 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
1675 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
1677 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
1678 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
1679 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
1681 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
1682 in Emacs 19 and before.
1684 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
1685 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
1687 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
1688 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
1689 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
1690 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
1692 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
1693 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
1694 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
1695 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
1696 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
1698 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
1699 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
1700 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
1701 consistent with the new representation.
1703 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
1704 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
1705 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
1706 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
1708 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
1709 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
1710 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
1712 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
1713 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
1714 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
1716 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
1717 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
1718 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
1720 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
1721 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
1723 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
1724 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
1726 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
1727 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
1728 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
1729 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
1731 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
1732 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
1734 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
1735 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
1736 buffer or string being searched.
1738 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
1739 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
1740 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
1741 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
1742 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
1743 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
1744 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
1746 *** Structure of coding system changed.
1748 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
1749 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
1750 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
1751 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
1752 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
1753 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
1754 define-coding-system-alias.
1756 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
1757 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
1758 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
1759 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
1760 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
1761 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
1762 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
1765 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
1766 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
1767 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
1768 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
1770 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
1771 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
1772 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
1773 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
1775 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
1776 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
1777 This function requires a user interaction.
1779 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
1780 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
1781 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
1782 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
1783 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
1784 select-safe-coding-system.
1786 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
1787 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
1788 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
1791 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
1792 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
1793 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
1795 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
1796 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
1797 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
1798 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
1800 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
1801 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
1802 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
1805 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
1806 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
1808 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
1809 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
1810 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
1811 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
1812 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
1813 range of characters.
1815 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
1816 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
1818 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
1819 in the current buffer at position POS.
1821 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
1822 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
1823 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
1824 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
1825 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
1826 binding input-method-function to nil.
1828 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
1829 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
1830 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
1831 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
1832 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
1834 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
1835 subsequent events of a key sequence.
1837 *** You can customize any language environment by using
1838 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
1840 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
1841 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
1842 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
1843 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
1844 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
1848 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
1850 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
1851 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
1852 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
1855 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
1856 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
1858 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
1859 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
1860 in your .emacs file.)
1862 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
1863 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
1865 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
1866 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
1868 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
1869 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
1872 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
1873 delete the character before point, as usual.
1875 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
1876 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
1877 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
1879 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
1880 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
1881 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
1882 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
1883 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
1886 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
1887 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
1888 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
1889 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
1890 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
1892 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
1893 and is an alias for it.
1895 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
1896 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
1898 ** Scrolling changes
1900 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
1901 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
1903 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
1904 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
1907 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
1908 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
1909 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
1910 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
1912 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
1913 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
1914 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
1915 recenters the window.
1917 ** International character set support (MULE)
1919 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
1920 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
1921 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
1922 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
1923 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
1924 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
1926 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
1927 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
1928 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
1929 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
1930 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
1932 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
1933 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
1934 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
1935 language, to make it possible to type them.
1937 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
1938 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
1940 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
1941 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
1943 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
1945 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
1947 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
1948 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
1949 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
1950 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
1951 characters for their work until they want to change.
1955 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
1956 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
1957 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
1958 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
1959 support several input methods.
1961 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
1962 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
1965 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
1966 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
1967 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
1968 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
1969 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
1972 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
1973 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
1974 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
1975 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
1976 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
1978 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
1979 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
1980 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
1981 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
1983 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
1984 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
1985 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
1986 the first guess is wrong.
1988 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
1989 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
1991 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
1992 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
1993 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
1994 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
1996 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
1997 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
1998 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
1999 translate automatically to and from either one.
2001 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
2003 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
2004 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
2005 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
2008 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
2009 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
2010 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
2011 multibyte characters in that buffer.
2013 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
2014 character conversion as well.
2016 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
2018 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
2019 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
2020 requires using many fonts.
2022 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
2023 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
2025 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
2026 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
2027 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
2028 you would use a font.
2030 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
2031 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
2032 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
2034 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
2035 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
2038 *** Defining fontsets.
2040 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
2041 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
2042 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
2044 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
2045 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
2046 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
2047 standard fontset are created automatically.
2049 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
2050 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
2051 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
2052 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
2053 name is `fontset-startup'.
2055 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
2056 The resource value should have this form:
2057 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
2058 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
2059 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
2060 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
2061 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
2062 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
2063 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
2064 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
2065 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
2067 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
2068 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
2069 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
2071 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
2072 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
2074 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
2075 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
2076 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
2077 Here is the substitution rule:
2078 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
2079 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
2080 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
2081 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
2082 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
2084 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
2085 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
2086 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
2088 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
2089 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
2090 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
2091 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
2094 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
2095 defaults for a particular choice of language.
2097 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
2098 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
2099 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
2100 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
2101 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
2102 system for new files that you create.
2104 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
2105 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
2106 whole Emacs session.
2108 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
2109 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
2110 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
2112 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
2113 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
2114 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
2115 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
2116 coding systems that Emacs supports.
2118 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
2119 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
2120 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
2121 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
2122 is used for *the immediately following command*.
2124 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
2125 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
2127 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
2128 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
2130 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
2131 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
2133 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
2134 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
2135 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
2136 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
2139 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
2140 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
2141 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
2142 translated into that character code.
2144 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
2145 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
2147 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
2149 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
2150 the coding system for keyboard input.
2152 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
2153 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
2154 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
2156 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
2158 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
2159 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
2160 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
2161 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
2162 designed to work with terminals.
2164 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
2165 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
2166 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
2167 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
2168 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
2169 in the corresponding buffer.
2171 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
2173 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
2174 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
2175 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
2177 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
2178 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
2179 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
2182 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
2183 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
2185 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
2186 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
2187 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
2188 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
2190 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
2191 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
2192 related information.
2194 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
2195 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
2198 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
2199 information about the support for a particular language.
2200 You specify the language as an argument.
2202 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
2203 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
2206 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
2207 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
2208 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
2209 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
2211 A alternativnyj (Russian)
2213 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
2214 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
2215 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
2216 E euc-japan (Japanese)
2217 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
2218 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
2219 K euc-korea (Korean)
2222 S shift_jis (Japanese)
2225 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
2226 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
2227 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
2231 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
2232 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
2233 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
2234 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
2236 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
2237 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
2239 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
2240 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
2241 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
2242 Rmail files themselves.
2244 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
2245 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
2247 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
2250 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
2251 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
2252 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
2253 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
2254 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
2256 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
2257 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
2258 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
2261 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
2262 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
2263 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
2264 without any conversion.
2266 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
2267 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
2268 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
2269 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
2271 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
2272 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
2274 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
2275 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
2277 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
2278 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
2280 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
2281 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
2282 in the buffer before point.
2284 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
2285 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
2288 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
2289 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
2291 ** File locking works with NFS now.
2293 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
2294 in the same directory as FILENAME.
2296 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
2297 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
2298 can become a bottleneck.
2300 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
2301 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
2302 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
2303 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
2304 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
2305 so useful that the change is worth while.
2307 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
2308 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
2309 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
2310 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
2312 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
2313 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
2316 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
2317 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
2318 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
2320 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
2321 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
2322 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
2324 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
2325 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
2326 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
2328 ** Changes in View mode.
2330 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
2331 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
2333 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
2334 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
2336 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
2339 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
2340 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
2342 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
2343 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
2344 not just the selected window.
2346 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
2347 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
2348 turns View mode on or off.
2350 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
2351 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
2352 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
2354 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
2355 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
2357 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
2358 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
2359 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
2360 which version to compare with.
2362 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
2363 blocks if a match is inside the block.
2365 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
2366 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
2367 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
2368 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
2370 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
2371 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
2372 blocks, all of them or none.
2374 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
2375 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
2378 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
2379 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
2380 However, the mode will not be changed if
2381 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
2382 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
2383 not suitable for ordinary files, or
2384 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
2386 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
2388 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
2389 these commands do not change the major mode.
2391 ** M-x occur changes.
2393 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
2394 it performs a case-sensitive search.
2396 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
2397 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
2398 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
2400 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
2401 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
2402 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
2403 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
2404 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
2406 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
2407 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
2408 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
2409 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
2411 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
2412 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
2413 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
2415 ** Outline mode changes.
2417 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
2419 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
2421 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
2422 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
2423 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
2426 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
2427 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
2430 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
2431 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
2433 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
2435 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
2436 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
2437 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
2438 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
2440 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
2441 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
2442 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
2444 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
2445 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
2448 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
2449 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
2450 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
2451 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
2453 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
2454 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
2455 can be. The default value is 30.
2457 ** Changes in Mail mode.
2459 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
2460 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
2461 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
2462 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
2463 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
2466 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
2467 compose-mail-other-frame.
2469 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
2470 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
2471 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
2472 buffer that shows the original message.
2474 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
2475 with separator lines around the contents.
2477 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
2478 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
2479 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
2480 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
2482 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
2484 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
2485 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
2486 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
2487 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
2489 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
2490 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
2493 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
2494 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
2497 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
2498 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
2499 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
2500 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
2502 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
2503 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
2504 be taken to be magic.
2506 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
2507 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
2508 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
2510 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
2511 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
2513 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
2514 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
2516 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
2518 new key dired.el binding old key
2519 ------- ---------------- -------
2520 * c dired-change-marks c
2522 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
2523 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
2524 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
2526 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
2527 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
2528 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
2529 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
2530 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
2531 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
2535 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
2536 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
2537 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
2538 each time you run it.
2540 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
2541 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
2543 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
2544 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
2545 means to move in the opposite direction.
2547 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
2548 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
2550 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
2551 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
2552 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
2553 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
2558 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
2560 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
2563 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
2564 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
2566 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
2569 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
2571 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
2573 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
2575 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
2576 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
2577 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
2579 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
2581 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
2583 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
2584 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
2586 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
2587 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
2588 used to pick articles.
2590 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
2591 another have been added.
2593 `M-x gnus-change-server'
2595 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
2596 generating lines in buffers.
2598 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
2601 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
2603 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
2605 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
2607 *** Scores can be decayed.
2609 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
2611 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
2612 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
2614 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
2617 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
2619 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
2620 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
2622 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
2624 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
2625 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
2627 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
2628 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
2630 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
2633 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
2634 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
2636 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
2638 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
2640 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
2642 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
2644 Use the `Y c' command.
2646 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
2648 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
2650 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
2652 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
2653 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
2655 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
2657 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
2659 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
2660 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
2662 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
2664 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
2665 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
2666 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
2667 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
2670 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
2671 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
2672 particular news group. This can be done by:
2674 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
2676 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
2677 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
2678 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
2679 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
2680 for reading and posting).
2682 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
2683 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
2684 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
2685 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
2688 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
2689 default. Here are some of these default settings:
2691 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
2692 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
2693 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
2694 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
2695 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
2697 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
2698 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
2702 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
2703 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
2704 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
2705 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
2706 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
2709 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
2710 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
2711 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
2712 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
2713 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
2714 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
2716 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
2717 of the current buffer.
2719 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
2720 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
2721 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
2723 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
2724 style that the Python developers like.
2726 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
2727 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
2728 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
2732 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
2733 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
2734 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
2736 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
2737 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
2740 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
2741 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
2743 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
2744 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
2745 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
2746 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
2748 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
2749 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
2751 ** Calendar changes.
2753 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
2754 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
2755 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
2756 following/previous years.
2758 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
2759 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
2760 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
2761 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
2762 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
2763 supposed attribute of God.
2767 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
2770 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
2772 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
2773 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
2774 printer system has this behavior, set variable
2775 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
2777 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
2778 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
2779 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
2781 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
2782 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
2784 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
2785 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
2786 printing for your printer.
2788 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
2789 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
2791 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
2792 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
2794 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
2795 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
2796 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
2797 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
2798 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
2799 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
2800 The default value is nil.
2802 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
2803 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
2805 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
2806 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
2807 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
2808 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
2809 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
2810 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
2811 color). The default is 0 ("black").
2813 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
2814 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
2816 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
2817 The default is 0 ("black").
2819 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
2820 The default is 0 ("black").
2822 border-width Specify the border width.
2825 Any other property is ignored.
2827 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
2828 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
2831 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
2832 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
2833 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
2834 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
2835 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
2836 controlling headers.
2838 *** Color management (subgroup)
2840 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
2843 *** Face Management (subgroup)
2845 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
2846 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
2847 background should be used. Valid values are:
2849 t always use face background color.
2850 nil never use face background color.
2851 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
2853 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
2855 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
2858 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
2859 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
2861 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
2864 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
2865 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
2866 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
2868 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
2872 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
2876 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
2880 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
2884 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
2886 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
2888 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
2891 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
2892 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
2893 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
2895 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
2896 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
2897 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2898 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2899 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2903 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2904 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2905 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2908 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
2909 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
2910 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
2911 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
2912 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
2913 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2914 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2915 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
2916 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
2917 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
2918 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
2921 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
2923 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
2926 *** Printer management (subgroup)
2928 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
2929 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
2930 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
2931 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
2934 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
2935 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
2936 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
2938 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
2939 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
2942 *** Page settings (subgroup)
2944 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
2945 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
2946 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
2947 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
2948 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
2949 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
2952 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
2953 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
2954 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
2956 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
2957 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
2958 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
2959 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
2960 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
2961 its TO, are ignored.
2963 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
2964 pages. Valid values are:
2966 nil print all pages.
2968 `even-page' print only even pages.
2970 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
2972 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
2973 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
2974 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
2975 print only the even sheet of paper.
2977 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
2978 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
2979 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
2980 only the odd sheet of paper.
2982 Any other value is treated as nil.
2984 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
2985 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
2986 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
2988 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
2990 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
2991 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
2993 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
2994 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
2995 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
2996 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
2997 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
2998 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
2999 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
3001 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
3002 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
3003 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
3004 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
3005 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
3006 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
3007 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
3009 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
3011 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
3012 messages should be sent.
3014 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
3015 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
3016 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
3018 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
3020 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
3021 points for line numbers.
3023 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
3024 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
3026 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
3027 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
3028 to 2, the printing will look like:
3040 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
3041 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
3044 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
3045 zebra stripe is to be printed.
3047 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
3049 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
3050 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
3051 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
3052 3, the output will look like:
3066 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
3067 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
3069 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
3070 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
3073 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
3074 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
3077 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
3079 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
3080 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
3082 ** hideshow changes.
3084 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
3087 *** Support for java-mode added.
3089 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
3090 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
3092 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
3093 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
3094 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
3096 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
3097 robust and a lot faster.
3099 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
3101 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
3102 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
3103 documentation for more details.
3105 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
3107 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
3108 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
3109 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
3110 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
3111 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
3113 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
3114 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
3115 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
3116 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
3122 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
3123 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify
3124 the faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new
3125 custom group font-lock-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in your
3126 ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
3127 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
3129 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
3131 *** Maximum decoration
3133 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
3134 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
3135 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
3136 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
3137 to get the old behavior.
3141 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
3143 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
3144 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
3146 *** Configurable support
3148 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
3149 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
3150 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
3151 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
3152 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
3153 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
3154 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
3156 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
3157 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
3158 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
3160 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
3162 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
3163 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
3166 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
3168 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
3174 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
3175 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
3176 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
3177 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
3179 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
3181 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
3182 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
3183 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
3185 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
3187 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
3188 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
3189 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
3190 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
3191 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
3192 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
3193 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
3195 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
3196 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
3197 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
3198 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
3199 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
3200 the command M-o M-o (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
3202 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
3204 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
3205 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
3206 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
3207 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
3209 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
3212 ** Ada mode changes.
3214 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
3215 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
3216 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
3217 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
3220 *** There are two new commands:
3221 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
3222 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
3224 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
3225 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
3226 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
3228 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
3229 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
3230 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
3232 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
3233 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
3234 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
3235 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
3237 ** Scheme mode changes.
3239 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
3240 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
3241 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
3242 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
3245 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
3246 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
3247 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
3248 variables as buffer-local variables.
3250 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
3253 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
3255 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
3256 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
3257 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
3258 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
3260 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
3261 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
3264 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
3265 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
3266 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
3267 option takes precedence.
3269 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
3270 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
3271 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
3273 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
3274 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
3277 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
3278 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
3280 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
3281 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
3284 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
3285 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
3286 these register values no longer become completely useless.
3287 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
3288 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
3289 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
3291 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
3292 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
3293 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
3294 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
3296 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
3297 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
3298 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
3299 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
3300 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
3302 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
3303 since it applies only to the current frame.
3305 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
3306 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
3307 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
3309 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
3310 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
3311 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
3312 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
3313 instead of just the file you are editing.
3317 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
3318 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
3319 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
3320 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
3321 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
3324 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
3325 knows which kind of label is needed.
3327 C-c ) reftex-reference
3328 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
3329 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
3331 C-c [ reftex-citation
3332 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
3333 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
3335 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
3336 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
3339 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
3340 can quickly jump to every section.
3342 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
3343 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
3344 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
3345 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
3346 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
3348 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
3350 *** Info documentation is now available.
3352 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
3353 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
3355 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
3356 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
3358 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
3359 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
3361 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
3362 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
3363 appropriate functions.
3365 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
3366 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
3368 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
3371 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
3372 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
3374 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
3377 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
3378 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
3379 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
3381 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
3382 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
3383 prefixed with `ALT'.
3385 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
3386 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
3387 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
3390 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
3391 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
3392 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
3394 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
3395 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
3397 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
3398 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
3399 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
3401 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
3403 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
3405 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
3408 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
3409 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
3412 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
3415 *** Added support for imenu.
3417 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
3418 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
3419 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
3420 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
3422 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
3423 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
3425 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
3427 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
3429 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
3430 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
3431 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
3434 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
3435 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
3437 ** browse-url changes
3439 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
3440 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
3441 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
3442 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
3443 customization variables.
3445 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
3447 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
3448 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
3449 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
3453 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
3454 pops up the Info file for this command.
3456 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
3457 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
3458 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
3461 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
3462 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
3463 files in the same directory.
3465 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
3466 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
3467 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
3471 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
3472 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
3474 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
3475 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
3476 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
3477 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
3478 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
3479 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
3480 color when Viper is in insert state.
3481 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
3482 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
3483 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
3487 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
3488 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
3489 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
3490 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
3491 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
3493 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
3495 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
3496 constructs are tagged. Files are recognized by the extension .java.
3498 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
3499 recognized by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
3500 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
3502 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
3503 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
3504 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
3505 methods and protocols.
3507 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognized by the extension
3508 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
3509 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
3512 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
3513 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
3514 at least M times and as many as N times.
3516 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
3517 in files has changed slightly.
3519 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
3520 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
3521 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
3522 with old time-stamp-format values.
3524 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
3525 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
3526 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
3529 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
3530 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
3531 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
3532 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
3533 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
3534 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
3536 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
3537 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
3538 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
3540 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
3541 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
3542 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
3543 recommended now will continue to work then.
3545 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
3548 ** There are some additional major modes:
3550 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
3551 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
3552 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
3554 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
3555 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
3558 ** New Lisp packages include:
3560 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
3562 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
3563 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
3565 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
3567 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
3570 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
3571 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
3574 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
3575 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
3576 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
3577 strings or comments.
3579 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
3580 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
3581 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
3582 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
3585 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
3586 can visit them by short forms of their names.
3588 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
3589 Emacs Lisp function at point.
3591 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
3593 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
3594 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
3596 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
3598 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
3600 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
3602 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
3603 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
3605 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
3606 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
3607 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
3608 original place after inserting the copy.
3610 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
3613 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
3614 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
3615 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
3617 Enable mouse-drag with:
3618 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
3620 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
3622 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
3623 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
3625 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
3626 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
3630 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
3631 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
3632 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
3633 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
3634 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
3635 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
3636 instance) and vice versa.
3638 To use this package load it using
3639 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
3640 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
3641 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
3642 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
3643 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
3644 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
3646 *** Interface to ph.
3648 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
3650 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
3651 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
3654 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
3656 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
3657 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
3658 while the real cursor does not move.
3660 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
3661 for visiting your favorite web sites.
3663 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
3664 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
3668 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
3669 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
3670 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
3671 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
3673 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
3676 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
3678 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
3680 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
3681 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
3682 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
3683 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
3684 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
3686 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
3687 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
3688 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
3689 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
3690 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
3691 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
3694 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
3696 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
3697 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
3698 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
3699 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
3701 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
3702 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
3704 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
3705 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
3708 ** Basic Lisp changes
3710 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
3711 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
3713 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
3714 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
3717 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
3719 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
3721 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
3722 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
3724 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
3725 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
3728 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
3730 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
3732 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
3734 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
3735 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
3736 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
3739 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
3740 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
3741 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
3743 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
3744 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
3745 adding one of these suffixes.
3747 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
3748 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
3749 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
3751 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
3752 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
3754 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
3756 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
3757 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
3759 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
3760 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
3762 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
3764 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
3765 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
3767 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
3768 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
3769 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
3770 works using `save-current-buffer'.
3772 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
3773 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
3776 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
3777 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
3778 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
3781 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
3782 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
3785 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
3787 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
3788 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
3789 Then it returns that string.
3791 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
3793 (with-output-to-string
3794 (princ "The buffer is ")
3795 (princ (buffer-name)))
3797 returns "The buffer is foo".
3799 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
3802 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
3803 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
3804 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
3806 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
3807 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
3809 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
3810 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
3811 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
3812 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
3813 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
3814 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
3816 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
3817 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
3818 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
3821 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
3822 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
3823 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
3824 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
3825 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
3827 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
3828 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
3829 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
3830 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
3832 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
3833 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
3835 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
3837 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
3838 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
3839 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
3840 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
3843 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
3844 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
3847 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
3849 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
3850 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
3851 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
3852 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
3853 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
3855 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
3857 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
3858 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
3859 more than the number of characters.
3861 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
3862 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
3863 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
3864 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
3865 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
3866 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
3868 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
3869 and returns a string containing those characters.
3871 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
3872 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
3873 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
3874 character, sref signals an error.
3876 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
3877 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
3878 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
3880 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
3881 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
3882 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
3884 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
3885 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
3886 to a vector of the characters in it.
3888 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
3889 of a string. You call it as follows:
3891 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
3893 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
3894 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
3895 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
3896 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
3897 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
3899 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
3900 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
3902 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
3903 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
3905 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
3906 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
3907 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
3908 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
3910 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
3912 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
3914 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
3915 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
3916 are not included in the resulting value.
3918 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
3919 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
3920 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
3921 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
3923 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
3924 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
3925 character extends across that column), then the padding character
3926 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
3927 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
3928 column START-COLUMN.
3930 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
3931 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
3932 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
3933 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
3934 changed text, before the change.
3936 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
3937 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
3938 one character set for each script, not for each language.
3940 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
3942 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
3944 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
3945 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
3947 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
3948 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
3949 which identify the character within that character set.
3951 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
3952 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
3953 opposite of split-char.
3955 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
3956 of all the characters between BEG and END.
3958 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
3959 of all the characters in a string.
3961 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
3962 and specifying coding systems.
3964 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
3965 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
3966 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
3967 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
3968 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
3969 as what to do about code conversion.)
3971 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
3972 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
3974 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
3975 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
3976 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
3978 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
3979 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
3980 to match against a file name.
3982 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
3983 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
3984 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
3985 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
3986 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
3987 specifies the coding system for encoding.
3989 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
3990 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
3992 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
3993 the coding system to use for network sockets.
3995 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
3996 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
3997 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
4000 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
4001 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
4002 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
4003 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
4004 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
4005 specifies the coding system for encoding.
4007 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
4008 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
4010 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
4011 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
4012 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
4013 start the subprocess.
4015 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
4016 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
4017 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
4018 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
4019 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
4021 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
4022 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
4025 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
4026 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
4027 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
4028 connection permanently or until overridden.
4030 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
4031 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
4032 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
4033 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
4034 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
4035 system for one operation at a time.
4037 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
4038 files, subprocesses or network connections.
4040 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
4041 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
4042 The value is a cons cell,
4043 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
4044 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
4045 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
4046 input to the subprocess.
4048 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
4049 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
4051 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
4052 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
4053 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
4055 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
4056 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
4057 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
4058 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
4061 Thus, instead of writing
4063 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
4064 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
4066 you would now write this:
4068 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
4069 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
4073 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
4074 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
4075 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
4076 for a description of them.
4078 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
4079 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
4081 (defgroup ispell nil
4082 "Spell checking using Ispell."
4085 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
4086 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
4087 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
4088 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
4089 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
4091 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
4092 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
4093 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
4094 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
4095 first-level subgroups.
4097 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
4099 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
4100 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
4104 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
4105 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
4106 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
4107 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
4108 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
4109 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
4111 ** Text property changes
4113 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
4116 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
4117 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
4118 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
4119 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
4120 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
4122 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
4123 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
4124 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
4125 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
4127 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
4128 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
4129 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
4131 ** Changes in invisibility features
4133 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
4134 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
4135 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
4136 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
4137 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
4138 make the overlay visible.
4140 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
4141 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
4142 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
4143 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
4144 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
4145 t when it should hide it.
4147 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
4149 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
4150 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
4151 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
4152 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
4153 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
4154 Here is an example of how to do this:
4156 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
4157 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
4158 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
4159 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
4162 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
4165 ;; When done with the overlays:
4166 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
4168 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
4170 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
4172 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
4173 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
4174 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
4175 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
4177 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
4178 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
4179 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
4181 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
4182 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
4184 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
4185 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
4187 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
4188 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
4189 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
4191 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
4192 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
4193 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
4194 determine the syntax type of the character.
4196 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
4197 of the current buffer.
4199 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
4200 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
4201 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
4203 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
4204 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
4205 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
4206 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
4207 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
4209 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
4212 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
4213 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
4214 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
4216 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
4217 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
4218 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
4219 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
4220 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
4222 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
4223 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
4224 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
4226 ** Changes in face features
4228 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
4229 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
4231 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
4232 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
4234 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
4235 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
4237 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
4238 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
4240 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
4241 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
4242 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
4243 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
4246 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
4247 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
4249 ** Changes in file-handling functions
4251 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
4252 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
4253 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
4254 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
4256 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
4259 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
4260 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
4262 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
4263 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
4265 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
4266 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
4268 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
4269 character code conversion as well as other things.
4271 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
4272 (formerly it did not).
4274 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
4275 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
4277 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
4278 instead of constant strings.
4280 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
4281 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
4282 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
4284 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
4285 in the same way as before.
4287 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
4288 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
4289 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
4291 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
4292 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
4293 else, and returns nil.
4295 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
4296 directory cannot be listed.
4298 ** Changes in minibuffer input
4300 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
4301 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
4302 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
4303 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
4306 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
4307 It is available through the history command M-n.
4309 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
4310 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
4311 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
4312 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
4313 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
4315 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
4316 argument in this way.
4318 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
4319 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
4320 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
4322 ** Echo area features
4324 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
4325 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
4326 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
4327 after the echo area is cleared.
4329 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
4330 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
4332 ** Keyboard input features
4334 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
4335 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
4337 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
4338 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
4341 ** Frame-related changes
4343 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
4344 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
4345 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
4347 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
4348 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
4349 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
4351 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
4352 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
4353 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
4354 in the selected frame.
4356 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
4357 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
4358 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
4360 ** X Windows features
4362 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
4363 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
4364 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
4366 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
4367 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
4369 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
4370 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
4371 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
4373 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
4374 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
4376 ** Subprocess features
4378 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
4379 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
4382 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
4383 and returns the output from the command as a string.
4385 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
4386 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
4388 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
4389 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
4391 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
4392 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
4393 goes after the other menu items.
4395 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
4396 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
4397 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
4400 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
4401 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
4403 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
4404 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
4407 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
4408 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
4409 but its hook is still run.
4411 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
4412 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
4414 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
4415 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
4416 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
4418 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
4419 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
4420 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
4423 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
4424 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
4426 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
4427 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
4428 functions like display-time.
4430 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
4431 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
4433 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
4434 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
4435 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
4437 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
4438 if there is an error in compilation.
4440 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
4441 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
4442 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
4443 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
4445 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
4446 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
4447 the *scratch* buffer.
4449 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
4450 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
4451 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
4452 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
4454 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
4455 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
4456 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
4458 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
4459 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
4460 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
4461 and compose-mail-other-frame.
4463 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
4464 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
4465 full name of the specified user will be returned.
4467 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
4468 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
4469 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
4470 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
4471 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
4474 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
4475 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
4476 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
4477 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
4479 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
4480 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
4481 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
4482 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
4484 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
4486 ** imenu.el changes.
4488 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
4489 item from menu created by imenu.
4491 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
4492 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
4493 select one of those items.
4496 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
4497 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
4499 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
4500 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
4501 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
4502 (at your option) any later version.
4504 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
4505 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
4506 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
4507 GNU General Public License for more details.
4509 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
4510 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
4515 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"