1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
7 You can narrow news to the specific version by calling
8 `view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
11 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
12 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
13 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
14 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
17 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
19 ** Emacs includes now support for loading image libraries on demand.
20 (Currently this feature is only used on MS Windows.) You can configure
21 the supported image types and their associated dynamic libraries by
22 setting the variable `image-library-alist'.
25 ** New translations of the Emacs Tutorial are available in the following
26 languages: Brasilian, Bulgarian, Chinese (both with simplified and
27 traditional characters), French, and Italian. Type `C-u C-h t' to
28 choose one of them in case your language setup doesn't automatically
31 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
32 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer. This port
33 provides a way to display multilingual text in menus (with some caveats).
36 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
38 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with elisp code.
41 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
42 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
46 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
47 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
48 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
49 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
50 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
51 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
52 in each user's home directory.
55 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
56 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
60 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
62 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
63 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
64 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
65 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
68 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
71 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
72 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
73 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
74 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
76 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
79 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
82 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
85 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
86 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
89 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
92 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
95 ** Building with -DENABLE_CHECKING does not automatically build with union
96 types any more. Add -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE if you want union types.
99 * Changes in Emacs 21.4
102 ** `set-auto-mode' now gives the interpreter magic line (if present)
103 precedence over the file name. Likewise an <?xml or <!DOCTYPE declaration
104 will give the buffer XML or SGML mode, unless the file name leads to a mode in
108 ** New function `looking-back' checks whether a regular expression matches
109 the text before point. Specifying the LIMIT argument bounds how far
110 back the match can start; this is a way to keep it from taking too long.
113 ** New functions `make-progress-reporter', `progress-reporter-update',
114 `progress-reporter-force-update' and `progress-reporter-done' provide
115 a simple and efficient way of printing progress messages to the user.
118 ** In Enriched mode, `set-left-margin' and `set-right-margin' are now
119 by default bound to `C-c [' and `C-c ]' instead of the former `C-c C-l'
123 ** In processing a local variables list, Emacs strips the prefix and
124 suffix are from every line before processing all the lines.
127 ** `apply-macro-to-region-lines' now operates on all lines that begin
128 in the region, rather than on all complete lines in the region.
130 ** global-whitespace-mode is a new alias for whitespace-global-mode.
133 ** There are now two new regular expression operators, \_< and \_>,
134 for matching the beginning and end of a symbol. A symbol is a
135 non-empty sequence of either word or symbol constituent characters, as
136 specified by the syntax table.
138 ** Passing resources on the command line now works on MS Windows.
139 You can use --xrm to pass resource settings to Emacs, overriding any
140 existing values. For example:
142 emacs --xrm "Emacs.Background:red" --xrm "Emacs.Geometry:100x20"
144 will start up Emacs on an initial frame of 100x20 with red background,
145 irrespective of geometry or background setting on the Windows registry.
147 ** New features in evaluation commands
150 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) called on defface reinitializes
151 the face to the value specified in the defface expression.
153 *** Typing C-x C-e twice prints the value of the integer result
154 in additional formats (octal, hexadecimal, character) specified
155 by the new function `eval-expression-print-format'. The same
156 function also defines the result format for `eval-expression' (M-:),
157 `eval-print-last-sexp' (C-j) and some edebug evaluation functions.
159 ** New input method chinese-sisheng for inputting Chinese Pinyin
162 ** New command quail-show-key shows what key (or key sequence) to type
163 in the current input method to input a character at point.
165 ** Convenient commands to switch buffers in a cyclic order are C-x <left>
166 (prev-buffer) and C-x <right> (next-buffer).
168 ** Commands winner-redo and winner-undo, from winner.el, are now bound to
169 C-c <left> and C-c <right>, respectively. This is an incompatible change.
171 ** Help commands `describe-function' and `describe-key' now show function
172 arguments in lowercase italics on displays that support it. To change the
173 default, customize face `help-argument-name' or redefine the function
174 `help-default-arg-highlight'.
177 ** The comint prompt can now be made read-only, using the new user
178 option `comint-prompt-read-only'. This is not enabled by default,
179 except in IELM buffers. The read-only status of IELM prompts can be
180 controlled with the new user option `ielm-prompt-read-only', which
181 overrides `comint-prompt-read-only'.
183 The new commands `comint-kill-whole-line' and `comint-kill-region'
184 support editing comint buffers with read-only prompts.
186 `comint-kill-whole-line' is like `kill-whole-line', but ignores both
187 read-only and field properties. Hence, it always kill entire
188 lines, including any prompts.
190 `comint-kill-region' is like `kill-region', except that it ignores
191 read-only properties, if it is safe to do so. This means that if any
192 part of a prompt is deleted, then the entire prompt must be deleted
193 and that all prompts must stay at the beginning of a line. If this is
194 not the case, then `comint-kill-region' behaves just like
195 `kill-region' if read-only are involved: it copies the text to the
196 kill-ring, but does not delete it.
198 ** You can now use next-error (C-x `) and previous-error to advance to
199 the next/previous matching line found by M-x occur.
201 ** Telnet now prompts you for a port number with C-u M-x telnet.
204 ** New command line option -Q.
206 This is like using -q --no-site-file, but in addition it also disables
207 the menu-bar, the tool-bar, the scroll-bars, tool tips, the blinking
208 cursor, and the fancy startup screen.
210 ** C-h v and C-h f commands now include a hyperlink to the C source for
211 variables and functions defined in C (if the C source is available).
213 ** When used interactively, `format-write-file' now asks for confirmation
214 before overwriting an existing file, unless a prefix argument is
215 supplied. This behavior is analogous to `write-file'.
217 ** You can now use Auto Revert mode to `tail' a file.
218 If point is at the end of a file buffer before reverting, Auto Revert
219 mode keeps it at the end after reverting. Similarly if point is
220 displayed at the end of a file buffer in any window, it stays at
221 the end of the buffer in that window. This allows to tail a file:
222 just put point at the end of the buffer and it stays there. This
223 rule applies to file buffers. For non-file buffers, the behavior may
226 If you are sure that the file will only change by growing at the end,
227 then you can tail the file more efficiently by using the new minor
228 mode Auto Revert Tail mode. The function `auto-revert-tail-mode'
231 ** Auto Revert mode is now more careful to avoid excessive reverts and
232 other potential problems when deciding which non-file buffers to
233 revert. This matters especially if Global Auto Revert mode is enabled
234 and `global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers' is non-nil. Auto Revert
235 mode only reverts a non-file buffer if the buffer has a non-nil
236 `revert-buffer-function' and a non-nil `buffer-stale-function', which
237 decides whether the buffer should be reverted. Currently, this means
238 that auto reverting works for Dired buffers (although this may not
239 work properly on all operating systems) and for the Buffer Menu.
241 ** If the new user option `auto-revert-check-vc-info' is non-nil, Auto
242 Revert mode reliably updates version control info (such as the version
243 control number in the mode line), in all version controlled buffers in
244 which it is active. If the option is nil, the default, then this info
245 only gets updated whenever the buffer gets reverted.
247 ** New command `Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only' toggles display of file
248 buffers only in the Buffer Menu. It is bound to `T' in Buffer Menu
251 ** M-x compile has become more robust and reliable
253 Quite a few more kinds of messages are recognized. Messages that are
254 recognized as warnings or informational come in orange or green, instead of
255 red. Informational messages are by default skipped with `next-error'
256 (controlled by `compilation-skip-threshold').
258 Location data is collected on the fly as the *compilation* buffer changes.
259 This means you could modify messages to make them point to different files.
260 This also means you can not go to locations of messages you may have deleted.
262 The variable `compilation-error-regexp-alist' has now become customizable. If
263 you had added your own regexps to this, you'll probably need to include a
264 leading `^', otherwise they'll match anywhere on a line. There is now also a
265 `compilation-mode-font-lock-keywords' and it nicely handles all the checks
266 that configure outputs and -o options so you see at a glance where you are.
268 The new file etc/compilation.txt gives examples of each type of message.
270 ** Compilation mode enhancements:
273 *** New user option `compilation-environment'.
274 This option allows you to specify environment variables for inferior
275 compilation processes without affecting the environment that all
276 subprocesses inherit.
278 ** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
280 *** There's a new separate package grep.el.
282 *** M-x grep has been adapted to new compile
284 Hits are fontified in green, and hits in binary files in orange. Grep buffers
285 can be saved and automatically revisited with the new Grep mode.
287 *** Grep commands now have their own submenu and customization group.
289 *** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
290 `grep-scroll-output' can be used to override the corresponding
291 compilation mode settings for grep commands.
293 *** New option `grep-highlight-matches' highlightes matches in *grep*
294 buffer. It uses a special feature of some grep programs which accept
295 --color option to output markers around matches. When going to the next
296 match with `next-error' the exact match is highlighted in the source
297 buffer. Otherwise, if `grep-highlight-matches' is nil, the whole
298 source line is highlighted.
300 *** New key bindings in grep output window:
301 SPC and DEL scrolls window up and down. C-n and C-p moves to next and
302 previous match in the grep window. RET jumps to the source line of
303 the current match. `n' and `p' shows next and previous match in
304 other window, but does not switch buffer. `{' and `}' jumps to the
305 previous or next file in the grep output. TAB also jumps to the next
308 ** New options `next-error-highlight' and `next-error-highlight-no-select'
309 specify the method of highlighting of the corresponding source line
310 in new face `next-error'.
312 ** A new minor mode `next-error-follow-minor-mode' can be used in
313 compilation-mode, grep-mode, occur-mode, and diff-mode (i.e. all the
314 modes that can use `next-error'). In this mode, cursor motion in the
315 buffer causes automatic display in another window of the corresponding
316 matches, compilation errors, etc. This minor mode can be toggled with
319 ** M-x diff uses diff-mode instead of compilation-mode.
321 ** M-x compare-windows now can automatically skip non-matching text to
322 resync points in both windows.
324 ** New command `strokes-global-set-stroke-string'.
325 This is like `strokes-global-set-stroke', but it allows you to bind
326 the stroke directly to a string to insert. This is convenient for
327 using strokes as an input method.
331 *** Gnus now includes Sieve and PGG
332 Sieve is a library for managing Sieve scripts. PGG is a library to handle
335 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
336 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "Oort Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
341 *** Desktop saving is now a minor mode, desktop-save-mode. Variable
342 desktop-enable is obsolete. Customize desktop-save-mode to enable desktop
345 *** Buffers are saved in the desktop file in the same order as that in the
349 - desktop-revert reverts to the last loaded desktop.
350 - desktop-change-dir kills current desktop and loads a new.
351 - desktop-save-in-desktop-dir saves desktop in the directory from which
354 *** New customizable variables:
355 - desktop-save. Determins whether the desktop should be saved when it is
357 - desktop-file-name-format.
358 - desktop-path. List of directories in which to lookup the desktop file.
359 - desktop-locals-to-save.
360 - desktop-globals-to-clear.
361 - desktop-clear-preserve-buffers-regexp.
363 *** New command line option --no-desktop
366 - desktop-after-read-hook run after a desktop is loaded.
367 - desktop-no-desktop-file-hook run when no desktop file is found.
370 ** The saveplace.el package now filters out unreadable files.
371 When you exit Emacs, the saved positions in visited files no longer
372 include files that aren't readable, e.g. files that don't exist.
373 Customize the new option `save-place-forget-unreadable-files' to nil
374 to get the old behavior. The new options `save-place-save-skipped'
375 and `save-place-skip-check-regexp' allow further fine-tuning of this
378 ** You can have several Emacs servers on the same machine.
380 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "foo")' -f server-start &
381 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "bar")' -f server-start &
382 % emacsclient -s foo file1
383 % emacsclient -s bar file2
386 ** On window systems, lines which are exactly as wide as the window
387 (not counting the final newline character) are no longer broken into
388 two lines on the display (with just the newline on the second line).
389 Instead, the newline now "overflows" into the right fringe, and the
390 cursor will be displayed in the fringe when positioned on that newline.
392 The new user option 'overflow-newline-into-fringe' may be set to nil to
393 revert to the old behaviour of continuing such lines.
396 ** The buffer boundaries (i.e. first and last line in the buffer) may
397 now be marked with angle bitmaps in the fringes. In addition, up and
398 down arrow bitmaps may be shown at the top and bottom of the left or
399 right fringe if the window can be scrolled in either direction.
401 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
402 `indicate-buffer-boundaries' to a non-nil value. The default value of
403 this variable is found in `default-indicate-buffer-boundaries'.
405 If value is `left' or `right', both angle and arrow bitmaps are
406 displayed in the left or right fringe, resp.
408 Value may also be an alist which specifies the presense and position
409 of each bitmap individually.
411 For example, ((top . left) (t . right)) places the top angle bitmap
412 in left fringe, the bottom angle bitmap in right fringe, and both
413 arrow bitmaps in right fringe. To show just the angle bitmaps in the
414 left fringe, but no arrow bitmaps, use ((top . left) (bottom . left)).
416 ** New command `display-local-help' displays any local help at point
417 in the echo area. It is bound to `C-h .'. It normally displays the
418 same string that would be displayed on mouse-over using the
419 `help-echo' property, but, in certain cases, it can display a more
420 keyboard oriented alternative.
422 ** New user option `help-at-pt-display-when-idle' allows to
423 automatically show the help provided by `display-local-help' on
424 point-over, after suitable idle time. The amount of idle time is
425 determined by the user option `help-at-pt-timer-delay' and defaults
426 to one second. This feature is turned off by default.
428 ** New commands `scan-buf-next-region' and `scan-buf-previous-region'
429 move to the start of the next (previous, respectively) region with
430 non-nil help-echo property and display any help found there in the
431 echo area, using `display-local-help'.
434 ** Help mode now only makes hyperlinks for faces when the face name is
435 preceded or followed by the word `face'. It no longer makes
436 hyperlinks for variables without variable documentation, unless
437 preceded by one of the words `variable' or `option'. It now makes
438 hyperlinks to Info anchors (or nodes) if the anchor (or node) name is
439 enclosed in single quotes and preceded by `info anchor' or `Info
440 anchor' (in addition to earlier `info node' and `Info node').
442 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
443 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
446 ** The -f option, used from the command line to call a function,
447 now reads arguments for the function interactively if it is
448 an interactively callable function.
453 *** The variable `sql-product' controls the highlightng of different
454 SQL dialects. This variable can be set globally via Customize, on a
455 buffer-specific basis via local variable settings, or for the current
456 session using the new SQL->Product submenu. (This menu replaces the
457 SQL->Highlighting submenu.)
459 The following values are supported:
461 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
475 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
478 The technique of setting `sql-mode-font-lock-defaults' directly in
479 your .emacs will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
480 `sql-product' to accomplish this.
482 ANSI keywords are always highlighted.
484 *** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
485 font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
486 all identifiers ending in "_t" under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
487 you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
489 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
490 '(("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face)))
492 *** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i. Most
493 SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
494 highlighted in `font-lock-doc-face'.
496 *** Microsoft SQLServer support has been significantly improved.
497 Keyword highlighting for SqlServer 2000 is implemented.
498 sql-interactive-mode defaults to use osql, rather than isql, because
499 osql flushes its error stream more frequently. Thus error messages
500 are displayed when they occur rather than when the session is
503 If the username and password are not provided to `sql-ms', osql is
504 called with the -E command line argument to use the operating system
505 credentials to authenticate the user.
507 *** Postgres support is enhanced.
508 Keyword highlighting of Postgres 7.3 is implemented. Prompting for
509 the username and the pgsql `-U' option is added.
511 *** MySQL support is enhanced.
512 Keyword higlighting of MySql 4.0 is implemented.
514 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
515 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
518 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
519 appropriate sql-interactive-mode wrapper for the current setting of
522 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
523 with special modes such as Tar mode.
525 ** Enhancements to apropos commands:
527 *** The apropos commands now accept a list of words to match.
528 When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
529 be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
532 *** The new option `apropos-sort-by-scores' causes the matching items
533 to be sorted according to their score. The score for an item is a
534 number calculated to indicate how well the item matches the words or
535 regular expression that you entered to the apropos command. The best
536 match is listed first, and the calculated score is shown for each
540 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
541 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
542 the operating system or your X server.
544 ** New minor mode, Visible mode, toggles invisibility in the current buffer.
545 When enabled, it makes all invisible text visible. When disabled, it
546 restores the previous value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
548 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
549 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
551 ** New commands to operate on pairs of open and close characters:
552 `insert-pair', `delete-pair', `raise-sexp'.
554 ** A prefix argument of C-M-q in Emacs Lisp mode pretty-printifies the
555 list starting after point.
559 *** New faces dired-header, dired-mark, dired-marked, dired-flagged,
560 dired-ignored, dired-directory, dired-symlink, dired-warning
561 introduced for Dired mode instead of font-lock faces.
563 *** New Dired command `dired-compare-directories' marks files
564 with different file attributes in two dired buffers.
567 *** New Dired command `dired-do-touch' (bound to T) changes timestamps
568 of marked files with the value entered in the minibuffer.
571 *** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
572 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
573 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
574 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
575 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
576 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
579 *** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
580 types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
581 what external viewers to use and when.
583 *** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
584 into the kill ring. With a zero prefix arg, copies absolute file names.
589 *** Omitting files is now a minor mode, dired-omit-mode. The mode toggling
590 command is bound to M-o. A new command dired-mark-omitted, bound to M-O,
591 marks omitted files. The variable dired-omit-files-p is obsoleted, use the
592 mode toggling function instead.
596 *** A numeric prefix argument of `info' selects an Info buffer
597 with the number appended to the *info* buffer name.
599 *** Regexp isearch (C-M-s and C-M-r) can search through multiple nodes.
600 Failed isearch wraps to the top/final node.
602 *** New search commands: `Info-search-case-sensitively' (bound to S),
603 `Info-search-backward', and `Info-search-next' which repeats the last
604 search without prompting for a new search string.
606 *** New command `Info-history' (bound to L) displays a menu of visited nodes.
608 *** New command `Info-toc' (bound to T) creates a node with table of contents
609 from the tree structure of menus of the current Info file.
611 *** New command `info-apropos' searches the indices of the known
612 Info files on your system for a string, and builds a menu of the
615 *** New command `Info-copy-current-node-name' (bound to w) copies
616 the current Info node name into the kill ring. With a zero prefix
617 arg, puts the node name inside the `info' function call.
619 *** New face `info-xref-visited' distinguishes visited nodes from unvisited
620 and a new option `Info-fontify-visited-nodes' to control this.
622 *** http and ftp links in Info are now operational: they look like cross
623 references and following them calls `browse-url'.
626 *** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
627 If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
628 `Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
630 *** Images in Info pages are supported.
631 Info pages show embedded images, in Emacs frames with image support.
632 Info documentation that includes images, processed with makeinfo
633 version 4.7 or newer, compiles to Info pages with embedded images.
636 *** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
639 *** Info-index offers completion.
641 ** Support for the SQLite interpreter has been added to sql.el by calling
645 *** The new command bibtex-url browses a URL for the BibTeX entry at
646 point (bound to C-c C-l and mouse-2, RET on clickable fields).
648 *** The new command bibtex-entry-update (bound to C-c C-u) updates
649 an existing BibTeX entry.
651 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
653 *** bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries can take values `plain',
654 `crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
655 for BibTeX entries. `bibtex-sort-entry-class' controls the sorting
656 scheme `entry-class'. TAB completion for reference keys and
657 automatic detection of duplicates does not require anymore that
658 bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil.
660 *** If the new variable bibtex-parse-keys-fast is non-nil,
661 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
663 *** If the new variable bibtex-autoadd-commas is non-nil,
664 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
666 *** The new variable bibtex-autofill-types contains a list of entry
667 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
669 *** The new command bibtex-complete completes word fragment before
670 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
672 *** The new commands bibtex-find-entry and bibtex-find-crossref
673 locate entries and crossref'd entries. Crossref fields are clickable
674 (bound to mouse-2, RET).
676 *** In BibTeX mode the command fill-paragraph (bound to M-q) fills
677 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
679 *** The new command bibtex-validate-globally checks for duplicate keys
680 in multiple BibTeX files. See also the new variables bibtex-files
681 and bibtex-file-path.
683 *** The new command bibtex-find-entry-globally searches BibTeX entries
684 in multiple BibTeX files.
686 *** The new command bibtex-copy-summary-as-kill pushes summary
687 of BibTeX entry to kill ring (bound to C-c C-t).
689 ** When display margins are present in a window, the fringes are now
690 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
691 at the edges of the window.
693 ** A window may now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
694 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
696 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
697 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
698 or when the frame is resized.
700 ** New functions frame-current-scroll-bars and window-current-scroll-bars.
702 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
703 horizontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
706 ** Emacs now supports drag and drop for X. Dropping a file on a window
707 opens it, dropping text inserts the text. Dropping a file on a dired
708 buffer copies or moves the file to that directory.
710 ** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
712 ** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which may
713 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
715 If the configure option `--without-xim' was used to turn off use of
716 XIM by default, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn it on.
718 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
720 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
721 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
723 ** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
724 Emacs prompts her for confirmation.
726 ** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
728 ** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
729 and other common debugger commands.
733 The recent file list is now automatically cleanup when recentf mode is
734 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
737 With the more advanced option: `recentf-filename-handler', you can
738 specify a function that transforms filenames handled by recentf. For
739 example, if set to `file-truename', the same file will not be in the
740 recent list with different symbolic links.
742 To follow naming convention, `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-flag'
743 and `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag' respectively replace the
744 misnamed options `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p' and
745 `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The old names remain available as
746 aliases, but have been marked obsolete.
748 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
753 You can now put the init files .emacs and .emacs_SHELL under
754 ~/.emacs.d or directly under ~. Emacs will find them in either place.
756 ** partial-completion-mode now does partial completion on directory names.
758 ** skeleton.el now supports using - to mark the skeleton-point without
759 interregion interaction. @ has reverted to only setting
760 skeleton-positions and no longer sets skeleton-point. Skeletons
761 which used @ to mark skeleton-point independent of _ should now use -
762 instead. The updated skeleton-insert docstring explains these new
763 features along with other details of skeleton construction.
767 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.82. There have been major changes since
768 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
771 ** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
772 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given elisp
773 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
775 ** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
778 ** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
779 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
780 appears between the position information and the major mode.
782 ** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
783 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
786 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
787 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
788 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
789 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
793 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
794 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
795 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
799 ** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
800 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
801 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you can in fact alter the
804 ** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
805 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
807 ** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
811 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
813 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
814 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
815 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
818 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
819 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
820 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
822 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
823 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
824 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories are
825 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
826 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
828 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
829 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
830 t, and the status is shown.
832 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
833 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
836 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
837 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
838 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
841 ** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Tajik,
842 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
843 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
844 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
845 automatically according to the locale.)
847 ** Indian support has been updated.
848 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
849 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
850 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
854 ** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
855 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
856 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
857 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
858 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
862 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
863 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
864 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
867 ** Many new coding systems are available by loading the `code-pages'
868 library. These include complete versions of most of those in
869 codepage.el, based on Unicode mappings. `codepage-setup' is now
870 obsolete and is used only in the MS-DOS port of Emacs. windows-1252
871 and windows-1251 are preloaded since the former is so common and the
872 latter is used by GNU locales.
874 ** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
875 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences are simply composed into
876 single quasi-characters. User option `utf-translate-cjk-mode' (it is
877 turned on by default) arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK character
878 sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the Mule-UCS
879 system. As this loads a fairly big data on demand, people who are not
880 interested in CJK characters may want to customize it to nil.
881 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
882 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
883 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
884 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
885 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
887 ** New variable `utf-translate-cjk-unicode-range' controls which
888 Unicode characters to translate in `utf-translate-cjk-mode'.
890 ** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
891 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
892 fontset appropriately.
894 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
898 ** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
899 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
900 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
901 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
902 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
903 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
904 mule-unicode-... ones.
906 By default this translation happens automatically on encoding.
907 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
908 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
911 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
912 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
913 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
914 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
915 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
917 ** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
918 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
919 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
920 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
922 ** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
923 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
924 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
928 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
929 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
930 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
933 ** The pop up menus for Lucid now stay up if you do a fast click and can
934 be navigated with the arrow keys (like Gtk+ and W32).
937 ** Dialogs for Lucid/Athena and Lesstif/Motif pops down when pressing ESC.
940 ** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
941 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
944 ** For Gtk+ version 2.4, you can make Emacs use the old file dialog
945 by setting the variable `use-old-gtk-file-dialog' to t. Default is to use
949 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
950 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
951 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
955 ** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
956 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
958 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
959 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
960 program files that include other program files.
962 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
963 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
967 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
968 when Emacs visits them.
971 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
973 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
974 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
975 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
977 ** The new variable `x-select-request-type' controls how Emacs
978 requests X selection. The default value is nil, which means that
979 Emacs requests X selection with types COMPOUND_TEXT and UTF8_STRING,
980 and use the more appropriately result.
983 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
984 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
985 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
986 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
988 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
989 hscrolling scrolls the window when point gets too close to the
990 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
991 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
992 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
993 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
995 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
996 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
999 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
1001 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
1002 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
1003 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
1004 TeX commands to use at startup.
1005 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
1006 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
1008 *** New major mode doctex-mode for *.dtx files.
1011 ** New display feature: focus follows the mouse from one Emacs window
1012 to another, even within a frame. If you set the variable
1013 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a
1014 different Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can
1015 be selected only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this
1016 feature is not enabled.
1018 ** On X, when the window manager requires that you click on a frame to
1019 select it (give it focus), the selected window and cursor position
1020 normally changes according to the mouse click position. If you set
1021 the variable x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position to t, the selected
1022 window and cursor position do not change when you click on a frame
1026 ** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
1027 description various information about a character, including its
1028 encodings and syntax, its text properties, how to input, overlays, and
1029 widgets at point. You can get more information about some of them, by
1030 clicking on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
1033 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
1034 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
1035 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
1036 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
1037 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
1039 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
1040 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
1041 in Indented-Text mode.
1043 ** New user option `query-replace-skip-read-only': when non-nil,
1044 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
1045 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
1047 ** When used interactively, the commands `query-replace-regexp' and
1048 `replace-regexp' allow \,expr to be used in a replacement string,
1049 where expr is an arbitrary Lisp expression evaluated at replacement
1050 time. In many cases, this will be more convenient than using
1051 `query-replace-regexp-eval'. `\#' in a replacement string now refers
1052 to the count of replacements already made by the replacement command.
1053 All regular expression replacement commands now allow `\?' in the
1054 replacement string to specify a position where the replacement string
1055 can be edited for each replacement.
1058 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
1059 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
1060 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
1061 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
1062 also disable mouse highlighting.
1064 ** You can now customize if selecting a region by dragging the mouse
1065 shall not copy the selected text to the kill-ring by setting the new
1066 variable mouse-drag-copy-region to nil.
1069 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
1070 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
1071 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
1072 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
1073 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
1076 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
1077 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
1078 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
1082 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
1083 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
1084 the mode line of the currently selected window.
1086 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
1087 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
1090 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
1091 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
1092 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
1093 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
1094 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
1095 current date and time, current line and column number in the
1099 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
1102 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mail
1103 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
1104 `display-time-mail-directory'.
1107 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
1110 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
1111 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
1112 argument it toggles the mode.
1114 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
1115 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
1118 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
1119 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
1120 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
1121 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
1122 `inhibit-splash-screen').
1124 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
1127 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
1128 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
1129 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
1130 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
1131 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
1132 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
1133 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
1134 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
1135 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
1138 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
1139 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
1140 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
1141 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
1142 all of these colors.
1145 *** Emacs now uses the full range of available colors for the default
1146 faces when running on a color terminal, including 16-, 88-, and
1147 256-color xterms. This means that when you run "emacs -nw" on an
1148 88-color or 256-color xterm, you will see essentially the same face
1152 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
1155 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
1157 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
1158 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
1159 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
1160 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
1163 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
1167 ** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
1168 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
1169 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
1170 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
1173 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
1175 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
1177 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
1180 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
1181 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
1183 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
1184 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
1186 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
1188 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
1189 run by the key sequence.
1191 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
1192 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
1195 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
1196 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
1198 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
1199 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
1201 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
1202 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
1204 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
1205 new-kill-line is on C-k
1208 ** Vertical scrolling is now possible within incremental search.
1209 To enable this feature, customize the new user option
1210 `isearch-allow-scroll'. User written commands which satisfy stringent
1211 constraints can be marked as "scrolling commands". See the Emacs manual
1215 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
1216 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
1217 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
1218 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
1221 ** C-y in incremental search now grabs the next line if point is already
1222 at the end of a line.
1225 ** C-M-w deletes and C-M-y grabs a character in isearch mode.
1226 Another method to grab a character is to enter the minibuffer by `M-e'
1227 and to type `C-f' at the end of the search string in the minibuffer.
1230 ** M-% typed in isearch mode invokes `query-replace' or
1231 `query-replace-regexp' (depending on search mode) with the current
1232 search string used as the string to replace.
1235 ** Isearch no longer adds `isearch-resume' commands to the command
1236 history by default. To enable this feature, customize the new
1237 user option `isearch-resume-in-command-history'.
1240 ** New user option `history-delete-duplicates'.
1241 If set to t when adding a new history element, all previous identical
1242 elements are deleted.
1245 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
1246 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
1247 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
1248 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
1251 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
1252 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
1253 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
1254 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
1257 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
1258 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep automatically
1259 detects whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
1260 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
1261 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
1262 command lines to be used than was possible before.
1265 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
1266 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
1267 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
1268 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
1269 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
1270 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
1271 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
1274 ** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
1275 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
1276 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
1277 under the "[State]" button.
1279 ** The new customization type `float' specifies numbers with floating
1280 point (no integers are allowed).
1283 ** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
1284 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
1287 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
1289 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
1290 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
1291 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
1292 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
1293 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
1295 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
1296 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
1297 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
1300 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
1303 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
1304 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
1305 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
1307 Added Customization Variables
1309 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
1311 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
1312 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
1313 java sources (previous method).
1315 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
1316 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
1321 *** The STARTTLS elisp wrapper (starttls.el) can now use GNUTLS
1322 instead of the OpenSSL based "starttls" tool. For backwards
1323 compatibility, it prefers "starttls", but you can toggle
1324 `starttls-use-gnutls' to switch to GNUTLS (or simply remove the
1327 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
1330 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
1331 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
1332 changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
1335 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
1336 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
1337 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
1338 is only rarely needed.
1342 *** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
1344 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
1345 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
1346 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
1347 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
1349 *** contextual refontification is now separate from stealth fontification.
1351 jit-lock-defer-contextually is renamed jit-lock-contextually and
1352 jit-lock-context-time determines the delay after which contextual
1353 refontification takes place.
1356 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
1357 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
1358 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region extends each time, so
1359 you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC, for example.
1360 This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you bind that to
1364 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
1365 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
1366 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
1367 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
1368 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
1371 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
1372 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
1373 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
1376 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
1377 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
1378 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
1382 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
1383 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... cycles through the
1384 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
1387 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
1388 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
1392 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
1393 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
1394 affects the initial frame.
1397 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
1398 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
1399 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
1403 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
1404 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
1405 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
1406 directory listing into a buffer.
1409 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
1410 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
1412 ** Unexpected yanking of text due to accidental clicking on the mouse
1413 wheel button (typically mouse-2) during wheel scrolling is now avoided.
1414 This behaviour can be customized via the mouse-wheel-click-event and
1415 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
1418 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
1419 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
1420 may mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
1421 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
1422 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
1423 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
1424 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
1425 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
1428 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
1429 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
1430 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
1431 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
1432 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
1435 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
1436 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
1439 ** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
1440 of the recognized cursor types.
1443 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
1444 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
1445 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
1448 ** There is a new calendar package, icalendar.el, that can be used to
1449 convert Emacs diary entries to/from the iCalendar format.
1452 ** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
1453 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
1454 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic') now take an optional parameter MARK,
1455 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
1456 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
1457 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
1458 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
1459 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
1460 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
1463 ** The new function `calendar-goto-day-of-year' (g D) prompts for a
1464 year and day number, and moves to that date. Negative day numbers
1465 count backward from the end of the year.
1468 ** The new Calendar function `calendar-goto-iso-week' (g w)
1469 prompts for a year and a week number, and moves to the first
1470 day of that ISO week.
1473 ** The functions `holiday-easter-etc' and `holiday-advent' now take
1474 arguments, and only report on the specified holiday rather than all.
1475 This makes customization of the variable `christian-holidays' simpler,
1476 but existing customizations may need to be updated.
1478 ** The function `simple-diary-display' now by default sets a header line.
1479 This can be controlled through the variables `diary-header-line-flag'
1480 and `diary-header-line-format'.
1483 ** The procedure for activating appointment reminders has changed: use
1484 the new function `appt-activate'. The new variable
1485 `appt-display-format' controls how reminders are displayed, replacing
1486 appt-issue-message, appt-visible, and appt-msg-window.
1488 ** The new functions `diary-from-outlook', `diary-from-outlook-gnus',
1489 and `diary-from-outlook-rmail' can be used to import diary entries
1490 from Outlook-format appointments in mail messages. The variable
1491 `diary-outlook-formats' can be customized to recognize additional
1497 *** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
1498 the read-only state of the buffer (toggle-read-only). We made this
1499 change because we held a poll and found that many users were unhappy
1500 with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this behavior, you
1501 can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your .emacs:
1503 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
1505 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
1508 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
1509 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
1510 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
1511 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
1512 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
1515 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
1520 *** When comparing directories.
1521 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
1522 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
1523 from one directory to another.
1526 *** When comparing files or buffers.
1527 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
1528 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
1529 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
1532 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
1533 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
1534 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
1539 *** New regular expressions features
1541 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
1542 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
1543 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
1544 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
1545 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
1546 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
1547 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
1548 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
1549 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
1550 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
1551 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
1553 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc.
1554 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
1555 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
1558 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
1559 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
1560 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
1561 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
1563 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
1564 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
1565 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
1567 *** New language parsing features
1569 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
1570 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
1572 **** The gnucc __attribute__ keyword is now recognised and ignored.
1574 **** New language HTML.
1575 Title and h1, h2, h3 are tagged. Also, tags are generated when name= is
1576 used inside an anchor and whenever id= is used.
1578 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
1579 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
1580 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
1582 **** New language Lua.
1583 All functions are tagged.
1585 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
1586 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
1587 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
1590 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
1592 **** New language PHP.
1593 Tags are functions, classes and defines.
1594 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are variables also.
1596 **** New default keywords for TeX.
1597 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
1600 *** Honour #line directives.
1601 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
1602 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
1603 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
1604 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
1605 writes tags pointing to the source file.
1607 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
1608 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
1609 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
1610 reads from standard input and marks the produced tags as belonging to
1616 *** Font lock support.
1617 CC Mode now provides font lock support for all its languages. This
1618 supersedes the font lock patterns that have been in the core font lock
1619 package for C, C++, Java and Objective-C. Like indentation, font
1620 locking is done in a uniform way across all languages (except the new
1621 AWK mode - see below). That means that the new font locking will be
1622 different from the old patterns in various details for most languages.
1624 The main goal of the font locking in CC Mode is accuracy, to provide a
1625 dependable aid in recognizing the various constructs. Some, like
1626 strings and comments, are easy to recognize while others like
1627 declarations and types can be very tricky. CC Mode can go to great
1628 lengths to recognize declarations and casts correctly, especially when
1629 the types aren't recognized by standard patterns. This is a fairly
1630 demanding analysis which can be slow on older hardware, and it can
1631 therefore be disabled by choosing a lower decoration level with the
1632 variable font-lock-maximum-decoration.
1634 Note that the most demanding font lock level has been tuned with lazy
1635 fontification in mind, i.e. there should be a support mode that waits
1636 with the fontification until the text is actually shown
1637 (e.g. Just-in-time Lock mode, which is the default, or Lazy Lock
1638 mode). Fontifying a file with several thousand lines in one go can
1639 take the better part of a minute.
1641 **** The (c|c++|objc|java|idl|pike)-font-lock-extra-types variables
1642 are now used by CC Mode to recognize identifiers that are certain to
1643 be types. (They are also used in cases that aren't related to font
1644 locking.) At the maximum decoration level, types are often recognized
1645 properly anyway, so these variables should be fairly restrictive and
1646 not contain patterns for uncertain types.
1648 **** Support for documentation comments.
1649 There is a "plugin" system to fontify documentation comments like
1650 Javadoc and the markup within them. It's independent of the host
1651 language, so it's possible to e.g. turn on Javadoc font locking in C
1652 buffers. See the variable c-doc-comment-style for details.
1654 Currently two kinds of doc comment styles are recognized: Suns Javadoc
1655 and Autodoc which is used in Pike. This is by no means a complete
1656 list of the most common tools; if your doc comment extractor of choice
1657 is missing then please drop a note to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1659 **** Better handling of C++ templates.
1660 As a side effect of the more accurate font locking, C++ templates are
1661 now handled much better. The angle brackets that delimit them are
1662 given parenthesis syntax so that they can be navigated like other
1665 This also improves indentation of templates, although there still is
1666 work to be done in that area. E.g. it's required that multiline
1667 template clauses are written in full and then refontified to be
1668 recognized, and the indentation of nested templates is a bit odd and
1669 not as configurable as it ought to be.
1671 **** Improved handling of Objective-C and CORBA IDL.
1672 Especially the support for Objective-C and IDL has gotten an overhaul.
1673 The special "@" declarations in Objective-C are handled correctly.
1674 All the keywords used in CORBA IDL, PSDL, and CIDL are recognized and
1675 handled correctly, also wrt indentation.
1677 *** Support for the AWK language.
1678 Support for the AWK language has been introduced. The implementation is
1679 based around GNU AWK version 3.1, but it should work pretty well with
1680 any AWK. As yet, not all features of CC Mode have been adapted for AWK.
1683 **** Indentation Engine
1684 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
1686 AWK mode handles code formatted in the conventional AWK fashion: `{'s
1687 which start actions, user-defined functions, or compound statements are
1688 placed on the same line as the associated construct; the matching `}'s
1689 are normally placed under the start of the respective pattern, function
1690 definition, or structured statement.
1692 The predefined indentation functions haven't yet been adapted for AWK
1693 mode, though some of them may work serendipitously. There shouldn't be
1694 any problems writing custom indentation functions for AWK mode.
1696 The command C-c C-q (c-indent-defun) hasn't yet been adapted for AWK,
1697 though in practice it works properly nearly all the time. Should it
1698 fail, explicitly set the region around the function (using C-u C-SPC:
1699 C-M-h probably won't work either) then do C-M-\ (indent-region).
1702 There is a single level of font locking in AWK mode, rather than the
1703 three distinct levels the other modes have. There are several
1704 idiosyncrasies in AWK mode's font-locking due to the peculiarities of
1705 the AWK language itself.
1707 **** Comment Commands
1708 M-; (indent-for-comment) works fine. None of the other CC Mode
1709 comment formatting commands have yet been adapted for AWK mode.
1711 **** Movement Commands
1712 Most of the movement commands work in AWK mode. The most important
1713 exceptions are M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) and M-e
1714 (c-end-of-statement) which haven't yet been adapted.
1716 The notion of "defun" has been augmented to include AWK pattern-action
1717 pairs. C-M-a (c-awk-beginning-of-defun) and C-M-e (c-awk-end-of-defun)
1718 recognise these pattern-action pairs, as well as user defined
1721 **** Auto-newline Insertion and Clean-ups
1722 Auto-newline insertion hasn't yet been adapted for AWK. Some of
1723 the clean-ups can actually convert good AWK code into syntactically
1724 invalid code. These features are best disabled in AWK buffers.
1726 *** New syntactic symbols in IDL mode.
1727 The top level constructs "module" and "composition" (from CIDL) are
1728 now handled like "namespace" in C++: They are given syntactic symbols
1729 module-open, module-close, inmodule, composition-open,
1730 composition-close, and incomposition.
1732 *** New functions to do hungry delete without enabling hungry delete mode.
1733 The functions c-hungry-backspace and c-hungry-delete-forward can be
1734 bound to keys to get this feature without toggling a mode.
1735 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1737 *** Better control over require-final-newline.
1738 The variable that controls how to handle a final newline when the
1739 buffer is saved, require-final-newline, is now customizable on a
1740 per-mode basis through c-require-final-newline. The default is to set
1741 it to t only in languages that mandate a final newline in source files
1742 (C, C++ and Objective-C).
1744 *** Format change for syntactic context elements.
1745 The elements in the syntactic context returned by c-guess-basic-syntax
1746 and stored in c-syntactic-context has been changed somewhat to allow
1747 attaching more information. They are now lists instead of single cons
1748 cells. E.g. a line that previously had the syntactic analysis
1750 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
1754 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
1756 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
1759 This change might affect code that call c-guess-basic-syntax directly,
1760 and custom lineup functions if they use c-syntactic-context. However,
1761 the argument given to lineup functions is still a single cons cell
1762 with nil or an integer in the cdr.
1764 *** API changes for derived modes.
1765 There have been extensive changes "under the hood" which can affect
1766 derived mode writers. Some of these changes are likely to cause
1767 incompatibilities with existing derived modes, but on the other hand
1768 care has now been taken to make it possible to extend and modify CC
1769 Mode with less risk of such problems in the future.
1771 **** New language variable system.
1772 See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
1774 **** New initialization functions.
1775 The initialization procedure has been split up into more functions to
1776 give better control: c-basic-common-init, c-font-lock-init, and
1777 c-init-language-vars.
1779 *** Changes in analysis of nested syntactic constructs.
1780 The syntactic analysis engine has better handling of cases where
1781 several syntactic constructs appear nested on the same line. They are
1782 now handled as if each construct started on a line of its own.
1784 This means that CC Mode now indents some cases differently, and
1785 although it's more consistent there might be cases where the old way
1786 gave results that's more to one's liking. So if you find a situation
1787 where you think that the indentation has become worse, please report
1788 it to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1790 **** New syntactic symbol substatement-label.
1791 This symbol is used when a label is inserted between a statement and
1792 its substatement. E.g:
1798 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
1800 **** Syntactic indentation inside macros.
1801 The contents of multiline #define's are now analyzed and indented
1802 syntactically just like other code. This can be disabled by the new
1803 variable c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros. A new syntactic symbol
1804 cpp-define-intro has been added to control the initial indentation
1807 **** New lineup function c-lineup-cpp-define.
1808 Now used by default to line up macro continuation lines. The behavior
1809 of this function closely mimics the indentation one gets if the macro
1810 is indented while the line continuation backslashes are temporarily
1811 removed. If syntactic indentation in macros is turned off, it works
1812 much line c-lineup-dont-change, which was used earlier, but handles
1813 empty lines within the macro better.
1815 **** Automatically inserted newlines continues the macro if used within one.
1816 This applies to the newlines inserted by the auto-newline mode, and to
1817 c-context-line-break and c-context-open-line.
1819 **** Better alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1820 c-backslash-region tries to adapt to surrounding backslashes. New
1821 variable c-backslash-max-column which put a limit on how far out
1822 backslashes can be moved.
1824 **** Automatic alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1825 This is controlled by the new variable c-auto-align-backslashes. It
1826 affects c-context-line-break, c-context-open-line and newlines
1827 inserted in auto-newline mode.
1829 **** Line indentation works better inside macros.
1830 Regardless whether syntactic indentation and syntactic indentation
1831 inside macros are enabled or not, line indentation now ignores the
1832 line continuation backslashes. This is most noticeable when syntactic
1833 indentation is turned off and there are empty lines (save for the
1834 backslash) in the macro.
1836 *** indent-for-comment is more customizable.
1837 The behavior of M-; (indent-for-comment) is now configurable through
1838 the variable c-indent-comment-alist. The indentation behavior based
1839 on the preceding code on the line, e.g. to get two spaces after #else
1840 and #endif but indentation to comment-column in most other cases
1841 (something which was hardcoded earlier).
1843 *** New function c-context-open-line.
1844 It's the open-line equivalent of c-context-line-break.
1846 *** New lineup functions
1848 **** c-lineup-string-cont
1849 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
1852 result = prefix + "A message "
1853 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
1855 **** c-lineup-cascaded-calls
1856 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
1858 **** c-lineup-knr-region-comment
1859 Gives (what most people think is) better indentation of comments in
1860 the "K&R region" between the function header and its body.
1862 **** c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
1863 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks. Contributed by Kevin
1866 **** c-lineup-argcont
1867 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
1868 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1870 *** Better caching of the syntactic context.
1871 CC Mode caches the positions of the opening parentheses (of any kind)
1872 of the lists surrounding the point. Those positions are used in many
1873 places as anchor points for various searches. The cache is now
1874 improved so that it can be reused to a large extent when the point is
1875 moved. The less it moves, the less needs to be recalculated.
1877 The effect is that CC Mode should be fast most of the time even when
1878 opening parens are hung (i.e. aren't in column zero). It's typically
1879 only the first time after the point is moved far down in a complex
1880 file that it'll take noticeable time to find out the syntactic
1883 *** Statements are recognized in a more robust way.
1884 Statements are recognized most of the time even when they occur in an
1885 "invalid" context, e.g. in a function argument. In practice that can
1886 happen when macros are involved.
1888 *** Improved the way c-indent-exp chooses the block to indent.
1889 It now indents the block for the closest sexp following the point
1890 whose closing paren ends on a different line. This means that the
1891 point doesn't have to be immediately before the block to indent.
1892 Also, only the block and the closing line is indented; the current
1893 line is left untouched.
1895 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
1896 The function c-toggle-syntactic-indentation can be used to toggle
1897 syntactic indentation.
1899 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
1900 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
1903 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
1904 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
1907 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
1908 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
1909 whose names begin with space are omitted.
1912 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
1913 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
1914 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
1917 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
1918 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry always
1919 starts a new record regardless of when the last record is.
1922 ** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
1923 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
1924 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
1925 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
1926 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
1927 from the file name or buffer contents.
1930 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
1933 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
1936 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
1939 ** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
1940 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
1941 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
1944 ** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
1945 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
1947 ** F90 mode now has support for hs-minor-mode (hideshow).
1948 It cannot deal with every code format, but ought to handle a sizeable
1952 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
1953 to support use of font-lock.
1956 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
1957 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
1961 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
1962 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
1963 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
1966 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
1967 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
1968 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
1969 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
1970 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
1971 candidate is a directory.
1974 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
1975 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
1976 it remains unchanged.
1978 ** Enhanced visual feedback in *Completions* buffer.
1980 Completions lists use faces to highlight what all completions
1981 have in common and where they begin to differ.
1983 The common prefix shared by all possible completions uses the face
1984 `completions-common-part', while the first character that isn't the
1985 same uses the face `completions-first-difference'. By default,
1986 `completions-common-part' inherits from `default', and
1987 `completions-first-difference' inherits from `bold'. The idea of
1988 `completions-common-part' is that you can use it to make the common
1989 parts less visible than normal, so that the rest of the differing
1990 parts is, by contrast, slightly highlighted.
1993 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
1994 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
1995 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
1998 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
2001 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
2002 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
2003 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
2006 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
2007 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
2010 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
2011 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
2012 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
2013 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
2014 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
2015 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
2016 against. For additional information, see nt/INSTALL.
2019 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
2020 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
2021 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
2022 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
2023 sound support for those formats.
2026 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
2027 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
2030 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
2031 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
2032 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
2033 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
2036 ** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
2037 The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in much
2038 the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now adds these
2039 colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu for the
2040 default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground), and uses
2041 some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
2042 `list-colors-display' shows the list of System color names, in case
2043 you wish to use them in other faces.
2046 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
2047 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
2048 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
2049 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
2051 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
2052 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
2055 ** vc-annotate-mode enhancements
2057 In vc-annotate mode, you can now use the following key bindings for
2058 enhanced functionality to browse the annotations of past revisions, or
2059 to view diffs or log entries directly from vc-annotate-mode:
2061 P: annotates the previous revision
2062 N: annotates the next revision
2063 J: annotates the revision at line
2064 A: annotates the revision previous to line
2065 D: shows the diff of the revision at line with its previous revision
2066 L: shows the log of the revision at line
2067 W: annotates the workfile (most up to date) version
2070 ** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d y' command to view the diffs
2071 between the local version of the file and yesterday's head revision
2075 ** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d r' command to view the changes
2076 anyone has committed to the repository since you last executed
2077 "checkout", "update" or "commit". That means using cvs diff options
2081 * New modes and packages in Emacs 21.4
2083 ** The new package password.el provide a password cache and expiring mechanism.
2085 ** The new package dns-mode.el add syntax highlight of DNS master files.
2086 The key binding C-c C-s (`dns-mode-soa-increment-serial') can be used
2087 to increment the SOA serial.
2089 ** The new package flymake.el does on-the-fly syntax checking of program
2090 source files. See the Flymake's Info manual for more details.
2092 ** The library tree-widget.el provides a new widget to display a set
2093 of hierarchical data as an outline. For example, the tree-widget is
2094 well suited to display a hierarchy of directories and files.
2096 ** The wdired.el package allows you to use normal editing commands on Dired
2097 buffers to change filenames, permissions, etc...
2099 ** The thumbs.el package allows you to preview image files as thumbnails
2100 and can be invoked from a Dired buffer.
2102 ** The new python.el package is used to edit Python and Jython programs.
2104 ** The URL package (which had been part of W3) is now part of Emacs.
2107 ** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
2108 shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
2110 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
2113 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2115 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
2116 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
2117 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
2118 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
2121 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2123 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
2124 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
2125 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
2126 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
2127 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
2128 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
2130 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
2131 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
2132 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
2133 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
2135 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
2136 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
2137 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
2138 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
2139 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
2140 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
2141 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
2143 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
2144 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
2145 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
2147 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
2148 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
2150 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
2151 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
2152 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
2153 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
2155 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
2156 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
2157 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
2158 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
2160 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
2161 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
2162 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
2163 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
2165 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
2166 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
2167 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
2168 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
2169 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
2171 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
2172 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
2173 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
2174 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
2175 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
2176 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
2178 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
2179 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
2180 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
2181 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
2182 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
2183 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
2184 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
2185 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
2186 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
2190 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
2191 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
2193 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
2194 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
2195 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
2196 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
2198 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
2201 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
2202 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
2203 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
2204 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
2205 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
2208 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
2209 the keyboard macro ring.
2211 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
2212 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
2214 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
2215 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
2216 this behaviour via the variable kmacro-call-repeat-key and
2217 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
2219 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
2220 C-x C-k SPC steps through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
2221 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
2224 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
2225 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
2226 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
2227 C-c C-i b, and so on.
2229 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2231 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
2232 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
2233 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
2234 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
2235 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
2236 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
2239 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2241 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
2242 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
2243 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
2244 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
2247 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
2249 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
2250 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
2251 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
2252 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
2253 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
2254 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
2255 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
2256 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
2257 `rsync' to do the copying).
2259 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
2263 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
2264 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
2265 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
2266 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
2267 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method may
2268 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
2271 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
2272 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
2273 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
2277 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
2278 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
2279 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
2280 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
2282 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
2285 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
2286 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
2288 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
2289 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
2290 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
2291 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
2292 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
2293 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
2296 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
2297 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
2298 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
2299 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
2302 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
2303 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
2304 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
2305 mode-lines in inverse-video.
2308 ** cplus-md.el has been removed to avoid problems with Custom.
2310 ** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
2311 timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
2313 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the appearance of fringes.
2315 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
2316 configuration files.
2318 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
2321 ** The new function `called-interactively-p' does what many people
2322 have mistakenly believed `interactively-p' did: it returns t if the
2323 calling function was called through `call-interactively'.
2324 This should only be used when you cannot add a new "interactively"
2325 argument to the command.
2328 ** An interactive specification may now use the code letter 'U' to get
2329 the up-event that was discarded in case the last key sequence read for a
2330 previous 'k' or 'K' argument was a down-event; otherwise nil is used.
2332 ** Function `translate-region' accepts also a char-table as TABLE
2336 ** Major mode functions now run the new normal hook
2337 `after-change-major-mode-hook', at their very end, after the mode hooks.
2340 ** `auto-save-file-format' has been renamed to
2341 `buffer-auto-save-file-format' and made into a permanent local.
2344 ** Both the variable and the function `disabled-command-hook' have
2345 been renamed to `disabled-command-function'. The variable
2346 `disabled-command-hook' has been kept as an obsolete alias.
2348 ** Function `compute-motion' now calculates the usable window
2349 width if the WIDTH argument is nil. If the TOPOS argument is nil,
2350 the usable window height and width is used.
2353 ** `visited-file-modtime' and `calendar-time-from-absolute' now return
2354 a list of two integers, instead of a cons.
2356 ** If a command sets transient-mark-mode to `only', that
2357 enables Transient Mark mode for the following command only.
2358 During that following command, the value of transient-mark-mode
2359 is `identity'. If it is still `identity' at the end of the command,
2363 ** Cleaner way to enter key sequences.
2365 You can enter a constant key sequence in a more natural format, the
2366 same one used for saving keyboard macros, using the macro `kbd'. For
2369 (kbd "C-x C-f") => "\^x\^f"
2371 ** The sentinel is now called when a network process is deleted with
2372 delete-process. The status message passed to the sentinel for a
2373 deleted network process is "deleted". The message passed to the
2374 sentinel when the connection is closed by the remote peer has been
2375 changed to "connection broken by remote peer".
2377 ** If the buffer's undo list for the current command gets longer than
2378 undo-outer-limit, garbage collection empties it. This is to prevent
2379 it from using up the available memory and choking Emacs.
2382 ** New function quail-find-key returns a list of keys to type in the
2383 current input method to input a character.
2386 ** New functions posn-at-point and posn-at-x-y return
2387 click-event-style position information for a given visible buffer
2388 position or for a given window pixel coordinate.
2390 ** skip-chars-forward and skip-chars-backward now handle
2391 character classes such as [:alpha:], along with individual characters
2394 ** Function pos-visible-in-window-p now returns the pixel coordinates
2395 and partial visiblity state of the corresponding row, if the PARTIALLY
2398 ** The function `eql' is now available without requiring the CL package.
2401 ** The new primitive `set-file-times' sets a file's access and
2402 modification times. Magic file name handlers can handle this
2405 ** file-remote-p now returns an identifier for the remote system,
2406 if the file is indeed remote. (Before, the return value was t in
2410 ** The display space :width and :align-to text properties are now
2411 supported on text terminals.
2414 ** Support for displaying image slices
2416 *** New display property (slice X Y WIDTH HEIGHT) may be used with
2417 an image property to display only a specific slice of the image.
2419 *** Function insert-image has new optional fourth arg to
2420 specify image slice (X Y WIDTH HEIGHT).
2422 *** New function insert-sliced-image inserts a given image as a
2423 specified number of evenly sized slices (rows x columns).
2426 ** New line-height and line-spacing properties for newline characters
2428 A newline may now have line-height and line-spacing text or overlay
2429 properties that control the height of the corresponding display row.
2431 If the line-height property value is 0, the newline does not
2432 contribute to the height of the display row; instead the height of the
2433 newline glyph is reduced. Also, a line-spacing property on this
2434 newline is ignored. This can be used to tile small images or image
2435 slices without adding blank areas between the images.
2437 If the line-height property value is a positive integer, the value
2438 specifies the minimum line height in pixels. If necessary, the line
2439 height it increased by increasing the line's ascent.
2441 If the line-height property value is a float, the minimum line height
2442 is calculated by multiplying the default frame line height by the
2445 If the line-height property value is a cons (RATIO . FACE), the
2446 minimum line height is calculated as RATIO * height of named FACE.
2447 RATIO is int or float. If FACE is t, it specifies the current face.
2449 If the line-spacing property value is an positive integer, the value
2450 is used as additional pixels to insert after the display line; this
2451 overrides the default frame line-spacing and any buffer local value of
2452 the line-spacing variable.
2454 If the line-spacing property may be a float or cons, the line spacing
2455 is calculated as specified above for the line-height property.
2457 If the line-spacing value is a cons (total . SPACING) where SPACING is
2458 any of the forms described above, the value of SPACING is used as the
2459 total height of the line, i.e. a varying number of pixels are inserted
2460 after each line to make each line exactly that many pixels high.
2462 ** The buffer local line-spacing variable may now have a float value,
2463 which is used as a height relative to the default frame line height.
2466 ** Enhancements to stretch display properties
2468 The display property stretch specification form `(space PROPS)', where
2469 PROPS is a property list now allows pixel based width and height
2470 specifications, as well as enhanced horizontal text alignment.
2472 The value of these properties can now be a (primitive) expression
2473 which is evaluated during redisplay. The following expressions
2476 EXPR ::= NUM | (NUM) | UNIT | ELEM | POS | IMAGE | FORM
2477 NUM ::= INTEGER | FLOAT | SYMBOL
2478 UNIT ::= in | mm | cm | width | height
2479 ELEM ::= left-fringe | right-fringe | left-margin | right-margin
2481 POS ::= left | center | right
2482 FORM ::= (NUM . EXPR) | (OP EXPR ...)
2485 The form `NUM' specifies a fractional width or height of the default
2486 frame font size. The form `(NUM)' specifies an absolute number of
2487 pixels. If a symbol is specified, its buffer-local variable binding
2488 is used. The `in', `mm', and `cm' units specifies the number of
2489 pixels per inch, milli-meter, and centi-meter, resp. The `width' and
2490 `height' units correspond to the width and height of the current face
2491 font. An image specification corresponds to the width or height of
2494 The `left-fringe', `right-fringe', `left-margin', `right-margin',
2495 `scroll-bar', and `text' elements specify to the width of the
2496 corresponding area of the window.
2498 The `left', `center', and `right' positions can be used with :align-to
2499 to specify a position relative to the left edge, center, or right edge
2500 of the text area. One of the above window elements (except `text')
2501 can also be used with :align-to to specify that the position is
2502 relative to the left edge of the given area. Once the base offset for
2503 a relative position has been set (by the first occurrence of one of
2504 these symbols), further occurences of these symbols are interpreted as
2505 the width of the area.
2507 For example, to align to the center of the left-margin, use
2508 :align-to (+ left-margin (0.5 . left-margin))
2510 If no specific base offset is set for alignment, it is always relative
2511 to the left edge of the text area. For example, :align-to 0 in a
2512 header-line aligns with the first text column in the text area.
2514 The value of the form `(NUM . EXPR)' is the value of NUM multiplied by
2515 the value of the expression EXPR. For example, (2 . in) specifies a
2516 width of 2 inches, while (0.5 . IMAGE) specifies half the width (or
2517 height) of the specified image.
2519 The form `(+ EXPR ...)' adds up the value of the expressions.
2520 The form `(- EXPR ...)' negates or subtracts the value of the expressions.
2523 ** Normally, the cursor is displayed at the end of any overlay and
2524 text property string that may be present at the current window
2525 position. The cursor may now be placed on any character of such
2526 strings by giving that character a non-nil `cursor' text property.
2528 ** New macro with-local-quit temporarily sets inhibit-quit to nil for use
2529 around potentially blocking or long-running code in timers
2530 and post-command-hooks.
2533 ** New face attribute `min-colors' can be used to tailor the face color
2534 to the number of colors supported by a display, and define the
2535 foreground and background colors accordingly so that they look best on
2536 a terminal that supports at least this many colors. This is now the
2537 preferred method for defining default faces in a way that makes a good
2538 use of the capabilities of the display.
2541 ** Customizable fringe bitmaps
2543 *** New function 'define-fringe-bitmap' can now be used to create new
2544 fringe bitmaps, as well as change the built-in fringe bitmaps.
2546 To change a built-in bitmap, do (require 'fringe) and use the symbol
2547 identifing the bitmap such as `left-truncation or `continued-line'.
2549 *** New function 'destroy-fringe-bitmap' may be used to destroy a
2550 previously created bitmap, or restore a built-in bitmap.
2552 *** New function 'set-fringe-bitmap-face' can now be used to set a
2553 specific face to be used for a specific fringe bitmap. Normally,
2554 this should be a face derived from the `fringe' face, specifying
2555 the foreground color as the desired color of the bitmap.
2557 *** There are new display properties, left-fringe and right-fringe,
2558 that can be used to show a specific bitmap in the left or right fringe
2559 bitmap of the display line.
2561 Format is 'display '(left-fringe BITMAP [FACE]), where BITMAP is a
2562 symbol identifying a fringe bitmap, either built-in or defined with
2563 `define-fringe-bitmap', and FACE is an optional face name to be used
2564 for displaying the bitmap.
2566 *** New function `fringe-bitmaps-at-pos' returns the current fringe
2567 bitmaps in the display line at a given buffer position.
2569 ** Multiple overlay arrows can now be defined and managed via the new
2570 variable `overlay-arrow-variable-list'. It contains a list of
2571 varibles which contain overlay arrow position markers, including
2572 the original `overlay-arrow-position' variable.
2574 Each variable on this list may have individual `overlay-arrow-string'
2575 and `overlay-arrow-bitmap' properties that specify an overlay arrow
2576 string (for non-window terminals) or fringe bitmap (for window
2577 systems) to display at the corresponding overlay arrow position.
2578 If either property is not set, the default `overlay-arrow-string' or
2579 'overlay-arrow-fringe-bitmap' will be used.
2582 ** New function `line-number-at-pos' returns line number of current
2583 line in current buffer, or if optional buffer position is given, line
2584 number of corresponding line in current buffer.
2587 ** The default value of `sentence-end' is now defined using the new
2588 variable `sentence-end-without-space' which contains such characters
2589 that end a sentence without following spaces.
2592 ** The function `sentence-end' should be used to obtain the value of
2593 the variable `sentence-end'. If the variable `sentence-end' is nil,
2594 then this function returns the regexp constructed from the variables
2595 `sentence-end-without-period', `sentence-end-double-space' and
2596 `sentence-end-without-space'.
2599 ** The flags, width, and precision options for %-specifications in function
2600 `format' are now documented. Some flags that were accepted but not
2601 implemented (such as "*") are no longer accepted.
2603 ** New function `macroexpand-all' expands all macros in a form.
2604 It is similar to the Common-Lisp function of the same name.
2605 One difference is that it guarantees to return the original argument
2606 if no expansion is done, which may be tested using `eq'.
2609 ** New function `delete-dups' destructively removes `equal' duplicates
2610 from a list. Of several `equal' occurrences of an element in the list,
2611 the first one is kept.
2614 ** `declare' is now a macro. This change was made mostly for
2615 documentation purposes and should have no real effect on Lisp code.
2617 ** The new hook `before-save-hook' is invoked by `basic-save-buffer'
2618 before saving buffers. This allows packages to perform various final
2619 tasks, for example; it can be used by the copyright package to make
2620 sure saved files have the current year in any copyright headers.
2623 ** The function `insert-for-yank' now supports strings where the
2624 `yank-handler' property does not span the first character of the
2625 string. The old behavior is available if you call
2626 `insert-for-yank-1' instead.
2628 ** New function `get-char-property-and-overlay' accepts the same
2629 arguments as `get-char-property' and returns a cons whose car is the
2630 return value of `get-char-property' called with those arguments and
2631 whose cdr is the overlay in which the property was found, or nil if
2632 it was found as a text property or not found at all.
2636 ** The mouse pointer shape in void text areas (i.e. after the end of a
2637 line or below the last line in the buffer) of the text window is now
2638 controlled by the new variable `void-text-area-pointer'. The default
2639 is to use the `arrow' (non-text) pointer. Other choices are `text'
2640 (or nil), `hand', `vdrag', `hdrag', `modeline', and `hourglass'.
2643 ** The mouse pointer shape over an image can now be controlled by the
2644 :pointer image property.
2647 ** The mouse pointer shape over ordinary text or images may now be
2648 controlled/overriden via the `pointer' text property.
2651 ** Images may now have an associated image map via the :map property.
2653 An image map is an alist where each element has the format (AREA ID PLIST).
2654 An AREA is specified as either a rectangle, a circle, or a polygon:
2655 A rectangle is a cons (rect . ((x0 . y0) . (x1 . y1))) specifying the
2656 pixel coordinates of the upper left and bottom right corners.
2657 A circle is a cons (circle . ((x0 . y0) . r)) specifying the center
2658 and the radius of the circle; r may be a float or integer.
2659 A polygon is a cons (poly . [x0 y0 x1 y1 ...]) where each pair in the
2660 vector describes one corner in the polygon.
2662 When the mouse pointer is above a hot-spot area of an image, the
2663 PLIST of that hot-spot is consulted; if it contains a `help-echo'
2664 property it defines a tool-tip for the hot-spot, and if it contains
2665 a `pointer' property, it defines the shape of the mouse cursor when
2666 it is over the hot-spot. See the variable 'void-area-text-pointer'
2667 for possible pointer shapes.
2669 When you click the mouse when the mouse pointer is over a hot-spot,
2670 an event is composed by combining the ID of the hot-spot with the
2671 mouse event, e.g. [area4 mouse-1] if the hot-spot's ID is `area4'.
2673 ** Mouse event enhancements:
2675 *** Mouse clicks on fringes now generates left-fringe or right-fringes
2676 events, rather than a text area click event.
2678 *** Mouse clicks in the left and right marginal areas now includes a
2679 sensible buffer position corresponding to the first character in the
2680 corresponding text row.
2682 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
2685 *** Mouse events now includes buffer position for all event types.
2688 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
2691 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
2695 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types.
2698 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns actual glyph coordinates.
2701 *** Mouse events may now include image object in addition to string object.
2704 *** Mouse events include relative x and y pixel coordinates relative to
2705 the top left corner of the object (image or character) clicked on.
2708 *** Mouse events include the pixel width and height of the object
2709 (image or character) clicked on.
2712 *** New functions 'posn-object', 'posn-object-x-y', and
2713 'posn-object-width-height' return the image or string object of a mouse
2714 click, the x and y pixel coordinates relative to the top left corner
2715 of that object, and the total width and height of that object.
2717 ** New function `force-window-update' can initiate a full redisplay of
2718 one or all windows. Normally, this is not needed as changes in window
2719 contents are detected automatically. However, certain implicit
2720 changes to mode lines, header lines, or display properties may require
2721 forcing an explicit window update.
2723 ** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
2724 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
2727 ** `split-string' now includes null substrings in the returned list if
2728 the optional argument SEPARATORS is non-nil and there are matches for
2729 SEPARATORS at the beginning or end of the string. If SEPARATORS is
2730 nil, or if the new optional third argument OMIT-NULLS is non-nil, all
2731 empty matches are omitted from the returned list.
2734 ** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
2737 ** If optional third argument APPEND to `add-to-list' is non-nil, a
2738 new element gets added at the end of the list instead of at the
2739 beginning. This change actually occurred in Emacs-21.1, but was not
2742 ** Major modes can define `eldoc-print-current-symbol-info-function'
2743 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
2747 ** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
2748 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
2752 ** The argument to forward-word, backward-word, forward-to-indentation
2753 and backward-to-indentation is now optional, and defaults to 1.
2756 ** (char-displayable-p CHAR) returns non-nil if Emacs ought to be able
2757 to display CHAR. More precisely, if the selected frame's fontset has
2758 a font to display the character set that CHAR belongs to.
2760 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
2761 does that, this value may not be accurate.
2764 ** The new function `window-inside-edges' returns the edges of the
2765 actual text portion of the window, not including the scroll bar or
2766 divider line, the fringes, the display margins, the header line and
2770 ** The new functions `window-pixel-edges' and `window-inside-pixel-edges'
2771 return window edges in units of pixels, rather than columns and lines.
2774 ** The kill-buffer-hook is now permanent-local.
2777 ** `select-window' takes an optional second argument `norecord', like
2781 ** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
2782 selected window without impacting the order of buffer-list.
2785 ** The `keymap' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
2786 text-properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
2787 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `local-map' property.
2790 ** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
2794 ** VC changes for backends:
2795 *** (vc-switches BACKEND OPERATION) is a new function for use by backends.
2796 *** The new `find-version' backend function replaces the `destfile'
2797 parameter of the `checkout' backend function.
2798 Old code still works thanks to a default `find-version' behavior that
2799 uses the old `destfile' parameter.
2802 ** The new macro dynamic-completion-table supports using functions
2803 as a dynamic completion table.
2805 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
2807 FUN is called with one argument, the string for which completion is required,
2808 and it should return an alist containing all the intended possible
2809 completions. This alist may be a full list of possible completions so that FUN
2810 can ignore the value of its argument. If completion is performed in the
2811 minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer from which the minibuffer was
2812 entered. dynamic-completion-table then computes the completion.
2815 ** The new macro lazy-completion-table initializes a variable
2816 as a lazy completion table.
2818 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN &rest ARGS)
2820 If the completion table VAR is used for the first time (e.g., by passing VAR
2821 as an argument to `try-completion'), the function FUN is called with arguments
2822 ARGS. FUN must return the completion table that will be stored in VAR. If
2823 completion is requested in the minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer
2824 from which the minibuffer was entered. The return value of
2825 `lazy-completion-table' must be used to initialize the value of VAR.
2828 ** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
2831 ** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
2832 for all (existing and future) frames.
2835 ** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
2838 ** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
2841 ** The macro `with-syntax-table' does not copy the table any more.
2844 ** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
2845 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
2846 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
2847 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
2848 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
2851 ** The function `number-sequence' returns a list of equally-separated
2852 numbers. For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9).
2853 By default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different separation
2854 as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns (1.5 3.5 5.5).
2857 ** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
2858 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
2859 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
2860 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
2863 ** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
2864 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
2867 ** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character,
2868 unless it is followed by a `-' in a character constant (e.g. ?\s-A),
2869 in which case it is still interpreted as the super modifier.
2870 In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
2873 ** New function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the multibyteness
2874 of a string given to a process's filter.
2877 ** New function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns t if
2878 a string given to a process's filter is multibyte.
2881 ** A filter function of a process is called with a multibyte string if
2882 the filter's multibyteness is t. That multibyteness is decided by the
2883 value of `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is
2884 created and can be changed later by `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
2887 ** If a process's coding system is raw-text or no-conversion and its
2888 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
2889 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
2890 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
2891 which was not compatible with the behaviour of file reading.
2894 ** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
2895 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
2898 ** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
2899 on garbage collection.
2902 ** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
2903 it is read from a file without decoding.
2906 ** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
2909 ** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
2910 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
2911 by calling `select-window'.
2914 ** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
2915 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
2916 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
2917 need to have a name.
2919 ** Byte compiler changes:
2922 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
2923 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
2924 Emacs and XEmacs and may sometimes make the result significantly more
2925 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
2926 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
2930 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
2931 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
2932 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
2933 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
2936 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
2937 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
2939 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
2940 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
2941 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
2942 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
2943 macro expansion), but such tests may be nested. Note that `when' and
2944 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
2947 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
2948 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
2951 ** The new translation table `translation-table-for-input'
2952 is used for customizing self-insertion. The character to
2953 be inserted is translated through it.
2956 ** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
2957 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
2958 current file redefined it).
2961 ** New Lisp library testcover.el works with edebug to help you determine
2962 whether you've tested all your Lisp code. Function testcover-start
2963 instruments all functions in a given file. Then test your code. Function
2964 testcover-mark-all adds overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to
2965 show where coverage is lacking. Command testcover-next-mark (bind it to
2966 a key!) will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
2968 *** Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely evaluated;
2969 a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same value. The red
2970 splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly complete their evaluation,
2971 such as `error'. The brown splotches are skipped for forms that are expected
2972 to always evaluate to the same value, such as (setq x 14).
2974 *** For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to help
2975 out the test coverage tool. The macro `noreturn' suppresses a red splotch.
2976 It is an error if the argument to `noreturn' does return. The macro 1value
2977 suppresses a brown splotch for its argument. This macro is a no-op except
2978 during test-coverage -- then it signals an error if the argument actually
2979 returns differing values.
2982 ** New function unsafep returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly
2983 do anything dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be
2984 unsafe (calls dangerous function, alters global variable, etc).
2987 ** The new variable `print-continuous-numbering', when non-nil, says
2988 that successive calls to print functions should use the same
2989 numberings for circular structure references. This is only relevant
2990 when `print-circle' is non-nil.
2992 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
2993 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
2996 ** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
2997 the scroll-bar-width frame parameter value is nil.
3000 ** The new function copy-abbrev-table returns a new abbrev table that
3001 is a copy of a given abbrev table.
3004 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
3005 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
3006 can start with this line:
3008 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
3010 ** The option --directory DIR now modifies `load-path' immediately.
3011 Directories are added to the front of `load-path' in the order they
3012 appear on the command line. For example, with this command line:
3014 emacs -batch -L .. -L /tmp --eval "(require 'foo)"
3016 Emacs looks for library `foo' in the parent directory, then in /tmp, then
3017 in the other directories in `load-path'. (-L is short for --directory.)
3020 ** A function's docstring can now hold the function's usage info on
3021 its last line. It should match the regexp "\n\n(fn.*)\\'".
3024 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
3025 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
3028 ** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional buffer
3029 argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted it defaults to
3033 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
3034 and `display-warning'.
3037 ** The functions all-completions and try-completion now accept lists
3038 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
3039 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
3043 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
3044 much pure storage it will approximately need.
3047 ** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
3048 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
3049 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
3050 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
3053 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
3054 of one coding system from another coding system.
3057 ** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
3058 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
3059 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
3060 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
3064 ** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
3065 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
3066 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
3067 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
3068 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
3069 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
3071 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
3072 confirmation as before.
3075 ** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
3077 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
3078 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
3079 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
3080 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
3082 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
3083 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
3084 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
3085 between the left and right fringe. For force a specific fringe width,
3086 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
3087 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
3089 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
3090 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
3091 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
3092 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
3095 ** Per-window fringes settings
3097 Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and position
3100 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
3101 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
3102 `set-window-fringes'.
3104 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
3105 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
3106 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
3107 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
3109 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
3110 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
3111 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
3112 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
3113 an update of the display margins.
3116 ** Per-window vertical scroll-bar settings
3118 Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
3119 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
3121 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
3122 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
3123 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
3124 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
3125 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3126 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3127 of the display margins.
3130 ** The function `set-window-buffer' now has an optional third argument
3131 KEEP-MARGINS which will preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
3132 and scroll-bar settings if non-nil.
3135 ** Renamed hooks to better follow the naming convention:
3136 find-file-hooks to find-file-hook,
3137 find-file-not-found-hooks to find-file-not-found-functions,
3138 write-file-hooks to write-file-functions,
3139 write-contents-hooks to write-contents-functions,
3140 x-lost-selection-hooks to x-lost-selection-functions,
3141 x-sent-selection-hooks to x-sent-selection-functions.
3142 Marked local-write-file-hooks as obsolete (use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook').
3145 ** The new variable `delete-frame-functions' replaces `delete-frame-hook'.
3146 It was renamed to follow the naming conventions for abnormal hooks. The old
3147 name remains available as an alias, but has been marked obsolete.
3150 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
3151 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
3152 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
3153 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
3154 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
3157 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
3158 to override the internal read-file-name function.
3161 ** The new variable `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' specifies
3162 whether completion ignores case when reading a file name with the
3163 `read-file-name' function.
3166 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
3167 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
3168 will only show directories.
3171 ** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
3172 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
3173 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
3176 ** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
3177 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
3178 (require 'cl) when loaded.
3181 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
3182 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
3183 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
3185 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
3187 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
3188 declaration specifiers supported are:
3191 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
3194 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
3195 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
3198 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
3200 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
3201 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
3202 binding and lookup functionality.
3204 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
3205 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
3209 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
3210 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
3211 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
3212 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
3215 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
3216 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
3217 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
3218 map using define-key:
3220 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
3221 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
3223 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
3224 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
3226 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
3227 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
3228 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
3230 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
3232 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3233 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
3234 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
3235 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
3237 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
3238 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
3240 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
3241 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
3243 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
3244 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
3245 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
3246 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
3247 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
3248 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
3250 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
3251 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
3252 command was not remapped.
3255 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
3257 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
3258 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
3262 ** Atomic change groups.
3264 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
3265 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
3266 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
3268 (atomic-change-group
3270 (delete-region x y))
3272 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
3273 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
3274 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
3275 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
3277 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
3278 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
3280 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
3281 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
3282 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
3283 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
3285 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
3286 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
3289 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
3290 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
3291 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
3292 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
3294 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
3295 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
3296 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
3297 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
3298 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
3299 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
3302 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
3303 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
3304 returned values, like this:
3306 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
3307 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
3309 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
3310 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
3311 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
3313 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
3314 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
3315 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
3316 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
3320 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
3322 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
3323 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
3324 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
3325 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
3328 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
3330 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
3331 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
3332 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
3333 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
3336 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
3338 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
3339 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
3340 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
3343 ** New function insert-for-yank.
3345 This function normally works like `insert' but removes the text
3346 properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list. However, if the
3347 inserted text has a `yank-handler' text property on the first
3348 character of the string, the insertion of the text may be modified in
3349 a number of ways. See the description of `yank-handler' below.
3352 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
3354 This function works like `insert-buffer-substring', but removes the
3355 text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
3358 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
3360 This function is like insert-buffer-substring, but removes all
3361 text properties from the inserted substring.
3364 ** New `yank-handler' text property may be used to control how
3365 previously killed text on the kill-ring is reinserted.
3367 The value of the yank-handler property must be a list with one to four
3368 elements with the following format:
3369 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
3371 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
3372 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
3373 element on the kill-ring). If a yank-handler property is found,
3374 the normal behaviour of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
3376 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
3377 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
3378 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
3379 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
3380 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
3382 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
3383 yank-excluded-properties is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
3384 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
3385 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
3386 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
3387 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
3388 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
3389 FUNCTION may set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
3391 *** The functions kill-new, kill-append, and kill-region now have an
3392 optional argument to specify the yank-handler text property to put on
3395 *** The function yank-pop will now use a non-nil value of the variable
3396 `yank-undo-function' (instead of delete-region) to undo the previous
3397 yank or yank-pop command (or a call to insert-for-yank). The function
3398 insert-for-yank automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
3399 element of the string argument's yank-handler text property if present.
3402 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
3403 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
3405 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
3406 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
3407 defined with defface.
3409 ** The function face-differs-from-default-p now truly checks whether the
3410 given face displays differently from the default face or not (previously
3411 it did only a very cursory check).
3414 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
3415 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
3416 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
3419 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
3420 help with handling relative face attributes.
3422 ** The priority of faces in an :inherit attribute face-list is reversed.
3423 If a face contains an :inherit attribute with a list of faces, earlier
3424 faces in the list override later faces in the list; in previous releases
3425 of Emacs, the order was the opposite. This change was made so that
3426 :inherit face-lists operate identically to face-lists in text `face'
3430 ** Enhancements to process support
3432 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
3433 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
3435 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
3436 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
3437 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
3439 *** Function signal-process now accepts a process object or process
3440 name in addition to a process id to identify the signalled process.
3442 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
3443 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
3445 The new functions process-get and process-put are used to access, add,
3446 and modify elements on this property list.
3448 The new low-level functions process-plist and set-process-plist are
3449 used to access and replace the entire property list of a process.
3451 *** Function accept-process-output now has an optional fourth arg
3452 `just-this-one'. If non-nil, only output from the specified process
3453 is handled, suspending output from other processes. If value is an
3454 integer, also inhibit running timers. This feature is generally not
3455 recommended, but may be necessary for specific applications, such as
3458 *** Adaptive read buffering of subprocess output.
3460 On some systems, when emacs reads the output from a subprocess, the
3461 output data is read in very small blocks, potentially resulting in
3462 very poor performance. This behaviour can be remedied to some extent
3463 by setting the new variable process-adaptive-read-buffering to a
3464 non-nil value (the default), as it will automatically delay reading
3465 from such processes, to allowing them to produce more output before
3466 emacs tries to read it.
3469 ** Enhanced networking support.
3471 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
3472 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
3473 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
3475 - A server is started using :server t arg.
3476 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
3477 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
3478 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
3479 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
3480 - The process' property list may be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
3481 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
3482 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
3484 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
3485 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
3487 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
3489 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
3491 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
3492 without waiting for the connection to be established. It takes the
3493 filter and sentinel functions as arguments; when the non-blocking
3494 connect completes, the sentinel is called with a status string
3495 matching "open" or "failed".
3497 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
3499 This function creates a network server process for a TCP service.
3500 When a client connects to the specified service, a new subprocess
3501 is created to handle the new connection, and the sentinel function
3502 is called for the new process.
3504 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
3506 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
3507 and set the current address of the remote partner.
3509 *** New function format-network-address.
3511 This function reformats the lisp representation of a network address
3512 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
3513 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
3514 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
3515 string for other formatting options.
3517 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
3518 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
3519 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
3521 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
3522 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
3523 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
3524 the fifth is the port number.
3526 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
3527 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
3528 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
3529 no input is received in the stopped state.
3531 *** New function network-interface-list.
3533 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
3534 current network addresses.
3536 *** New function network-interface-info.
3538 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
3539 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
3542 ** New function copy-tree.
3545 ** New function substring-no-properties.
3548 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
3551 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
3553 ** New function `process-file'.
3555 This is similar to `call-process', but obeys file handlers. The file
3556 handler is chosen based on default-directory.
3559 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
3560 are now always lower case. If you specify the
3561 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
3562 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
3564 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
3565 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
3568 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
3569 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
3570 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
3571 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
3574 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
3575 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
3577 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
3578 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
3579 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
3582 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
3583 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
3586 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
3587 (function (lambda ()
3589 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
3590 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
3591 (function (lambda ()
3592 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
3595 ** File local variables.
3597 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
3598 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
3601 ** New function window-body-height.
3603 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
3607 ** New function format-mode-line.
3609 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
3610 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
3613 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
3615 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
3616 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
3619 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
3621 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' must not be used (as previously
3622 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
3623 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
3624 you specify the map to use as an argument.
3627 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
3629 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
3630 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
3631 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
3634 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
3636 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
3637 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
3638 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
3639 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
3640 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
3643 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
3644 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
3645 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
3646 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
3649 ** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
3650 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
3653 ** Mode line display ignores text properties as well as the
3654 :propertize and :eval forms in the value of a variable whose
3655 `risky-local-variable' property is nil.
3658 ** The new `%i' and `%I' constructs for `mode-line-format' can be used
3659 to display the size of the accessible part of the buffer on the mode
3663 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
3664 cl-indent package. The new user options
3665 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
3666 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
3667 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
3670 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
3671 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
3674 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
3676 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
3677 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
3678 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
3681 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
3683 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
3684 the time it takes to convert the format.
3686 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
3690 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
3691 over minor mode keymaps.
3694 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
3695 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
3698 ** At the end of a command, point moves out from within invisible
3699 text, in the same way it moves out from within text covered by an
3700 image or composition property.
3702 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
3703 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
3704 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
3705 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
3706 post-command-hook and thus does not care about intermediate states.
3709 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
3713 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
3714 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
3715 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
3716 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
3720 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
3723 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
3726 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
3727 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
3728 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
3729 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
3730 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
3731 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
3734 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
3735 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
3736 bindings of the parent keymap.
3739 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
3740 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
3741 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
3742 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
3743 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
3744 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
3752 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
3753 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
3754 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
3755 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
3758 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
3759 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
3761 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
3762 (the last prior group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
3765 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
3766 it receives a request from emacsclient.
3769 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
3770 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
3771 than 3 levels of nesting.
3774 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
3775 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
3779 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
3780 properties from surrounding text.
3783 ** The list returned by `(match-data t)' now has the buffer as a final
3784 element, if the last match was on a buffer. `set-match-data'
3785 accepts such a list for restoring the match state.
3788 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
3790 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
3791 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
3792 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
3795 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
3796 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
3800 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
3801 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
3802 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
3803 other properties than `face'.
3804 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
3805 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
3808 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
3809 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
3810 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors, or use
3811 the feature of specifying the face attributes :foreground and :background
3812 directly in the `face' property instead of using a named face.
3815 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
3816 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
3817 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
3820 ** define-minor-mode now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
3821 and simply passes them to defcustom, if applicable.
3824 ** define-derived-mode by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
3825 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
3828 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
3829 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
3830 and runs any code associated with the provided feature.
3833 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
3834 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
3835 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
3838 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
3839 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
3840 accepts a float as UID parameter.
3843 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
3846 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
3849 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
3850 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
3851 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
3852 the output of other GNU tools.
3855 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
3858 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
3861 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
3862 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
3865 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
3867 *** defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
3869 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
3870 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
3871 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
3872 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
3874 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
3875 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
3877 *** indirect-variable VARIABLE
3879 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
3880 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
3881 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
3883 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
3884 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
3887 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
3888 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
3891 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
3892 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
3895 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
3896 hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
3899 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
3900 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
3901 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
3903 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-key-sequence and the like, that
3904 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer, now display the prompt
3905 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
3907 ** New function x-send-client-message sends a client message when
3910 ** Arguments for remove-overlays are now optional, so that you can remove
3911 all overlays in the buffer by just calling (remove-overlay).
3915 *** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
3916 GDB. You can interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but
3917 there are also further buffers which control the execution and describe the
3918 state of your program. It separates the input/output of your program from
3919 that of GDB and watches expressions in the speedbar. It also uses features of
3920 Emacs 21 such as the display margin for breakpoints, and the toolbar.
3922 Use M-x gdba to start GDB-UI.
3924 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
3925 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
3927 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
3928 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
3931 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
3932 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
3934 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
3935 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
3936 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
3937 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
3938 as help and apropos buffers.
3941 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
3943 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
3947 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
3949 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
3952 ** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
3955 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
3958 ** Translation tables are available between equivalent characters in
3959 different Emacs charsets -- for instance `e with acute' coming from the
3960 Latin-1 and Latin-2 charsets. User options `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode'
3961 and `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' respectively turn on translation
3962 between ISO 8859 character sets (`unification') on encoding
3963 (e.g. writing a file) and decoding (e.g. reading a file). Note that
3964 `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is useful and safe, but
3965 `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' can cause text to change when you read
3966 it and write it out again without edits, so it is not generally advisable.
3967 By default `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is turned on.
3969 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
3970 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
3972 If you want the old behavior, set selection-coding-system to
3973 compound-text, which may be significantly more efficient. Using
3974 compound-text-with-extensions seems to be necessary only for decoding
3975 text from applications under XFree86 4.2, whose behaviour is actually
3976 contrary to the compound text specification.
3979 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
3981 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
3983 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
3986 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
3988 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
3990 X applications can use `extended segments' to encode characters in
3991 compound text that belong to character sets which are not part of the
3992 list of approved standard encodings for X, e.g. Big5. To paste
3993 selections with such characters into Emacs, use the new coding system
3994 compound-text-with-extensions as the value of selection-coding-system.
3996 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
3999 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
4000 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
4002 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
4003 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
4004 instead of using default-major-mode.
4006 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
4007 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
4008 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
4009 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
4010 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
4011 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
4012 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
4014 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
4018 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
4020 ** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
4021 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
4022 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
4024 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
4025 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
4028 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
4030 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
4031 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
4032 charsets in this release.
4034 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
4036 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
4038 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
4039 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
4042 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
4043 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
4044 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
4045 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
4046 necessary changes to unexec.
4048 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
4049 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
4051 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
4052 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
4054 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
4055 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
4057 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
4058 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
4059 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
4060 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
4061 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
4063 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
4064 new display features described below.
4067 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
4069 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
4071 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
4072 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
4073 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
4074 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
4077 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
4079 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
4080 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
4081 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
4082 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
4085 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
4086 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
4087 under Lisp changes, below.
4089 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
4091 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
4092 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
4093 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
4094 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
4095 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
4096 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
4099 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
4100 supported on character terminals.
4102 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
4103 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
4104 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
4105 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
4107 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
4111 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
4112 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
4113 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
4114 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
4117 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
4119 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
4120 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
4121 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
4122 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
4124 - User option: max-mini-window-height
4126 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
4127 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
4128 specifies a number of lines.
4132 - User option: resize-mini-windows
4134 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
4135 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
4136 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
4139 Default is `grow-only'.
4143 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
4144 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
4146 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
4148 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
4149 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
4152 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
4154 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
4155 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
4156 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
4158 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
4160 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
4161 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
4162 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
4163 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
4164 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
4167 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
4168 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
4169 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
4170 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
4171 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
4172 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
4174 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
4175 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
4176 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
4177 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
4178 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
4179 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
4181 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
4182 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
4183 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
4184 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
4185 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
4187 ** Tool bar support.
4189 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
4190 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
4191 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
4192 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
4193 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
4196 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
4197 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
4201 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
4202 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
4203 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
4205 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
4206 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
4207 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
4208 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
4210 ** Automatic Hscrolling
4212 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
4213 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
4216 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
4217 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
4218 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
4219 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
4220 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
4222 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
4223 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
4224 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
4225 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
4226 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
4227 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
4229 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
4230 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
4231 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
4232 customizing face `fringe'.
4234 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
4235 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
4236 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
4237 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
4238 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
4239 the window to be partially obscured.)
4241 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
4242 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
4243 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
4244 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
4246 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
4248 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
4249 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
4250 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
4251 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
4252 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
4255 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
4257 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
4259 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
4261 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
4262 `*') toggles the status.
4264 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
4266 ** Hourglass pointer
4268 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
4269 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
4273 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
4274 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
4275 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
4278 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
4280 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
4281 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
4282 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
4285 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
4286 have to do anything to activate it.
4288 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
4290 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
4291 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
4293 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
4294 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
4295 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
4296 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
4297 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
4298 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
4299 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
4300 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
4302 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
4303 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
4304 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
4305 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
4306 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
4307 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
4309 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
4310 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
4312 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
4313 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
4316 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
4317 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
4318 beginning and end of the buffer.
4320 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
4321 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
4324 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
4325 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
4327 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
4328 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
4331 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
4332 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
4335 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
4337 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
4338 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
4339 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
4341 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
4342 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
4343 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
4345 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
4348 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
4350 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
4351 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
4352 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
4353 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
4354 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
4357 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
4358 all frames except the selected one.
4360 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
4361 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
4363 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
4364 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
4365 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
4366 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
4367 `Info-use-header-line'.
4369 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
4370 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
4371 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
4373 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
4375 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
4376 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
4379 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
4380 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
4381 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
4382 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
4384 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
4386 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
4387 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
4388 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
4389 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
4391 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
4392 point in a pop-up window.
4394 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
4395 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
4396 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
4398 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
4399 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
4401 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
4402 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
4403 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
4404 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
4406 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
4408 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
4409 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
4411 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
4412 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
4413 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
4415 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
4416 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
4419 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
4420 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
4421 file that is already visited under a different name.
4423 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
4424 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
4426 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
4427 and displays information about that.
4429 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
4430 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
4432 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
4433 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
4434 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
4435 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
4436 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
4437 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
4439 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
4440 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
4442 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
4443 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
4444 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
4445 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
4446 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
4447 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
4448 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
4450 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
4451 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
4453 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
4454 system for keyboard input.
4456 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
4457 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
4458 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
4459 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
4460 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
4461 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
4462 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
4463 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
4464 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
4466 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
4467 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
4469 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
4470 displays all characters in that character set.
4472 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
4473 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
4475 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
4476 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
4477 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
4479 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
4480 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
4481 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
4482 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
4483 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
4484 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
4487 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
4488 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
4491 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
4492 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
4493 Lisp Coding Convention".
4495 new command old-binding
4496 --- ------- -----------
4497 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
4498 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
4499 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
4501 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
4502 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
4503 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
4505 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
4506 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
4507 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
4508 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
4509 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
4510 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
4512 ** There are new Leim input methods.
4513 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
4514 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
4517 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
4518 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
4519 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
4520 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
4521 "`", you must type "=q".
4523 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
4524 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
4525 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
4526 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
4527 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
4530 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
4531 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
4532 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
4533 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
4535 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
4536 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
4537 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
4538 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
4540 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
4541 on the display using several methods
4543 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
4544 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
4545 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
4547 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
4548 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
4550 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
4552 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
4553 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
4555 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
4556 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
4557 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
4558 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
4560 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
4561 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
4562 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
4564 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
4565 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
4567 ** New X resources recognized
4569 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
4570 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
4571 is useful for debugging X problems.
4575 emacs.synchronous: true
4577 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
4578 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
4579 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
4580 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
4581 visual class names are
4590 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
4591 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
4594 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
4595 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
4596 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
4601 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
4603 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
4604 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
4605 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
4606 resource values are `true' or `on'.
4610 emacs.privateColormap: true
4612 ** Faces and frame parameters.
4614 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
4615 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
4616 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
4617 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
4618 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
4619 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
4620 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
4622 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
4623 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
4624 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
4625 `default' face and vice versa.
4629 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
4631 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
4633 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
4634 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
4635 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
4636 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
4638 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
4639 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
4640 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
4642 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
4645 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
4647 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
4648 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
4649 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
4650 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
4652 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
4654 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
4656 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
4658 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
4661 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
4664 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
4666 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
4667 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
4668 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
4670 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
4671 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
4673 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
4674 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
4675 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
4677 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
4679 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
4680 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
4681 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
4682 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
4684 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
4685 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
4686 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
4687 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
4689 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
4690 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
4691 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
4694 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
4696 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
4697 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
4698 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
4700 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
4701 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
4702 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
4703 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
4704 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
4705 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
4707 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
4709 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
4710 notably at the end of lines.
4712 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
4713 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
4715 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
4717 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
4718 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
4720 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
4721 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
4722 after each match to get the replacement text.
4724 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
4725 you edit the replacement string.
4727 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
4728 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
4729 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
4731 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
4733 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
4734 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
4736 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
4737 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
4738 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
4739 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
4742 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
4743 read mail from the menu etc.
4745 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
4746 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
4747 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
4748 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
4750 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
4751 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
4753 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
4754 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
4755 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
4756 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
4757 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
4760 ** Customize changes
4762 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
4763 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
4764 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
4765 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
4766 earlier versions of Emacs.
4768 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
4769 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
4772 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
4773 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
4774 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
4775 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
4778 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
4779 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
4780 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
4781 already in your init file.
4783 ** New features in evaluation commands
4785 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
4786 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
4787 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
4788 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
4789 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
4791 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
4792 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
4793 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
4794 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
4797 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
4798 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
4800 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
4801 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
4803 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
4804 code when called with a prefix argument.
4808 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
4809 current user setups (although it's believed that these
4810 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
4811 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
4812 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
4813 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
4816 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
4817 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
4818 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
4821 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
4822 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
4823 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
4824 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
4826 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
4827 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
4829 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
4830 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
4832 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
4833 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
4834 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
4835 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
4837 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
4838 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
4839 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
4840 earlier statement. An example:
4842 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
4844 res += a[i]->offset;
4847 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
4848 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
4849 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
4850 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
4853 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
4856 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
4857 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
4858 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
4859 documentation or other natural language text.
4861 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
4862 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
4863 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
4864 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
4865 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
4866 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
4867 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
4869 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
4870 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
4871 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
4872 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
4874 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
4875 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
4876 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
4877 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
4880 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
4881 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
4882 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
4883 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
4884 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
4885 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
4886 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
4887 is reported afterwards.
4889 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
4890 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
4891 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
4893 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
4894 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
4895 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
4896 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
4897 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
4898 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
4901 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
4902 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
4903 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
4904 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
4905 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
4908 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
4909 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
4910 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
4911 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
4912 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
4913 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
4915 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
4916 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
4917 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
4918 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
4919 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
4920 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
4921 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
4922 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
4924 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
4925 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
4926 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
4927 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
4930 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
4931 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
4932 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
4933 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
4934 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
4935 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
4936 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
4937 function documentation for more info.
4939 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
4940 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
4941 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
4942 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
4943 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
4944 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
4945 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
4946 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
4948 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
4950 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
4951 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
4953 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
4954 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
4955 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
4956 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
4957 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
4960 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
4961 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
4962 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
4965 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
4966 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
4967 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
4968 chapter about this in the manual.
4970 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
4971 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
4972 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
4973 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
4974 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
4976 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
4977 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
4978 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
4980 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
4981 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
4983 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
4984 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
4985 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
4988 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
4989 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
4990 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
4991 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
4994 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
4995 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
4996 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
4997 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
4998 they were before the filling.
5000 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
5001 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
5002 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
5005 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
5006 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
5007 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
5008 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
5011 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
5012 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
5013 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
5014 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
5015 Thanks to Eric Eide.
5017 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
5018 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
5019 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
5021 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
5023 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
5024 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
5025 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
5026 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
5028 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
5029 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
5030 the column specified by comment-column.
5032 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
5033 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
5034 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
5035 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
5036 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
5037 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
5039 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
5040 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
5043 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
5045 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
5046 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
5047 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
5048 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
5051 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
5055 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
5056 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
5057 is, delete only empty directories.
5059 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
5060 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
5061 copy directories recursively.
5063 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
5064 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
5065 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
5067 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
5068 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
5071 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
5072 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
5073 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
5074 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
5075 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
5077 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
5080 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
5081 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
5082 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
5083 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
5087 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
5088 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
5089 internationalization and mail-fetching.
5091 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
5092 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
5094 If you used procmail like in
5096 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
5097 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
5098 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
5099 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
5101 this now has changed to
5104 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
5107 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
5108 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
5110 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
5111 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
5112 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
5113 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
5115 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
5116 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
5117 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
5119 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
5120 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
5121 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
5122 now just a compatibility layer.
5124 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
5127 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
5128 called to position point.
5130 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
5131 summary buffers and NOV files.
5133 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
5134 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
5136 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
5137 subtly different manner.
5139 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
5140 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
5141 ever-changing layouts.
5143 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
5145 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
5147 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
5149 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
5153 -------------------------
5157 C-c C-c q @quotation
5159 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
5162 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
5164 ** Changes in Outline mode.
5166 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
5167 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
5168 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
5170 ** Changes to Emacs Server
5172 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
5173 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
5174 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
5175 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
5176 buffers to kill, as before.
5178 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
5179 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
5182 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
5183 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
5185 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
5187 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
5188 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
5189 use. Default is 1000.
5191 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
5192 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
5194 ** Changes to hideshow.el
5196 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
5198 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
5199 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
5200 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
5201 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
5203 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
5204 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
5205 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
5208 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
5209 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
5210 the normal block-hiding function.
5212 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
5214 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
5215 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
5216 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
5217 for `hs-minor-mode'.
5219 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
5220 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
5222 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
5224 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
5225 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
5226 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
5228 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
5231 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
5234 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
5235 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
5236 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
5237 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
5238 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
5239 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
5241 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
5243 ** Changes to cmuscheme
5245 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
5246 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
5248 ** Changes in Font Lock
5250 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
5251 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
5253 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
5254 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
5256 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
5257 the face used for each string/comment.
5259 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
5260 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
5262 ** Changes to Shell mode
5264 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
5265 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
5266 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
5267 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
5269 ** Comint (subshell) changes
5271 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
5272 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
5274 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
5275 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
5276 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
5277 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
5278 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
5279 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
5281 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
5282 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
5283 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
5284 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
5285 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
5286 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
5287 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
5288 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
5290 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
5291 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
5293 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
5294 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
5295 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
5297 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
5298 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
5299 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
5301 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
5302 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
5303 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
5305 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
5306 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
5307 argument, it appends to the file.
5309 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
5310 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
5313 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
5316 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
5317 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
5318 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
5320 ** Changes to Rmail mode
5322 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
5323 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
5324 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
5325 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
5326 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
5329 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
5330 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
5331 regexp matching your mail addresses.
5333 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
5334 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
5335 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
5336 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
5337 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
5339 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
5342 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
5343 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
5346 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
5347 in which folder to put messages automatically.
5349 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
5350 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
5351 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
5353 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
5354 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
5356 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
5357 use the -f option when sending mail.
5359 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
5360 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
5361 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
5362 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
5363 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
5364 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
5366 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
5367 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
5368 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
5370 ** Changes to TeX mode
5372 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
5375 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
5377 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
5379 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
5381 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5383 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
5384 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
5385 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
5386 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
5387 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
5388 can be edited from that buffer.
5390 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
5391 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
5392 `A' to use all marked entries).
5394 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
5395 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
5397 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
5398 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
5399 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
5402 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
5403 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
5404 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
5405 in column 1 are always made leaves.
5407 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
5408 has the following new features:
5410 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
5411 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
5412 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
5413 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
5415 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
5416 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
5417 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
5418 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
5419 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
5422 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
5427 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
5428 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
5429 spell-checks the current buffer.
5431 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
5434 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
5435 correction is made and re-checked.
5437 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
5439 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
5442 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
5445 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
5448 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
5450 ** Makefile mode changes
5452 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
5454 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
5455 Fontlock mode is active.
5459 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
5460 so that searches can be resumed.
5462 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
5463 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
5464 that started the search.
5466 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
5467 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
5469 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
5471 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
5472 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
5473 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
5474 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
5475 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
5476 `secondary-selection'.
5478 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
5479 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
5480 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
5481 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
5482 usual snappy response.
5484 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
5485 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
5486 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
5487 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
5491 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
5492 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
5493 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
5494 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
5495 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
5496 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
5497 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
5498 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
5499 file is registered in that backend.
5501 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
5502 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
5503 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
5504 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
5505 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
5506 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
5508 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
5509 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
5510 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
5511 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
5512 where it doesn't make sense.)
5514 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
5515 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
5516 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
5520 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
5521 checks are always done now.
5523 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
5526 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
5527 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
5528 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
5530 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
5531 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
5532 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
5533 the working file (``merge news'').
5535 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
5536 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
5539 *** Multiple Backends
5541 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
5542 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
5543 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
5544 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
5547 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
5548 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
5549 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
5550 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
5552 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
5553 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
5554 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
5555 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
5556 current revision number from the more remote backend.
5558 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
5559 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
5560 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
5561 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
5563 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
5564 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
5565 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
5566 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
5570 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
5571 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
5572 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
5573 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
5574 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
5575 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
5576 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
5578 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
5579 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
5580 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
5581 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
5582 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
5583 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
5584 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
5585 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
5586 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
5587 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
5588 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
5591 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
5592 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
5593 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
5594 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
5595 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
5596 entire directory tree.
5598 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
5599 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
5600 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
5601 "watched" by other developers.)
5603 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
5604 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
5605 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
5606 starting at the given directory.
5608 *** Lisp Changes in VC
5610 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
5611 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
5612 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
5613 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
5614 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
5615 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
5616 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
5617 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
5618 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
5620 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
5621 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
5622 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
5623 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
5625 ** New modes and packages
5627 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
5628 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
5629 the default is not applicable.
5631 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
5632 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
5633 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
5637 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
5638 drawn, like this: | \ /
5642 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
5643 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
5644 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
5645 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
5646 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
5649 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
5650 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
5652 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
5655 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
5656 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
5657 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
5658 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
5660 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
5661 also do without the mouse.
5663 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
5664 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
5665 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
5666 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
5667 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
5669 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
5671 lines straight-lines
5673 poly-lines straight poly-lines
5675 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
5676 spray-can setting size for spraying
5677 vaporize line vaporize lines
5678 erase characters erase rectangles
5680 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
5681 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
5682 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
5685 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
5686 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
5687 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
5688 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
5690 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
5693 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
5694 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
5695 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
5696 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
5697 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
5698 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
5699 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
5700 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
5701 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
5703 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
5704 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
5705 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
5706 on certain projects.
5708 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
5709 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
5711 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
5713 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
5714 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
5715 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
5716 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
5717 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
5718 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
5719 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
5720 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
5722 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
5725 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
5726 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
5728 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
5729 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
5731 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
5732 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
5733 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
5734 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
5735 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
5737 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
5738 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
5739 separate Texinfo file.
5741 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
5742 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
5743 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
5744 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
5745 enter check-in log messages.
5747 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
5748 without invoking external programs.
5750 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
5751 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
5752 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
5753 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
5754 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
5756 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
5757 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
5759 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
5760 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
5762 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
5763 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
5764 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
5765 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
5766 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
5769 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
5770 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
5771 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
5772 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
5774 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
5775 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
5776 actually modifying content of a buffer.
5778 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
5781 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
5783 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
5785 ; comment (until end of line)
5789 $A default non-terminal
5790 $"C" default terminal
5791 $?C? default special
5792 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
5793 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
5794 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
5795 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
5796 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
5797 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
5798 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
5799 C+ one or more occurrences of C
5800 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
5801 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
5802 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
5803 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
5804 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
5805 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
5806 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
5808 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
5810 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
5811 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
5812 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
5813 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
5814 equal signs of assignments.
5816 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
5817 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
5819 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
5820 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
5821 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
5823 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
5825 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
5826 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
5827 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
5828 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
5829 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
5830 which answers different needs.
5832 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
5833 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
5834 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
5835 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
5836 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
5839 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
5840 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
5842 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
5844 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
5845 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
5846 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
5848 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
5850 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
5851 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
5852 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
5853 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
5854 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
5855 and background colors.
5857 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
5860 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
5863 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
5865 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
5867 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
5868 whitespace in a file.
5870 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
5871 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
5872 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
5873 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
5874 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
5875 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
5876 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
5878 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
5880 Here is an example of columns:
5883 dog pineapple car EXTRA
5884 porcupine strawberry airplane
5886 Doing the following settings:
5888 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
5889 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
5890 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
5891 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
5894 Selecting the lines above and typing:
5896 M-x delimit-columns-region
5900 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
5901 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
5902 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
5904 delim-col has the following options:
5906 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
5909 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
5910 between each column.
5912 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
5915 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
5918 delim-col has the following commands:
5920 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
5921 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
5923 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
5924 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
5925 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
5926 recent file list can be displayed:
5928 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
5929 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
5930 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
5932 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
5933 dynamically change the menu appearance.
5935 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
5938 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
5939 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
5940 specific to Message mode.
5942 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
5943 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
5944 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
5946 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
5947 interface to access directory servers using different directory
5948 protocols. It has a separate manual.
5950 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
5951 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
5953 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
5955 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
5956 minibuffer with completion.
5958 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
5959 with the diary features.
5961 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
5962 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
5964 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
5967 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
5968 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
5969 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
5970 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
5972 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
5973 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
5976 ** Changes in sort.el
5978 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
5979 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
5980 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
5983 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
5985 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
5986 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
5987 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
5989 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
5990 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
5992 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
5993 output ^M at the end of lines.
5995 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
5996 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
5998 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
5999 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
6002 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
6005 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
6006 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
6009 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
6010 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
6011 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
6012 nil -- just delete one character.
6014 Default value is `untabify'.
6016 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
6018 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
6019 symbol, not double-quoted.
6021 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
6022 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
6023 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
6024 moved to lisp/obsolete.
6026 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
6027 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
6028 `auto-compression-mode' command.
6030 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
6031 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
6032 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
6034 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
6035 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
6037 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
6038 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
6040 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
6041 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
6043 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
6044 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
6045 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
6046 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
6047 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
6048 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
6050 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
6051 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
6053 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
6055 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
6056 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
6058 ** Shell script mode changes.
6060 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
6061 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
6062 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
6066 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
6068 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
6069 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
6070 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
6071 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
6072 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
6074 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
6075 declarations when given the --declarations option.
6077 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
6078 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
6080 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
6081 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
6082 `template' keywords.
6084 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
6085 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
6087 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
6090 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
6092 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
6094 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
6097 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
6099 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
6100 variables are tagged.
6102 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
6104 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
6107 ** Changes in etags.el
6109 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
6110 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
6111 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
6113 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
6114 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
6116 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
6117 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
6118 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
6119 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
6121 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
6123 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
6124 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
6126 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
6128 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
6129 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
6130 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
6132 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
6133 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
6135 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
6136 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
6138 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
6139 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
6140 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
6141 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
6142 point will go to the beginning of the file.
6144 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
6145 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
6146 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
6148 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
6149 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
6150 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
6152 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
6153 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
6154 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
6156 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
6158 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
6160 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
6161 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
6162 expression from that list, are not checked.
6164 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
6165 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
6166 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
6167 the buffer, just like for the local files.
6169 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
6171 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
6172 displays local abbrevs, only.
6174 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
6175 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
6177 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
6178 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
6179 is measured in pixels.
6181 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
6182 to be visited as images.
6184 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
6185 were added to compile.el.
6187 ** Withdrawn packages
6189 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
6190 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
6192 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
6194 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
6197 * Incompatible Lisp changes
6199 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
6200 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
6201 See the sections below for details.
6203 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
6204 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
6205 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
6206 to remove the properties of the copy.
6208 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
6209 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
6210 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
6211 these properties are active.
6213 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
6214 ranges may affect some code.
6216 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
6217 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
6218 make a difference to some code.
6220 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
6221 operates on the minibuffer.
6223 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
6224 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
6225 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
6226 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
6227 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
6228 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
6229 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
6230 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
6231 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
6232 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
6233 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
6234 the buffer as multibyte characters.
6236 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
6237 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
6238 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
6240 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
6241 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
6242 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
6244 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
6245 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
6246 such as `mapconcat'.
6248 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
6251 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
6252 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
6253 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
6254 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
6255 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
6256 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
6257 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
6258 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
6260 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
6261 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
6262 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
6263 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
6264 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
6265 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
6266 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
6267 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
6268 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
6269 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
6272 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
6273 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
6275 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
6277 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
6278 allows the animated display of strings.
6280 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
6281 interactive form of a function.
6283 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
6284 between custom options. Example:
6286 (defcustom default-input-method nil
6287 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
6288 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
6289 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
6291 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
6292 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
6294 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
6295 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
6296 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
6298 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
6299 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
6300 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
6301 (signal or normal termination).
6303 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
6304 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
6306 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
6307 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
6309 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
6310 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
6312 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
6314 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
6315 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
6318 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
6320 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
6321 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
6322 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
6323 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
6324 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
6327 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
6328 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
6331 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
6332 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
6334 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
6335 with the more general `:mask' property.
6337 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
6339 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
6342 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
6343 is running in batch mode. For example,
6345 (message "%s" (read t))
6347 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
6350 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
6351 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
6353 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
6354 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
6357 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
6360 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
6362 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
6363 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
6365 - Function: remq ELT LIST
6367 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
6368 comparison is done with `eq'.
6370 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
6372 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
6373 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
6374 `key-and-value', in addition to `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
6376 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
6377 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
6378 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
6380 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
6381 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
6383 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
6384 function was declared obsolete.
6386 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
6387 retained as an alias).
6389 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
6390 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
6391 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
6393 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
6395 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
6397 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
6398 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
6399 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
6400 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
6401 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
6402 means never include the minibuffer window.
6404 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
6406 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
6408 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
6410 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
6411 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
6412 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
6413 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
6416 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
6417 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
6418 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
6419 minibuffer even if it is active.
6421 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
6422 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
6423 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
6424 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
6425 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
6426 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
6428 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
6429 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
6430 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
6431 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
6432 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
6433 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
6434 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
6436 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
6437 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
6438 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
6440 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
6441 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
6442 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
6443 Default value is nil.
6445 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
6448 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
6449 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
6450 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
6452 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
6453 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
6454 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
6456 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
6457 list of a primitive.
6459 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
6461 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
6462 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
6463 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
6464 than replacing the local map.
6466 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
6467 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
6468 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
6471 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
6473 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
6474 as promised long ago.
6476 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
6478 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
6479 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
6480 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
6483 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
6485 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
6486 regular expressions.
6488 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
6490 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
6494 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
6496 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
6500 matches string STRING literally.
6503 matches character CHAR literally.
6506 matches any character except a newline.
6509 matches any character
6512 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
6513 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
6519 matches any character not in SET
6522 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
6523 in the text being matched
6526 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
6529 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
6530 string being matched against.
6533 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
6534 string being matched against.
6537 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
6538 buffer being matched against.
6541 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
6542 buffer being matched against.
6545 matches the empty string, but only at point.
6548 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
6552 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
6555 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
6558 `(not word-boundary)'
6559 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
6563 matches 0 through 9.
6566 matches ASCII control characters.
6569 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
6572 matches space and tab only.
6575 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
6579 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
6583 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6584 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6587 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6588 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6591 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
6594 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
6597 matches anything lower-case.
6600 matches anything upper-case.
6603 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6604 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
6607 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
6610 matches anything that has word syntax.
6613 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
6614 of the following symbols.
6616 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
6617 `punctuation' (\\s.)
6620 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
6621 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
6622 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
6623 `string-quote' (\\s\")
6624 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
6626 `character-quote' (\\s/)
6627 `comment-start' (\\s<)
6628 `comment-end' (\\s>)
6630 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
6631 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
6633 `(category CATEGORY)'
6634 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
6635 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
6637 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
6639 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
6640 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
6644 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
6646 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
6647 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
6648 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
6649 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
6650 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
6651 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
6652 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
6653 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
6654 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
6655 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
6656 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
6665 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
6669 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
6676 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
6677 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
6679 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6680 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
6682 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6683 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
6684 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
6686 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6687 another name for `submatch'.
6689 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6690 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
6691 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
6694 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
6695 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
6696 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
6697 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
6698 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
6700 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
6701 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
6703 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
6704 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6707 like `zero-or-more'.
6710 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6713 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6715 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
6716 matches one or more occurrences of A.
6722 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6725 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6727 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
6728 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
6734 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6737 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6740 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6743 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6746 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
6750 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
6752 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
6754 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
6755 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
6756 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
6757 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
6759 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
6760 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
6761 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
6762 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
6764 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
6765 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
6766 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
6768 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
6769 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
6770 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
6771 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
6772 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
6773 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
6774 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
6777 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
6779 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
6780 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
6781 character set as previously.
6783 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
6784 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
6785 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
6787 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
6788 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
6789 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
6790 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
6792 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
6793 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
6795 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
6796 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
6799 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
6800 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
6802 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
6803 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
6804 buffers and strings.
6806 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
6807 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
6808 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
6809 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
6810 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
6811 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
6812 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
6815 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
6816 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
6817 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
6819 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
6820 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
6821 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
6822 may differ between buffer and string text.
6824 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
6825 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
6827 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
6828 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
6829 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
6830 `composition' from STRING.
6832 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
6833 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
6835 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
6838 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
6839 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
6841 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
6842 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
6843 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
6844 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
6846 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
6847 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
6848 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
6849 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
6850 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
6851 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
6853 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
6854 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
6855 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
6857 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
6858 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
6859 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
6861 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
6862 have been introduced.
6864 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
6865 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
6866 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
6867 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
6868 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
6869 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
6870 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
6871 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
6872 their multibyte equivalent.
6874 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
6875 that offset in the file before writing.
6877 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
6878 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
6880 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
6881 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
6882 from which the command was issued.
6884 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
6885 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
6886 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
6887 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
6890 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
6891 to `window-buffer-height'.
6893 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
6895 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
6896 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
6897 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
6899 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
6902 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
6903 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
6905 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
6906 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
6907 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
6909 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
6910 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
6911 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
6912 is currently displayed in some window.
6914 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
6915 argument function's results.
6917 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
6918 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
6919 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
6920 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
6923 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
6924 header in the list of headers passed to it.
6926 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
6927 ignores differences in case and text representation.
6929 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
6930 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
6933 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
6934 nil don't display a cursor
6935 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
6936 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
6937 others display a box cursor.
6939 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
6940 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
6941 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
6942 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
6944 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
6945 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
6946 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
6947 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
6951 (string-to-syntax "()")
6954 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
6957 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
6958 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
6965 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
6970 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
6975 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
6982 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
6983 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
6986 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
6987 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
6988 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
6989 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
6991 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
6993 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
6994 for a regexp in a string.
6996 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
6997 `mouse-position-function'.
6999 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
7000 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
7002 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
7003 Keywords are now always considered constants.
7005 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
7008 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
7009 returned by function `recent-keys'.
7011 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
7012 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
7013 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
7014 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
7017 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
7018 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
7020 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
7021 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
7022 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
7023 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
7026 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
7027 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
7028 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
7029 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
7031 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
7032 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
7033 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
7035 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
7036 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
7039 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
7041 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
7042 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
7043 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
7046 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
7047 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
7048 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
7049 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
7050 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
7052 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
7053 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
7055 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
7056 instead of being optional.
7058 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
7059 modify read-only text.
7061 ** New functions and variables for locales.
7063 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
7064 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
7065 time functions like strftime. The new variables
7066 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
7067 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
7069 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
7070 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
7071 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
7072 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
7073 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
7074 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
7075 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
7077 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
7078 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
7079 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
7082 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
7083 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
7085 ** New function `propertize'
7087 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
7088 strings with text properties.
7090 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
7092 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
7093 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
7094 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
7095 specified value of that property. Example:
7097 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
7099 ** push and pop macros.
7101 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
7102 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
7103 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
7105 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
7106 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
7107 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
7109 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
7111 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
7112 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
7114 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
7115 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
7116 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
7117 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
7119 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
7120 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
7121 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
7122 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
7124 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
7125 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
7126 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
7129 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
7130 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
7131 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
7132 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
7133 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
7135 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
7137 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
7138 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7139 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
7140 [:alpha:] matches letters.
7141 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7142 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
7143 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
7144 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
7145 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
7146 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
7147 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
7148 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
7149 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
7150 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
7151 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
7153 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
7155 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
7157 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
7159 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
7160 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
7164 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
7165 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
7166 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
7170 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
7171 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
7173 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
7175 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
7176 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
7177 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
7178 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
7179 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
7181 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
7183 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
7184 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
7185 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
7189 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
7190 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
7191 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
7192 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
7193 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
7195 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
7197 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
7199 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
7201 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
7203 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
7205 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
7208 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
7210 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
7212 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
7214 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
7216 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
7218 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
7220 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
7222 Returns the size of TABLE.
7224 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
7226 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
7228 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
7230 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
7232 - Function: clrhash TABLE
7236 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
7238 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
7241 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
7243 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
7244 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
7246 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
7248 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
7250 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
7252 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
7253 arguments KEY and VALUE.
7255 - Function: sxhash OBJ
7257 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
7259 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
7261 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
7262 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
7263 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
7264 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
7265 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
7267 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
7269 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
7270 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
7271 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
7273 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
7274 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
7276 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
7277 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
7279 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
7280 (sxhash (upcase a)))
7282 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
7283 'case-fold-string-hash))
7285 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
7287 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
7289 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
7290 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
7291 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
7293 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
7295 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
7296 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
7298 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
7299 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
7300 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
7301 is too short to reach that column.
7303 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
7304 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
7305 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
7306 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
7308 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
7309 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
7310 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
7312 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
7313 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
7315 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
7316 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
7318 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
7319 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
7320 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
7321 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
7322 temporary-file-directory instead.
7324 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
7325 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
7326 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
7327 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
7329 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
7330 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
7332 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
7334 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
7335 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
7336 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
7338 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
7340 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
7341 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
7342 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
7343 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
7344 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
7345 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
7347 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
7348 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
7349 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
7350 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
7352 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
7354 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
7355 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
7356 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
7359 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
7360 string where arguments appear in the result string.
7364 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
7366 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
7367 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
7370 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
7372 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
7374 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
7375 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
7378 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
7380 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
7381 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
7386 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
7387 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
7389 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
7390 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
7391 to enable sound support.
7393 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
7394 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
7395 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
7396 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
7397 sound to play, before playing the sound.
7399 The following sound properties are supported:
7403 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
7404 searched relative to `data-directory'.
7408 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
7409 may be present, but not both.
7413 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
7414 0..1. This property is optional.
7418 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
7419 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
7421 Other properties are ignored.
7423 An alternative interface is called as
7424 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
7426 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
7428 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
7431 ** Changes to garbage collection
7433 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
7434 of live and free strings.
7436 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
7437 strings that have been consed so far.
7440 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
7443 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
7446 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
7447 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
7448 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
7450 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
7452 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
7454 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
7457 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
7459 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
7461 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
7462 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
7463 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
7464 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
7465 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
7467 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
7470 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
7472 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
7473 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
7474 or omitted means use the selected frame.
7476 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
7477 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
7479 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
7482 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
7486 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
7488 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
7489 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
7491 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
7492 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
7493 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
7494 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
7495 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
7496 just display it black instead.
7498 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
7501 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
7505 ** New face implementation.
7507 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
7508 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
7512 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
7514 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
7516 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
7517 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
7519 3. Font height in 1/10pt
7521 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
7523 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
7525 6. Foreground color.
7527 7. Background color.
7529 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
7531 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
7533 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
7535 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
7537 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
7540 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
7541 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
7543 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
7544 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
7545 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
7546 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
7547 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
7548 attributes mentioned above.
7550 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
7551 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
7554 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
7555 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
7560 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
7561 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
7562 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
7563 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
7564 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
7565 results in a fully-specified face.
7567 *** Face realization.
7569 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
7570 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
7571 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
7572 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
7573 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
7574 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
7576 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
7577 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
7578 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
7579 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
7581 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
7582 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
7583 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
7584 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
7585 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
7587 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
7588 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
7589 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
7590 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
7591 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
7594 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
7595 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
7596 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
7597 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
7599 **** Clearing face caches.
7601 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
7602 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
7607 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
7608 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
7609 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
7611 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
7612 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
7613 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
7614 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
7615 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
7617 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
7618 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
7619 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
7621 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
7623 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
7624 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
7625 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
7626 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
7627 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
7628 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
7629 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
7631 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
7632 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
7635 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
7636 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
7639 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
7642 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
7647 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
7648 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
7651 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
7652 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
7653 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
7654 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
7655 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
7658 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
7660 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
7662 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
7664 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
7666 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
7667 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
7668 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
7670 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
7671 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
7672 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
7673 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
7674 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
7675 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
7676 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
7677 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
7678 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
7679 of the face font sort order.
7681 - Function: x-font-family-list
7683 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
7684 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
7685 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
7686 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
7688 - Variable: font-list-limit
7690 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
7691 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
7692 matching font. The default is currently 100.
7694 *** Setting face attributes.
7696 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
7697 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
7698 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
7701 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
7702 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
7704 The following attributes are recognized:
7708 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
7709 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
7710 and `?' are allowed.
7714 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
7715 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
7716 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
7717 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
7721 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
7722 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
7723 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
7724 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
7728 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
7729 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
7730 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
7734 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
7735 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
7738 `:foreground', `:background'
7740 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
7744 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
7745 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
7746 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
7751 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
7752 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
7753 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
7758 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
7759 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
7760 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
7761 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
7765 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
7766 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
7767 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
7768 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
7769 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
7770 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
7771 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
7772 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
7773 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
7774 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
7775 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
7776 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
7777 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
7778 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
7779 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
7780 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
7785 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
7786 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
7790 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
7791 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
7792 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
7793 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
7794 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
7795 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
7797 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
7798 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
7802 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
7803 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
7804 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
7807 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
7808 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
7809 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
7811 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
7816 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
7817 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
7818 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
7820 *** Face attributes and X resources
7822 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
7825 Face attribute X resource class
7826 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
7827 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
7828 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
7829 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
7830 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
7831 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
7832 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
7833 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
7834 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
7835 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
7836 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
7837 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
7838 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
7839 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
7840 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
7841 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
7842 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
7843 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
7844 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
7845 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
7847 *** Text property `face'.
7849 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
7850 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
7851 specification can be
7853 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
7855 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
7856 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
7857 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
7858 for face attribute names.
7860 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
7861 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
7862 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
7864 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
7866 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
7867 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
7868 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
7869 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
7870 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
7871 used to clear the mapping table.
7873 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
7875 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
7876 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
7877 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
7878 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
7879 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
7880 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
7881 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
7882 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
7883 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
7884 modify their color-related behavior.
7886 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
7889 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
7891 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
7892 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
7893 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
7894 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
7895 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
7896 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
7897 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
7898 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
7899 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
7901 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
7902 display can display image files.
7904 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
7906 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
7907 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
7908 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
7909 `Inviolable' option.
7911 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
7912 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
7913 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
7915 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
7917 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
7918 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
7919 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
7921 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
7922 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
7923 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
7924 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
7925 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
7926 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
7927 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
7930 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
7931 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
7932 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
7934 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
7936 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
7938 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
7940 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7941 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
7942 constrained position if that is different.
7944 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
7945 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
7946 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
7947 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
7948 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7949 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
7950 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
7951 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
7952 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
7954 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
7955 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
7956 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
7957 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
7958 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
7960 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
7961 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
7963 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
7965 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
7967 Delete the field surrounding POS.
7968 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7969 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7971 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7973 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
7974 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7975 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7976 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
7977 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
7979 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7981 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
7982 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7983 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7984 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
7985 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
7987 - Function: field-string &optional POS
7989 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
7990 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7991 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7993 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
7995 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
7996 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7997 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
8001 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
8002 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
8003 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
8004 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
8006 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
8007 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
8008 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
8009 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
8012 IMAGE is an image specification.
8014 *** Image specifications
8016 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
8017 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
8018 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
8019 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
8020 described below are ignored.
8022 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
8026 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
8027 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
8028 to use for its ascent.
8030 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
8031 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
8033 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
8034 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
8035 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
8036 overlays that apply to the image.
8040 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
8041 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
8042 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
8046 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
8051 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
8053 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
8054 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
8056 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
8057 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
8058 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
8059 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
8060 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
8061 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
8062 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
8063 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
8066 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
8068 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
8070 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
8071 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
8072 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
8073 of the factors' absolute values.
8075 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
8081 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
8087 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
8092 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
8093 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
8094 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
8095 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
8096 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
8097 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
8098 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
8101 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
8102 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
8107 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
8108 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
8109 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
8110 may be present in the image specification.
8114 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
8115 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
8116 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
8117 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
8119 *** Supported image types
8121 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
8123 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
8124 properties supported are:
8128 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
8129 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
8133 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
8134 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
8136 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
8137 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
8138 instead of a `:file' property.
8142 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
8146 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
8152 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
8153 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
8155 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
8157 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
8160 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
8161 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
8164 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
8166 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
8167 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
8168 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
8169 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
8171 Additional image properties supported are:
8173 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
8175 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
8176 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
8179 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
8180 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
8182 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
8183 to display compressed images.
8185 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
8187 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
8188 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
8193 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
8194 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
8198 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
8199 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
8201 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
8203 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
8204 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
8207 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
8209 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
8210 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
8213 **** GIF, image type `gif'
8215 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
8216 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
8218 Additional image properties supported are:
8222 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
8223 multi-image GIF file. If INDEX is too large, the image displays
8226 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
8227 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
8228 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
8231 (defun show-anim (file max)
8232 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
8233 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
8235 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
8238 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
8241 (goto-char (point-min))
8242 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
8243 (insert-image img "x"))
8244 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
8246 **** PNG, image type `png'
8248 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
8249 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
8252 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
8254 Additional image properties supported are:
8258 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
8259 integer. This is a required property.
8263 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
8264 must be a integer. This is an required property.
8268 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
8269 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
8270 files. This is an required property.
8272 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
8277 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
8278 which are supported in the current configuration.
8280 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
8281 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
8282 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
8283 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
8284 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
8286 *** Simplified image API, image.el
8288 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
8289 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
8290 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
8291 define an image based on available image types. The functions
8292 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
8297 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
8300 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
8301 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
8302 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
8303 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
8304 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
8305 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
8306 of the display margins.
8308 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
8309 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
8310 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
8311 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
8316 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
8317 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
8318 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
8319 that have a `help-echo' property.
8321 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
8322 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
8323 the window in which the help was found.
8325 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
8326 `help-echo' text property was found.
8328 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
8329 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
8331 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
8332 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
8335 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
8336 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
8338 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
8339 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
8340 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
8341 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
8342 used as help string.
8344 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
8345 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
8346 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
8348 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
8350 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
8351 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
8353 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
8354 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
8355 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
8356 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
8359 (global-set-key [A-down]
8362 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
8363 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
8364 (global-set-key [A-up]
8367 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
8368 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
8370 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
8372 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
8373 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
8374 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
8375 is called with one argument, POS.
8377 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
8378 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
8379 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
8380 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
8381 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
8383 ** Tool bar support.
8385 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
8386 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
8387 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
8388 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
8389 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
8390 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
8392 *** Tool bar item definitions
8394 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
8395 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
8396 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
8398 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
8399 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
8400 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
8401 property (see below).
8403 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
8404 binding are currently ignored.
8406 The following properties are recognized:
8410 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
8415 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
8419 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
8420 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
8421 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
8423 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
8425 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
8426 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
8430 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
8431 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
8432 meaning of each of the four elements:
8434 Index Use when item is
8435 ----------------------------------------
8436 0 enabled and selected
8437 1 enabled and deselected
8438 2 disabled and selected
8439 3 disabled and deselected
8441 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
8442 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
8444 `:help HELP-STRING'.
8446 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
8447 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
8449 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
8450 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
8451 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
8454 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
8455 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
8456 buffer-locally to override the global map.
8458 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
8460 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
8461 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
8462 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
8464 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
8465 raised when the mouse moves over them.
8467 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
8468 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
8469 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
8470 vertical margins . Default is 1.
8472 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
8473 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
8475 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
8477 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
8480 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
8481 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
8482 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
8484 is the original tool bar item definition, then
8486 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
8488 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
8491 ** Mode line changes.
8493 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
8495 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
8496 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
8497 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
8499 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
8500 a `local-map' text property.
8502 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
8503 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
8505 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
8506 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
8507 `local-map' property.
8509 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
8510 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
8513 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
8514 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
8516 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
8517 variable mode-line-format to nil.
8519 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
8521 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
8522 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
8523 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
8524 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
8527 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
8530 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
8531 position in the header-line.
8533 ** Text property `display'
8535 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
8536 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
8537 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
8538 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
8539 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
8541 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
8543 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
8544 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
8546 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
8547 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
8548 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
8549 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
8550 simpler form STRING as property value.
8552 *** Variable width and height spaces
8554 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
8555 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
8556 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
8557 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
8558 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
8559 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
8560 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
8562 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
8563 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
8564 properties described below.
8566 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
8567 characters having the `display' property.
8571 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
8572 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
8574 - :relative-width FACTOR
8576 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
8577 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
8578 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
8579 width of that character by FACTOR.
8583 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
8584 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
8586 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
8590 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
8593 - :relative-height FACTOR
8595 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
8596 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
8600 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
8601 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
8602 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
8605 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
8609 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
8610 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
8611 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
8612 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
8613 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
8614 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
8615 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
8616 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
8617 as display specification.
8619 *** Other display properties
8621 - (space-width FACTOR)
8623 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
8624 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
8629 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
8631 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
8632 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
8633 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
8634 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
8635 a font is available counts as a step.
8637 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
8638 as tall as the frame's default font.
8640 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
8641 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
8643 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
8644 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
8648 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
8649 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
8650 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
8651 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
8652 `height' subproperty.
8654 *** Conditional display properties
8656 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
8657 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
8658 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
8659 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
8660 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
8661 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
8662 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
8663 different when object is a string.
8665 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
8668 ** New menu separator types.
8670 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
8671 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
8672 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
8673 to specify other menu separator types.
8675 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
8677 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
8680 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
8682 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
8684 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
8686 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
8688 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
8690 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
8692 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
8694 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
8696 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
8698 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
8699 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
8701 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
8703 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
8705 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
8707 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
8709 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
8711 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
8713 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
8715 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
8717 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
8719 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
8721 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
8723 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
8725 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
8727 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
8729 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
8730 the corresponding single-line separators.
8732 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
8734 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
8735 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
8736 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
8737 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
8738 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
8739 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
8740 default foreground is black.
8742 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
8743 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
8744 `ScrollBarBackground').
8746 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
8747 settings for scroll bar colors.
8749 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
8750 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
8752 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
8753 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
8754 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
8755 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
8756 the original window start.
8758 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
8759 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
8760 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
8762 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
8764 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
8765 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
8766 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
8767 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
8769 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
8770 fixed-width and fixed-height.
8772 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
8774 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
8775 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
8776 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
8777 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
8778 temporarily to nil, for example
8780 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
8781 (enlarge-window 10))
8783 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
8784 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
8786 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
8787 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
8788 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
8789 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
8790 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
8791 support a vertical-bar cursor).
8795 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
8797 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
8800 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
8802 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
8804 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
8805 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
8806 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
8807 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
8808 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
8810 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
8814 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
8816 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
8820 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
8822 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
8823 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
8825 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
8827 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
8829 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
8830 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
8831 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
8833 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
8834 is the one that is used.
8836 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
8837 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
8838 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
8839 separate from the command's regular output.
8840 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
8841 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
8842 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
8845 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
8846 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
8847 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
8848 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
8850 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
8851 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
8852 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
8853 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
8855 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
8856 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
8857 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
8858 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
8860 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
8861 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
8862 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
8863 they never ignore case.
8865 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
8866 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
8867 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
8868 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
8869 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
8870 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
8871 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
8873 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
8874 the same format that was used in the file before.
8876 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
8877 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
8879 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
8880 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
8881 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
8883 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
8884 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
8885 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
8886 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
8887 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
8888 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
8889 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
8891 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
8892 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
8893 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
8894 format. You can now customize these variables.
8896 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
8897 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
8898 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
8899 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
8901 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
8902 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
8903 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
8905 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
8906 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
8907 doesn't have any effect.
8909 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
8912 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
8913 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
8914 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
8916 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
8917 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
8918 `auto-show-mode' command.
8920 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
8921 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
8922 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
8923 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
8924 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
8926 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
8927 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
8929 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
8930 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
8931 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
8933 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
8934 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
8935 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
8936 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
8938 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
8940 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
8941 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
8942 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
8943 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
8944 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
8946 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
8947 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
8949 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
8950 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
8951 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
8952 `?' on other systems.
8954 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
8955 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
8958 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
8959 current codepage when it starts.
8963 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
8964 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
8965 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
8966 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
8967 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
8968 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
8972 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
8973 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
8975 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
8976 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
8977 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
8978 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
8979 buffer-file-coding-system.
8981 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
8982 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
8985 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
8986 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
8987 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
8988 list of possible coding systems.
8992 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
8993 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
8994 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
8995 docstring for details.
8997 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
8998 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
8999 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
9000 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
9001 lineup functions use this feature currently.
9003 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
9004 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
9006 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
9007 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
9009 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
9010 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
9011 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
9012 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
9015 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
9016 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
9018 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
9019 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
9020 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
9021 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
9023 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
9024 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
9025 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
9026 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
9027 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
9029 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
9031 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
9033 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
9034 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
9036 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
9038 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
9039 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
9040 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
9041 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
9042 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
9046 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
9047 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
9048 Gnus manual for the full story.
9050 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
9051 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
9052 group, which is created automatically.
9054 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
9057 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
9059 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
9060 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
9062 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
9065 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
9067 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
9068 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
9070 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
9072 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
9073 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
9075 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
9076 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
9078 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
9079 control over simplification.
9081 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
9083 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
9086 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
9088 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
9090 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
9091 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
9092 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
9094 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
9095 `a' forces normal posting method.
9097 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
9100 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
9103 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
9104 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
9106 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
9109 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
9111 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
9113 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
9114 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
9116 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
9117 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
9119 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
9121 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
9124 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
9125 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
9127 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
9128 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
9130 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
9132 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
9134 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
9136 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
9138 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
9139 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
9140 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
9142 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
9143 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
9144 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
9145 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
9146 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
9148 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
9149 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
9150 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
9151 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
9153 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
9154 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
9155 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
9158 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
9160 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
9161 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
9163 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
9164 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
9165 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
9166 removed from the label.
9168 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
9169 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
9171 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
9172 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
9174 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
9175 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
9178 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
9180 ** New/deleted modes and packages
9182 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
9183 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
9185 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
9186 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
9187 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
9189 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
9190 changes with a special face.
9192 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
9193 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
9194 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
9196 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
9198 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
9199 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
9200 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
9201 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
9202 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
9204 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
9205 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
9206 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
9208 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
9209 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
9210 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
9211 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
9212 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
9213 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
9214 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
9215 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
9216 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
9218 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
9219 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
9220 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
9221 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
9222 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
9225 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
9226 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
9227 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
9228 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
9229 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
9230 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
9232 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
9233 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
9234 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
9235 was not documented clearly before.
9237 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
9238 This includes Tetris and Snake.
9240 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
9242 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
9243 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
9244 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
9245 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
9247 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
9248 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
9249 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
9251 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
9253 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
9254 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
9256 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
9257 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
9260 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
9261 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
9262 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
9263 file names and attributes are returned.
9265 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
9266 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
9267 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
9268 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
9271 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
9272 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
9274 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
9276 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
9277 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
9278 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
9281 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
9282 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
9285 The new function process-running-child-p
9286 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
9287 terminal to its own child process.
9289 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
9290 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
9291 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
9292 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
9294 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
9295 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
9297 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
9298 :included is an alias for :visible.
9300 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
9301 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
9302 to move or copy menu entries.
9304 ** Multibyte editing changes
9306 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
9307 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
9308 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
9309 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
9310 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
9311 (setq char (sref str idx)
9312 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
9313 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
9315 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
9316 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
9317 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
9319 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
9320 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
9321 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
9323 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
9325 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
9326 across the boundary.
9328 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
9329 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
9330 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
9331 contains 8-bit characters.
9332 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
9333 contains invalid characters.
9335 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
9336 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
9337 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
9338 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
9341 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
9342 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
9343 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
9344 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
9346 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
9347 compose Thai characters in a string.
9349 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
9350 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
9351 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
9352 menus should always use the third argument.
9354 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
9355 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
9356 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
9357 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
9359 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
9360 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
9361 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
9362 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
9364 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
9365 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
9366 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
9369 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
9371 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
9372 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
9373 requested feature cannot be loaded.
9375 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
9376 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
9377 means to clear out that attribute.
9379 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
9380 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
9382 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
9383 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
9384 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
9385 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
9387 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
9388 the gap of the current buffer.
9390 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
9391 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
9394 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
9395 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
9396 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
9397 it back in after any modifications have been made.
9399 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
9401 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
9402 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
9403 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
9404 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
9405 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
9407 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
9408 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
9409 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
9410 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
9411 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
9413 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
9414 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
9415 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
9417 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
9418 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
9419 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
9420 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
9421 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
9424 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
9425 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
9426 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
9427 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
9429 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
9431 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
9432 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
9433 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
9434 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
9436 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
9437 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
9438 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
9439 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
9440 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
9441 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
9442 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
9445 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
9448 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
9449 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
9450 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
9451 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
9452 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
9454 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
9455 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
9456 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
9457 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
9459 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
9460 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
9461 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
9462 something that most users not do.
9464 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
9465 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
9466 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
9469 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
9472 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
9473 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
9474 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
9475 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
9478 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
9479 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
9480 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
9481 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
9482 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
9485 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
9486 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
9487 to be confused by TeX commands.
9489 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
9490 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
9491 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
9492 of various alternative replacements and actions.
9494 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
9495 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
9496 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
9497 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
9498 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
9500 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
9501 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
9503 ** Changes in input method usage.
9505 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
9506 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
9509 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
9511 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
9512 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
9514 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
9515 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
9517 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
9519 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
9521 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
9522 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
9524 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
9525 given in the following case:
9526 o When you are using a complex input method.
9527 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
9529 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
9530 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
9531 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
9532 setting it to t is helpful.
9534 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
9536 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
9538 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
9539 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
9540 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
9541 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
9544 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
9545 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
9546 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
9549 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
9551 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
9553 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
9554 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
9556 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
9557 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
9558 its owner and group.
9560 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
9561 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
9563 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
9564 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
9566 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
9567 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
9568 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
9569 by the left edge of the rectangle.
9571 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
9572 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
9573 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
9574 for writing keyboard macros.
9576 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
9577 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
9578 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
9579 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
9580 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
9583 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
9585 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
9586 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
9589 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
9590 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
9591 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
9592 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
9594 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
9595 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
9596 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
9598 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
9599 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
9600 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
9601 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
9603 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
9604 failure if the command produces no output.
9606 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
9607 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
9610 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
9611 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
9612 function and variable names.
9614 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
9615 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
9616 file-coding-system-alist.
9618 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
9619 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
9620 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
9621 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
9622 according to the current fontset.
9624 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
9626 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
9627 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
9628 nonascii-insert-offset.
9630 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
9631 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
9632 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
9633 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
9635 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
9636 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
9638 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
9639 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
9641 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
9642 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
9645 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
9646 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
9648 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
9649 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
9650 all variables that have documentation.
9652 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
9653 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
9654 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
9655 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
9656 it should show; the default is 20.
9658 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
9659 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
9662 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
9663 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
9664 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
9665 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
9666 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
9667 Newly added options are included as well.
9669 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
9670 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
9671 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
9673 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
9676 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
9677 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
9679 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
9680 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
9683 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
9684 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
9687 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
9688 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
9689 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
9690 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
9693 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
9695 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
9696 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
9697 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
9699 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
9700 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
9701 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
9706 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
9707 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
9709 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
9710 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
9712 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
9713 read and post multi-lingual articles.
9715 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
9716 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
9717 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
9718 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
9719 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
9720 made invisible again.
9722 ** Mail reading and sending changes
9724 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
9725 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
9726 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
9729 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
9730 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
9731 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
9732 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
9733 rmail-default-body-file.
9735 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
9736 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
9737 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
9739 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
9740 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
9741 is evaluated to insert the signature.
9743 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
9744 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
9745 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
9746 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
9747 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
9748 especially interested in trying feedmail.
9750 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
9751 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
9752 provided by feedmail are:
9754 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
9755 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
9756 there is also a queue for draft messages
9758 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
9759 be prompted for confirmation
9761 **** does smart filling of address headers
9763 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
9764 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
9765 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
9767 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
9768 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
9769 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
9770 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
9774 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
9775 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
9777 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
9778 run Dired on the directory name at point.
9780 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
9781 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
9782 for a specified regexp.
9786 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
9789 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
9790 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
9793 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
9794 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
9795 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
9796 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
9798 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
9799 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
9800 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
9801 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
9802 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
9804 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
9805 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
9806 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
9807 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
9808 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
9810 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
9811 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
9812 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
9813 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
9815 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
9816 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
9817 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
9819 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
9820 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
9821 session to resolve them.
9823 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
9824 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
9825 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
9828 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
9829 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
9830 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
9831 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
9832 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
9833 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
9836 ** Changes in Font Lock
9838 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
9839 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
9840 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
9841 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
9842 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
9844 ** Frame name display changes
9846 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
9847 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
9848 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
9849 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
9851 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
9852 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
9855 ** Comint (subshell) changes
9857 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
9858 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
9859 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
9861 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
9863 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
9864 that is, the line after the last line you got.
9865 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
9867 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
9868 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
9871 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
9872 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
9873 previously sent input.
9875 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
9876 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
9877 as the search string.
9879 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
9880 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
9884 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
9885 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
9886 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
9889 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
9890 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
9891 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
9892 style is still the default however.
9894 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
9896 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
9897 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
9898 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
9900 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
9901 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
9903 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
9904 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
9906 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
9907 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
9909 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
9910 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
9912 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
9913 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
9914 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
9915 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
9917 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
9919 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
9920 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
9921 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
9923 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
9924 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
9925 expanding dynamically.
9927 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
9928 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
9930 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
9931 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
9932 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
9933 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
9935 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
9937 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
9939 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
9940 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
9941 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
9942 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
9943 against the first word in the title.
9945 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
9946 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
9947 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
9948 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
9949 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
9950 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
9952 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
9953 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
9954 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
9955 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
9957 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
9959 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
9960 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
9961 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
9962 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
9963 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
9964 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
9966 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
9967 Editing group once the package is loaded.
9969 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
9970 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
9971 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
9973 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
9974 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
9978 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
9979 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
9980 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
9982 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
9983 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
9984 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
9985 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
9988 o URLs are automatically skipped
9989 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
9991 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
9993 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
9995 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
9996 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
9997 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
9998 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
10000 *** New recursive parser.
10002 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
10003 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
10004 recursive parser scans the individual files.
10006 *** Parsing only part of a document.
10008 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
10009 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
10010 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
10012 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
10014 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
10016 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
10018 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
10020 *** Using multiple selection buffers
10022 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
10023 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
10025 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
10027 *** References to external documents.
10029 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
10030 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
10031 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
10032 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
10033 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
10034 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
10035 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
10037 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
10039 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
10040 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
10042 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
10043 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
10045 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
10047 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
10048 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
10050 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
10052 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
10053 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
10054 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
10055 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
10056 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
10057 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
10060 *** Support for the varioref package
10062 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
10066 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
10067 and citations are created. These hooks are
10068 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
10069 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
10071 *** Citations outside LaTeX
10073 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
10074 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
10076 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
10078 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
10079 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
10082 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
10084 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
10085 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
10086 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
10087 directories that contain the same file name.
10089 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
10090 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
10091 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
10092 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
10093 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
10094 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
10095 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
10098 ** New modes and packages
10100 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
10101 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
10102 it, but some do not.
10104 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
10107 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
10108 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
10109 around in a buffer.
10111 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
10113 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
10114 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
10115 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
10116 established system of notation similar to Chess.
10118 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
10119 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
10120 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
10122 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
10123 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
10124 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
10125 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
10126 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
10129 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
10130 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
10132 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
10133 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
10134 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
10135 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
10137 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
10139 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
10140 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
10141 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
10142 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
10143 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
10144 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
10145 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
10146 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
10147 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
10148 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
10149 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
10151 Platform-specific modes:
10153 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
10154 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
10155 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
10156 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
10157 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
10158 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
10159 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
10160 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
10161 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
10163 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
10165 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
10166 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
10167 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
10168 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
10170 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
10171 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
10172 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
10174 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
10175 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
10176 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
10177 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
10179 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
10180 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
10181 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
10184 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
10185 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
10186 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
10187 current input method for reading this one event.
10189 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
10190 now control whether to output certain characters as
10191 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
10192 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
10193 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
10194 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
10196 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
10198 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
10199 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
10201 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
10202 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
10203 always increases point by 1.
10205 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
10206 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
10208 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
10210 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
10211 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
10212 default value changed. For example,
10214 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
10219 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
10222 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
10223 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
10224 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
10225 `:version' in the top level group.
10227 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
10229 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
10230 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
10232 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
10233 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
10234 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
10237 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
10238 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
10241 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
10242 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
10243 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
10245 ** Frame-local variables.
10247 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
10248 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
10249 local bindings for that variable.
10251 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
10252 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
10253 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
10256 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
10257 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
10258 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
10259 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
10261 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
10262 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
10263 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
10264 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
10266 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
10267 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
10268 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
10269 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
10270 See the documentation in sregex.el.
10272 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
10273 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
10274 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
10275 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
10277 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
10278 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
10280 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
10281 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
10282 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
10284 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
10285 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
10286 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
10287 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
10289 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
10290 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
10293 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
10294 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
10295 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
10296 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
10297 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
10299 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
10300 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
10301 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
10302 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
10304 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
10305 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
10306 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
10307 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
10308 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
10310 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
10311 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
10312 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
10313 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
10315 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
10316 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
10317 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
10319 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
10320 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
10321 was directed to display this buffer.
10323 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
10324 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
10325 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
10326 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
10327 set-window-configuration.
10329 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
10330 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
10331 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
10332 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
10334 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
10335 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
10336 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
10338 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
10339 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
10340 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
10342 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
10343 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
10345 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
10346 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
10348 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
10349 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
10350 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
10352 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
10353 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
10354 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
10355 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
10359 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
10360 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
10363 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
10364 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
10365 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
10366 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
10367 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
10369 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
10371 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
10372 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
10373 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
10374 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
10377 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
10378 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
10379 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
10380 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
10381 The supported properties include
10383 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
10385 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
10386 item should appear in the menu.
10388 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
10389 which will be REAL-BINDING.
10390 It should return a binding to use instead.
10392 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
10393 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
10394 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
10395 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
10396 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
10399 This means that the command normally has no
10400 keyboard equivalent.
10401 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
10402 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
10403 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
10404 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
10405 value says whether this button is currently selected.
10407 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
10408 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
10410 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
10414 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
10415 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
10416 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
10417 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
10419 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
10421 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
10422 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
10423 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
10424 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
10425 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
10426 forward, away from the user.
10428 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
10430 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
10431 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
10432 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
10433 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
10434 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
10436 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
10438 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
10439 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
10440 that were dragged and dropped.
10442 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
10444 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
10446 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
10447 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
10448 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
10450 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
10451 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
10452 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
10454 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
10455 in Emacs 19 and before.
10457 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
10458 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
10460 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
10461 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
10462 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
10463 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
10465 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
10466 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
10467 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
10468 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
10469 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
10471 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
10472 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
10473 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
10474 consistent with the new representation.
10476 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
10477 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
10478 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
10479 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
10481 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
10482 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
10483 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
10485 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
10486 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
10487 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
10489 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
10490 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
10491 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
10493 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
10494 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
10496 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
10497 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
10499 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
10500 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
10501 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
10502 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
10504 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
10505 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
10507 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
10508 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
10509 buffer or string being searched.
10511 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
10512 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
10513 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
10514 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
10515 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
10516 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
10517 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
10519 *** Structure of coding system changed.
10521 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
10522 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
10523 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
10524 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
10525 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
10526 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
10527 define-coding-system-alias.
10529 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
10530 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
10531 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
10532 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
10533 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
10534 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
10535 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
10538 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
10539 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
10540 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
10541 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
10543 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
10544 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
10545 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
10546 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
10548 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
10549 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
10550 This function requires a user interaction.
10552 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
10553 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
10554 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
10555 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
10556 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
10557 select-safe-coding-system.
10559 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
10560 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
10561 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
10564 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
10565 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
10566 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
10568 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
10569 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
10570 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
10571 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
10573 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
10574 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
10575 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
10578 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
10579 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
10581 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
10582 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
10583 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
10584 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
10585 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
10586 range of characters.
10588 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
10589 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
10591 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
10592 in the current buffer at position POS.
10594 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
10595 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
10596 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
10597 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
10598 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
10599 binding input-method-function to nil.
10601 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
10602 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
10603 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
10604 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
10605 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
10607 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
10608 subsequent events of a key sequence.
10610 *** You can customize any language environment by using
10611 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
10613 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
10614 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
10615 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
10616 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
10617 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
10619 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
10621 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
10622 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
10623 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
10626 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
10627 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
10629 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
10630 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
10631 in your .emacs file.)
10633 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
10634 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
10636 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
10637 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
10639 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
10640 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
10643 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
10644 delete the character before point, as usual.
10646 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
10647 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
10648 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
10650 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
10651 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
10652 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
10653 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
10654 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
10657 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
10658 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
10659 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
10660 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
10661 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
10663 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
10664 and is an alias for it.
10666 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
10667 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
10669 ** Scrolling changes
10671 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
10672 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
10674 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
10675 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
10678 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
10679 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
10680 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
10681 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
10683 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
10684 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
10685 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
10686 recenters the window.
10688 ** International character set support (MULE)
10690 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
10691 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
10692 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
10693 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
10694 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
10695 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
10697 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
10698 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
10699 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
10700 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
10701 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
10703 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
10704 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
10705 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
10706 language, to make it possible to type them.
10708 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
10709 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
10711 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
10712 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
10714 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
10716 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
10718 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
10719 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
10720 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
10721 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
10722 characters for their work until they want to change.
10726 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
10727 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
10728 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
10729 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
10730 support several input methods.
10732 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
10733 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
10736 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
10737 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
10738 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
10739 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
10740 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
10743 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
10744 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
10745 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
10746 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
10747 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
10749 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
10750 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
10751 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
10752 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
10754 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
10755 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
10756 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
10757 the first guess is wrong.
10759 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
10760 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
10762 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
10763 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
10764 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
10765 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
10767 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
10768 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
10769 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
10770 translate automatically to and from either one.
10772 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
10774 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
10775 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
10776 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
10779 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
10780 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
10781 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
10782 multibyte characters in that buffer.
10784 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
10785 character conversion as well.
10787 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
10789 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
10790 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
10791 requires using many fonts.
10793 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
10794 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
10796 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
10797 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
10798 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
10799 you would use a font.
10801 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
10802 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
10803 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
10805 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
10806 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
10809 *** Defining fontsets.
10811 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
10812 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
10813 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
10815 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
10816 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
10817 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
10818 standard fontset are created automatically.
10820 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
10821 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
10822 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
10823 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
10824 name is `fontset-startup'.
10826 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
10827 The resource value should have this form:
10828 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
10829 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
10830 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
10831 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
10832 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
10833 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
10834 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
10835 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
10836 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
10838 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
10839 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
10840 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
10842 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
10843 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
10844 following resource,
10845 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
10846 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
10847 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
10848 Here is the substitution rule:
10849 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
10850 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
10851 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
10852 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
10853 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
10855 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
10856 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
10857 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
10859 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
10860 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
10861 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
10862 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
10865 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
10866 defaults for a particular choice of language.
10868 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
10869 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
10870 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
10871 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
10872 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
10873 system for new files that you create.
10875 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
10876 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
10877 whole Emacs session.
10879 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
10880 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
10881 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
10883 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
10884 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
10885 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
10886 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
10887 coding systems that Emacs supports.
10889 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
10890 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
10891 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
10892 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
10893 is used for *the immediately following command*.
10895 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
10896 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
10898 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
10899 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
10901 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
10902 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
10904 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
10905 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
10906 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
10907 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
10910 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
10911 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
10912 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
10913 translated into that character code.
10915 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
10916 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
10918 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
10920 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
10921 the coding system for keyboard input.
10923 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
10924 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
10925 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
10927 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
10929 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
10930 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
10931 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
10932 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
10933 designed to work with terminals.
10935 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
10936 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
10937 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
10938 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
10939 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
10940 in the corresponding buffer.
10942 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
10944 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
10945 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
10946 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
10948 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
10949 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
10950 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
10953 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
10954 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
10956 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
10957 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
10958 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
10959 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
10961 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
10962 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
10963 related information.
10965 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
10966 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
10969 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
10970 information about the support for a particular language.
10971 You specify the language as an argument.
10973 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
10974 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
10977 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
10978 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
10979 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
10980 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
10982 A alternativnyj (Russian)
10984 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
10985 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
10986 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
10987 E euc-japan (Japanese)
10988 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10989 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
10990 K euc-korea (Korean)
10993 S shift_jis (Japanese)
10996 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
10997 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10998 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
10999 v viqr (Vietnamese)
11002 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
11003 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
11004 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
11005 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
11007 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
11008 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
11010 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
11011 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
11012 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
11013 Rmail files themselves.
11015 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
11016 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
11018 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
11021 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
11022 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
11023 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
11024 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
11025 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
11027 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
11028 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
11029 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
11032 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
11033 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
11034 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
11035 without any conversion.
11037 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
11038 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
11039 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
11040 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
11042 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
11043 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
11045 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
11046 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
11048 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
11049 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
11051 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
11052 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
11053 in the buffer before point.
11055 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
11056 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
11059 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
11060 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
11062 ** File locking works with NFS now.
11064 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
11065 in the same directory as FILENAME.
11067 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
11068 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
11069 can become a bottleneck.
11071 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
11072 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
11073 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
11074 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
11075 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
11076 so useful that the change is worth while.
11078 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
11079 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
11080 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
11081 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
11083 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
11084 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
11087 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
11088 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
11089 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
11091 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
11092 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
11093 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
11095 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
11096 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
11097 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
11099 ** Changes in View mode.
11101 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
11102 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
11104 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
11105 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
11107 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
11110 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
11111 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
11113 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
11114 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
11115 not just the selected window.
11117 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
11118 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
11119 turns View mode on or off.
11121 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
11122 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
11123 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
11125 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
11126 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
11128 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
11129 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
11130 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
11131 which version to compare with.
11133 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
11134 blocks if a match is inside the block.
11136 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
11137 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
11138 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
11139 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
11141 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
11142 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
11143 blocks, all of them or none.
11145 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
11146 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
11147 confirmation first.
11149 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
11150 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
11151 However, the mode will not be changed if
11152 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
11153 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
11154 not suitable for ordinary files, or
11155 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
11157 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
11159 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
11160 these commands do not change the major mode.
11162 ** M-x occur changes.
11164 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
11165 it performs a case-sensitive search.
11167 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
11168 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
11169 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
11171 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
11172 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
11173 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
11174 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
11175 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
11177 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
11178 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
11179 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
11180 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
11182 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
11183 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
11184 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
11186 ** Outline mode changes.
11188 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
11190 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
11192 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
11193 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
11194 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
11195 was already active.
11197 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
11198 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
11199 get confused by it.
11201 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
11202 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
11204 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
11206 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
11207 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
11208 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
11209 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
11211 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
11212 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
11213 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
11215 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
11216 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
11219 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
11220 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
11221 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
11222 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
11224 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
11225 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
11226 can be. The default value is 30.
11228 ** Changes in Mail mode.
11230 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
11231 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
11232 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
11233 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
11234 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
11237 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
11238 compose-mail-other-frame.
11240 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
11241 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
11242 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
11243 buffer that shows the original message.
11245 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
11246 with separator lines around the contents.
11248 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
11249 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
11250 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
11251 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
11253 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
11255 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
11256 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
11257 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
11258 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
11260 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
11261 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
11264 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
11265 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
11268 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
11269 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
11270 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
11271 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
11273 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
11274 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
11275 be taken to be magic.
11277 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
11278 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
11279 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
11281 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
11282 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
11284 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
11285 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
11287 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
11289 new key dired.el binding old key
11290 ------- ---------------- -------
11291 * c dired-change-marks c
11293 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
11294 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
11295 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
11297 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
11298 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
11299 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
11300 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
11301 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
11302 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
11306 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
11307 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
11308 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
11309 each time you run it.
11311 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
11312 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
11314 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
11315 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
11316 means to move in the opposite direction.
11318 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
11319 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
11321 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
11322 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
11323 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
11324 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
11329 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
11331 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
11334 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
11335 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
11337 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
11340 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
11342 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
11344 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
11346 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
11347 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
11348 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
11350 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
11352 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
11354 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
11355 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
11357 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
11358 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
11359 used to pick articles.
11361 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
11362 another have been added.
11364 `M-x gnus-change-server'
11366 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
11367 generating lines in buffers.
11369 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
11372 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
11374 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
11376 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
11378 *** Scores can be decayed.
11380 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
11382 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
11383 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
11385 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
11388 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
11390 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
11391 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
11393 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
11395 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
11396 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
11398 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
11399 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
11401 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
11404 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
11405 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
11407 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
11409 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
11411 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
11413 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
11415 Use the `Y c' command.
11417 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
11419 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
11421 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
11423 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
11424 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
11426 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
11428 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
11430 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
11431 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
11433 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
11435 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
11436 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
11437 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
11438 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
11441 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
11442 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
11443 particular news group. This can be done by:
11445 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
11447 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
11448 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
11449 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
11450 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
11451 for reading and posting).
11453 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
11454 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
11455 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
11456 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
11459 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
11460 default. Here are some of these default settings:
11462 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
11463 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
11464 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
11465 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
11466 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
11468 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
11469 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
11471 ** CC mode changes.
11473 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
11474 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
11475 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
11476 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
11477 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
11480 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
11481 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
11482 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
11483 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
11484 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
11485 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
11487 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
11488 of the current buffer.
11490 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
11491 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
11492 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
11494 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
11495 style that the Python developers like.
11497 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
11498 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
11499 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
11501 ** VC Changes [new]
11503 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
11504 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
11505 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
11507 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
11508 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
11511 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
11512 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
11514 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
11515 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
11516 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
11517 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
11519 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
11520 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
11522 ** Calendar changes.
11524 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
11525 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
11526 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
11527 following/previous years.
11529 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
11530 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
11531 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
11532 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
11533 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
11534 supposed attribute of God.
11536 ** ps-print changes
11538 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
11541 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
11543 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
11544 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
11545 printer system has this behavior, set variable
11546 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
11548 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
11549 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
11550 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
11552 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
11553 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
11555 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
11556 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
11557 printing for your printer.
11559 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
11560 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
11562 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
11563 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
11565 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
11566 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
11567 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
11568 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
11569 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
11570 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
11571 The default value is nil.
11573 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
11574 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
11576 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
11577 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
11578 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
11579 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
11580 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
11581 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
11582 color). The default is 0 ("black").
11584 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
11585 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
11587 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
11588 The default is 0 ("black").
11590 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
11591 The default is 0 ("black").
11593 border-width Specify the border width.
11594 The default is 0.4.
11596 Any other property is ignored.
11598 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
11599 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
11602 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
11603 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
11604 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
11605 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
11606 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
11607 controlling headers.
11609 *** Color management (subgroup)
11611 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
11614 *** Face Management (subgroup)
11616 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
11617 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
11618 background should be used. Valid values are:
11620 t always use face background color.
11621 nil never use face background color.
11622 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
11624 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
11626 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
11629 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
11630 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
11632 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
11635 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
11636 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
11637 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
11639 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
11643 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
11647 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
11651 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
11655 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
11657 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
11659 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
11662 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
11663 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
11664 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
11666 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
11667 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11668 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11669 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11670 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11674 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11675 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11676 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11679 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11680 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11681 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
11682 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
11683 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
11684 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11685 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11686 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11687 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
11688 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
11689 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
11692 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11694 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
11697 *** Printer management (subgroup)
11699 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
11700 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
11701 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
11702 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
11705 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
11706 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
11707 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
11709 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
11710 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
11713 *** Page settings (subgroup)
11715 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
11716 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
11717 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
11718 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
11719 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
11720 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
11723 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
11724 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
11725 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
11727 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
11728 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
11729 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
11730 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
11731 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
11732 its TO, are ignored.
11734 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
11735 pages. Valid values are:
11737 nil print all pages.
11739 `even-page' print only even pages.
11741 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
11743 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
11744 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
11745 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
11746 print only the even sheet of paper.
11748 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
11749 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
11750 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
11751 only the odd sheet of paper.
11753 Any other value is treated as nil.
11755 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
11756 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
11757 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
11759 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
11761 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
11762 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
11764 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
11765 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
11766 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
11767 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
11768 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
11769 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
11770 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
11772 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
11773 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
11774 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
11775 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
11776 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
11777 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
11778 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
11780 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
11782 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
11783 messages should be sent.
11785 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
11786 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
11787 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
11789 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
11791 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
11792 points for line numbers.
11794 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
11795 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
11797 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
11798 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
11799 to 2, the printing will look like:
11811 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
11812 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
11815 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
11816 zebra stripe is to be printed.
11818 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
11820 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
11821 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
11822 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
11823 3, the output will look like:
11837 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
11838 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
11840 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
11841 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
11844 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
11845 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
11848 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
11850 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
11851 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
11853 ** hideshow changes.
11855 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
11858 *** Support for java-mode added.
11860 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
11861 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
11863 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
11864 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
11865 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
11867 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
11868 robust and a lot faster.
11870 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
11872 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
11873 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
11874 documentation for more details.
11876 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
11878 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
11879 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
11880 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
11881 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
11882 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
11884 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
11885 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
11886 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
11887 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
11893 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
11894 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
11895 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
11896 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
11897 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
11898 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
11900 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
11902 *** Maximum decoration
11904 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
11905 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
11906 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
11907 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
11908 to get the old behavior.
11912 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
11914 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
11915 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
11917 *** Configurable support
11919 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
11920 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
11921 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
11922 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
11923 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
11924 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
11925 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
11927 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
11928 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
11929 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
11931 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
11933 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
11934 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
11937 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
11939 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
11945 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
11946 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
11947 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
11948 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
11950 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
11952 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
11953 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
11954 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
11956 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
11958 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
11959 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
11960 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
11961 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
11962 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
11963 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
11964 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
11966 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
11967 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
11968 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
11969 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
11970 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
11971 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
11973 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
11975 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
11976 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
11977 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
11978 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
11980 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
11983 ** Ada mode changes.
11985 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
11986 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
11987 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
11988 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
11991 *** There are two new commands:
11992 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
11993 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
11995 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
11996 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
11997 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
11999 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
12000 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
12001 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
12003 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
12004 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
12005 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
12006 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
12008 ** Scheme mode changes.
12010 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
12011 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
12012 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
12013 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
12016 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
12017 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
12018 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
12019 variables as buffer-local variables.
12021 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
12022 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
12024 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
12026 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
12027 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
12028 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
12029 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
12031 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
12032 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
12035 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
12036 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
12037 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
12038 option takes precedence.
12040 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
12041 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
12042 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
12044 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
12045 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
12048 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
12049 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
12051 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
12052 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
12055 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
12056 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
12057 these register values no longer become completely useless.
12058 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
12059 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
12060 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
12062 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
12063 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
12064 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
12065 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
12067 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
12068 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
12069 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
12070 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
12071 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
12073 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
12074 since it applies only to the current frame.
12076 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
12077 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
12078 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
12080 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
12081 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
12082 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
12083 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
12084 instead of just the file you are editing.
12088 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
12089 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
12090 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
12091 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
12092 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
12095 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
12096 knows which kind of label is needed.
12098 C-c ) reftex-reference
12099 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
12100 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
12102 C-c [ reftex-citation
12103 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
12104 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
12106 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
12107 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
12110 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
12111 can quickly jump to every section.
12113 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
12114 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
12115 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
12116 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
12117 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
12119 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
12121 *** Info documentation is now available.
12123 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
12124 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
12126 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
12127 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
12129 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
12130 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
12132 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
12133 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
12134 appropriate functions.
12136 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
12137 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
12139 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
12142 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
12143 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
12145 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
12146 shall be delimited.
12148 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
12149 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
12150 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
12152 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
12153 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
12154 prefixed with `ALT'.
12156 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
12157 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
12158 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
12161 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
12162 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
12163 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
12165 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
12166 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
12168 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
12169 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
12170 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
12172 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
12174 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
12176 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
12177 from alien sources.
12179 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
12180 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
12183 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
12186 *** Added support for imenu.
12188 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
12189 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
12190 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
12191 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
12193 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
12194 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
12196 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
12198 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
12200 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
12201 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
12202 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
12205 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
12206 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
12208 ** browse-url changes
12210 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
12211 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
12212 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
12213 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
12214 customization variables.
12216 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
12218 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
12219 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
12220 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
12222 ** Changes in Ediff
12224 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
12225 pops up the Info file for this command.
12227 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
12228 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
12229 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
12232 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
12233 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
12234 files in the same directory.
12236 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
12237 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
12238 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
12240 ** Changes in Viper
12242 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
12243 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
12245 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
12246 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
12247 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
12248 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
12249 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
12250 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
12251 color when Viper is in insert state.
12252 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
12253 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
12254 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
12258 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
12259 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
12260 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
12261 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
12262 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
12264 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
12266 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
12267 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
12269 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
12270 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
12271 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
12273 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
12274 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
12275 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
12276 methods and protocols.
12278 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
12279 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
12280 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
12283 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
12284 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
12285 at least M times and as many as N times.
12287 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
12288 in files has changed slightly.
12290 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
12291 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
12292 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
12293 with old time-stamp-format values.
12295 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
12296 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
12297 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
12300 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
12301 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
12302 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
12303 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
12304 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
12305 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
12307 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
12308 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
12309 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
12311 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
12312 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
12313 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
12314 recommended now will continue to work then.
12316 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
12319 ** There are some additional major modes:
12321 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
12322 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
12323 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
12325 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
12326 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
12329 ** New Lisp packages include:
12331 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
12333 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
12334 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
12336 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
12338 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
12341 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
12342 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
12345 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
12346 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
12347 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
12348 strings or comments.
12350 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
12351 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
12352 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
12353 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
12356 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
12357 can visit them by short forms of their names.
12359 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
12360 Emacs Lisp function at point.
12362 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
12364 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
12365 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
12367 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
12369 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
12371 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
12373 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
12374 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
12376 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
12377 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
12378 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
12379 original place after inserting the copy.
12381 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
12384 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
12385 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
12386 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
12388 Enable mouse-drag with:
12389 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
12391 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
12393 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
12394 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
12396 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
12397 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
12401 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
12402 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
12403 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
12404 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
12405 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
12406 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
12407 instance) and vice versa.
12409 To use this package load it using
12410 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
12411 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
12412 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
12413 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
12414 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
12415 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
12417 *** Interface to ph.
12419 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
12421 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
12422 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
12425 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
12427 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
12428 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
12429 while the real cursor does not move.
12431 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
12432 for visiting your favorite web sites.
12434 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
12435 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
12439 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
12440 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
12441 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
12442 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
12444 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
12446 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
12448 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
12450 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
12451 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
12452 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
12453 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
12454 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
12456 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
12457 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
12458 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
12459 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
12460 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
12461 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
12463 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
12465 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
12466 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
12467 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
12468 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
12470 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
12471 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
12473 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
12474 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
12477 ** Basic Lisp changes
12479 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
12480 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
12482 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
12483 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
12486 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
12488 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
12490 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
12491 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
12493 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
12494 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
12497 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
12499 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
12501 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
12503 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
12504 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
12505 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
12508 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
12509 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
12510 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
12512 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
12513 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
12514 adding one of these suffixes.
12516 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
12517 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
12518 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
12520 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
12521 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
12523 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
12525 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
12526 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
12528 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
12529 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
12531 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
12533 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
12534 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
12536 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
12537 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
12538 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
12539 works using `save-current-buffer'.
12541 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
12542 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
12545 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
12546 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
12547 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
12550 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
12551 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
12554 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
12556 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
12557 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
12558 Then it returns that string.
12560 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
12562 (with-output-to-string
12563 (princ "The buffer is ")
12564 (princ (buffer-name)))
12566 returns "The buffer is foo".
12568 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
12571 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
12572 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
12573 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
12575 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
12576 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
12578 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
12579 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
12580 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
12581 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
12582 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
12583 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
12585 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
12586 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
12587 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
12590 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
12591 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
12592 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
12593 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
12594 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
12596 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
12597 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
12598 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
12599 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
12601 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
12602 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
12604 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
12606 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
12607 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
12608 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
12609 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
12612 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
12613 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
12616 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
12618 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
12619 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
12620 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
12621 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
12622 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
12624 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
12626 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
12627 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
12628 more than the number of characters.
12630 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
12631 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
12632 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
12633 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
12634 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
12635 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
12637 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
12638 and returns a string containing those characters.
12640 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
12641 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
12642 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
12643 character, sref signals an error.
12645 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
12646 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
12647 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
12649 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
12650 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
12651 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
12653 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
12654 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
12655 to a vector of the characters in it.
12657 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
12658 of a string. You call it as follows:
12660 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
12662 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
12663 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
12664 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
12665 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
12666 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
12668 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
12669 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
12671 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
12672 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
12674 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
12675 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
12676 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
12677 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
12679 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
12681 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
12683 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
12684 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
12685 are not included in the resulting value.
12687 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
12688 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
12689 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
12690 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
12692 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
12693 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
12694 character extends across that column), then the padding character
12695 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
12696 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
12697 column START-COLUMN.
12699 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
12700 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
12701 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
12702 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
12703 changed text, before the change.
12705 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
12706 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
12707 one character set for each script, not for each language.
12709 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
12711 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
12713 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
12714 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
12716 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
12717 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
12718 which identify the character within that character set.
12720 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
12721 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
12722 opposite of split-char.
12724 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
12725 of all the characters between BEG and END.
12727 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
12728 of all the characters in a string.
12730 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
12731 and specifying coding systems.
12733 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
12734 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
12735 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
12736 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
12737 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
12738 as what to do about code conversion.)
12740 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
12741 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
12743 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
12744 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
12745 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
12747 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
12748 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
12749 to match against a file name.
12751 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
12752 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
12753 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
12754 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
12755 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
12756 specifies the coding system for encoding.
12758 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
12759 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
12761 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
12762 the coding system to use for network sockets.
12764 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
12765 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
12766 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
12769 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
12770 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
12771 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
12772 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
12773 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
12774 specifies the coding system for encoding.
12776 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
12777 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
12779 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
12780 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
12781 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
12782 start the subprocess.
12784 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
12785 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
12786 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
12787 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
12788 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
12790 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
12791 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
12794 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
12795 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
12796 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
12797 connection permanently or until overridden.
12799 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
12800 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
12801 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
12802 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
12803 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
12804 system for one operation at a time.
12806 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
12807 files, subprocesses or network connections.
12809 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
12810 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
12811 The value is a cons cell,
12812 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
12813 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
12814 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
12815 input to the subprocess.
12817 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
12818 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
12820 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
12821 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
12822 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
12824 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
12825 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
12826 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
12827 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
12830 Thus, instead of writing
12832 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
12833 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
12835 you would now write this:
12837 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
12838 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
12842 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
12843 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
12844 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
12845 for a description of them.
12847 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
12848 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
12850 (defgroup ispell nil
12851 "Spell checking using Ispell."
12854 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
12855 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
12856 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
12857 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
12858 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
12860 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
12861 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
12862 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
12863 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
12864 first-level subgroups.
12866 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
12868 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
12869 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
12873 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
12874 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
12875 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
12876 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
12877 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
12878 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
12880 ** Text property changes
12882 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
12885 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
12886 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
12887 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
12888 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
12889 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
12891 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
12892 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
12893 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
12894 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
12896 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
12897 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
12898 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
12900 ** Changes in invisibility features
12902 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
12903 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
12904 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
12905 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
12906 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
12907 make the overlay visible.
12909 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
12910 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
12911 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
12912 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
12913 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
12914 t when it should hide it.
12916 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
12918 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
12919 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
12920 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
12921 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
12922 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
12923 Here is an example of how to do this:
12925 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
12926 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
12927 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
12928 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
12931 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
12934 ;; When done with the overlays:
12935 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
12936 ;; Or respectively:
12937 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
12939 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
12941 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
12942 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
12943 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
12944 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
12946 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
12947 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
12948 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
12950 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
12951 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
12953 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
12954 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
12956 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
12957 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
12958 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
12960 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
12961 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
12962 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
12963 determine the syntax type of the character.
12965 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
12966 of the current buffer.
12968 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
12969 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
12970 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
12972 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
12973 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
12974 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
12975 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
12976 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
12978 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
12981 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
12982 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
12983 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
12985 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
12986 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
12987 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
12988 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
12989 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
12991 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
12992 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
12993 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
12995 ** Changes in face features
12997 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
12998 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
13000 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
13001 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
13003 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
13004 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
13006 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
13007 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
13009 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
13010 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
13011 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
13012 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
13015 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
13016 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
13018 ** Changes in file-handling functions
13020 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
13021 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
13022 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
13023 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
13025 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
13028 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
13029 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
13031 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
13032 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
13034 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
13035 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
13037 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
13038 character code conversion as well as other things.
13040 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
13041 (formerly it did not).
13043 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
13044 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
13046 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
13047 instead of constant strings.
13049 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
13050 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
13051 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
13053 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
13054 in the same way as before.
13056 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
13057 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
13058 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
13060 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
13061 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
13062 else, and returns nil.
13064 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
13065 directory cannot be listed.
13067 ** Changes in minibuffer input
13069 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
13070 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
13071 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
13072 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
13075 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
13076 It is available through the history command M-n.
13078 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
13079 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
13080 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
13081 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
13082 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
13084 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
13085 argument in this way.
13087 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
13088 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
13089 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
13091 ** Echo area features
13093 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
13094 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
13095 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
13096 after the echo area is cleared.
13098 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
13099 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
13101 ** Keyboard input features
13103 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
13104 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
13106 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
13107 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
13108 by keyboard macros.
13110 ** Frame-related changes
13112 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
13113 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
13114 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
13116 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
13117 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
13118 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
13120 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
13121 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
13122 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
13123 in the selected frame.
13125 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
13126 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
13127 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
13129 ** X Windows features
13131 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
13132 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
13133 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
13135 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
13136 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
13138 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
13139 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
13140 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
13142 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
13143 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
13145 ** Subprocess features
13147 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
13148 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
13151 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
13152 and returns the output from the command as a string.
13154 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
13155 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
13157 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
13158 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
13160 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
13161 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
13162 goes after the other menu items.
13164 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
13165 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
13166 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
13169 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
13170 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
13172 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
13173 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
13176 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
13177 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
13178 but its hook is still run.
13180 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
13181 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
13183 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
13184 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
13185 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
13187 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
13188 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
13189 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
13192 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
13193 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
13195 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
13196 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
13197 functions like display-time.
13199 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
13200 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
13202 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
13203 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
13204 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
13206 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
13207 if there is an error in compilation.
13209 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
13210 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
13211 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
13212 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
13214 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
13215 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
13216 the *scratch* buffer.
13218 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
13219 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
13220 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
13221 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
13223 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
13224 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
13225 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
13227 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
13228 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
13229 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
13230 and compose-mail-other-frame.
13232 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
13233 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
13234 full name of the specified user will be returned.
13236 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
13237 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
13238 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
13239 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
13240 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
13243 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
13244 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
13245 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
13246 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
13248 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
13249 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
13250 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
13251 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
13253 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
13255 ** imenu.el changes.
13257 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
13258 item from menu created by imenu.
13260 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
13261 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
13262 select one of those items.
13264 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
13266 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
13267 Copyright information:
13269 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
13271 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
13272 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
13273 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
13274 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
13276 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
13277 of this document, or of portions of it,
13278 under the above conditions, provided also that they
13279 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
13283 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
13286 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793