1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
31 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
34 ** The Mac Carbon port is no longer supported.
35 Instead, use... [what?]
37 ** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
40 ** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
42 ** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
44 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
45 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
47 ** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
49 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
50 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
51 you need control over which C compiler is used.
53 ** The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
54 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
56 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
58 ** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
59 Start the server (M-x server-start). Then `emacsclient -t' creates a
60 tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can also use any
61 number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11 frame on
62 the current $DISPLAY or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set.
64 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
65 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
67 ** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
68 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line option
69 --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
70 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
71 for details about XEmbed.
73 ** Emacs comes with a new set of icons for Mac OS X.
74 OS-X-style icons (an application icon and a relevant document icon)
75 were contributed by Kentaro Ohkouchi.
76 Source files for these icons can be found in Emacs.app/Contents/Resources.
77 PNG versions are available as etc/images/icons/emacs*_mac.png.
79 ** Built-in functions (subr) can now have an interactive specification
80 that is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
81 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
83 ** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
84 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
86 ** split-window-preferred-function specifies whether display-buffer should
87 split windows vertically or horizontally.
89 ** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
90 frame. Its behavior has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
91 default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in
92 the currently selected Emacs frame.
94 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
96 ** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
98 ** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
99 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
101 ** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode enabled, Emacs uses a
102 Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server, rather than faking events
103 using the client program mev. This C level approach provides mouse
104 highlighting, and help echoing in the minibuffer.
106 ** The new variable next-error-recenter specifies how next-error should
107 recenter the visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example,
108 0 for top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
110 ** New command recenter-top-bottom moves the current line to window
111 center, top and bottom on successive invokations.
113 ** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
115 ** The mode-line displays a `@' if the default-directory for the current buffer
116 is on a remote machine, or a hyphen otherwise.
118 ** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a minor mode,
119 in the same way as it already did for major modes.
121 ** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both vertically
124 ** The new command close-display-connection can be used to close a connection
125 to a remote display, e.g. because the display is about to become unreachable.
127 ** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
128 called with a prefix, and the default directory is a remote file name.
129 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
130 run processes remotely.
132 ** The new command `display-time-world' starts an updating time display
133 using several time zones, in a buffer.
135 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
137 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
138 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
141 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
142 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
143 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
146 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
148 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
151 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
152 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
156 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
159 ** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
160 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
161 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
164 ** M-q now fills the region if the region is active and
165 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on. Otherwise, it fills the current
169 ** M-$ now checks spelling of the region if the region is active and
170 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
173 ** TAB now indents the region if the region is active and
174 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on.
176 ** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
177 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty region.
179 ** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
180 `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
182 ** New command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name matches a regexp.
184 ** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary selection
185 by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
187 ** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
188 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
189 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
190 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
192 ** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring
193 also updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank,
194 just as M-w would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
196 ** Minibuffer changes:
198 *** In C-x d, if you type M-n you get the visited file name of the
201 *** In Dired, a list of commands for ! extracted from mailcap according to
202 file extensions are added to the default list accessible by M-n.
204 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
205 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
206 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last isearch
207 regexp, the last isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
209 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
210 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
211 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
212 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
213 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
214 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
215 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
218 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
220 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
222 ** The package doc-view.el has been added. It supports viewing of PDF,
223 PostScript and DVI documents inside an Emacs buffer by converting the
224 document to a set of PNG images first. One can also search for a
225 regular expression in the document. The commentary of the file explains
228 ** The nXML package has been added.
229 [FIXME someone who uses this, please write a brief description.]
231 ** A new game called `bubbles' has been added.
233 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
235 ** Remember Mode (remember.el) is now included with Emacs. It is a
236 mode for quickly jotting down things to remember. Included with
237 remember.el is a backend that can save notes to a Diary file. Please
238 consult the Remember Manual for usage details.
240 ** D-Bus language bindings for Elisp are provided by the package
241 dbus.el and by extensions to the C modules of Emacs. D-Bus is an
242 inter-process communication mechanism for applications residing on the
243 same host, based on messages. See the manual for further details.
245 ** EasyPG is now part of the Emacs distribution.
246 EasyPG is an all-in-one GnuPG interface for Emacs. It consists of two
247 parts: EasyPG Assistant and EasyPG Library.
249 EasyPG Assistant is a set of convenient tools to use GnuPG from
250 Emacs. EasyPG Library is a sort of an elisp port of GPGME, a wrapper
251 library which provides API to access some of the GnuPG functions.
253 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
255 ** ChangeLog now has function bound to C-c C-f that finds the file in
256 the current log entry.
258 ** abbrev was rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
259 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
261 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
262 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
263 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
264 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
265 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
266 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
267 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
268 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
269 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
270 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
273 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
274 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
275 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
276 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
277 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
278 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
280 ** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
281 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
285 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in isearch mode
286 runs `occur' with the current search string.
288 *** isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
289 When running isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
290 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
291 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
293 This is enabled if isearch-buffers-multi is non-nil.
295 ** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
296 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see smerge-auto-refine.
300 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
301 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
302 diff-auto-refine. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
304 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
305 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
306 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
308 ** archive-mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
310 ** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
312 ** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
313 the first error encountered during compilations.
315 ** In the `copyright' package, you can specify your copyright holders' names.
316 Only copyright lines with holders matching copyright-names-regexp will be
317 considered for update.
319 ** eldoc highlights the function argument under point
320 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
322 ** hide-ifdef-mode permits to shadow ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
323 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
326 ** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
327 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
330 *** The --members option is now the default.
332 Use --no-members if you want the old default behaviour of not tagging
333 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
336 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
338 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
340 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
342 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
343 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, and
344 Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems
345 as a single changeset.
347 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type V to toggle the annotation visibility.
349 ** log-edit now has a command bound to C-c C-d to show the diff for
352 ** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
354 ** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
355 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
356 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
357 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
361 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
363 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
364 `string', disabled by default.
366 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
367 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
369 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
374 *** New connection methods.
375 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
376 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
377 "tunnel" and "socks".
379 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
380 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
381 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
383 *** More default settings.
384 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
385 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
387 *** Connection information is cached.
388 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
389 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
390 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
392 *** Control of remote processes.
393 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
394 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
396 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
397 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
398 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
400 ** Miscellaneous programming mode changes
402 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
403 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
405 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
407 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
408 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
411 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
415 *** The Gnus package has been updated
417 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
419 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
423 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
424 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
425 on the corresponding remote system.
427 *** C-x C-q in dired-mode now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
428 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
431 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
433 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
436 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
439 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
440 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
441 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. Previously IPv6 was
442 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
443 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
445 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
446 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
447 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
448 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
449 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
451 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
452 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
453 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
454 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
455 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
456 for the list of extra keys that are available.
458 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
461 ** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
463 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
464 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
465 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
466 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
467 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
468 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
469 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
472 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
474 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
475 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
477 ** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents the
478 search and match primitives from changing the match data.
481 ** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
482 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
484 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
485 property, then `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from
486 the local value of the hook variable. This means it remains
487 even if you change major modes.
490 ** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
491 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
492 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
493 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
494 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
496 ** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a certain
497 variable as having been made within Custom.
499 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
502 ** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
503 an active region that they should operate on.
505 ** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode
506 is enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
507 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
508 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
510 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
511 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
512 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
513 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
515 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
516 undefined functions. The new `check-declare' package verifies that such
517 statements are accurate (i.e. the functions are actually defined in
518 the specified files).
520 ** The new function `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
522 ** The new function `face-all-attributes' returns an alist
523 describing all the basic attributes of a given face.
525 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
526 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
527 strings on the kill ring.
529 ** Changes related to multiple tty support.
531 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
532 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
534 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
536 *** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
537 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
540 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
541 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
543 *** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
544 frame on another tty device interactively.
546 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
547 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
549 *** New functions: `delete-tty', `suspend-tty', `resume-tty'.
551 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
552 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
554 *** New hooks: `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions'
555 are called after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed,
556 respectively. The functions are called with the terminal id of the frame
557 being suspended/resumed as a parameter.
559 *** New function: `environment'.
561 *** New variable: `local-function-key-map'.
562 This in addition to the global function-key-map variable that
563 already existed. The global variable is not used directly any more;
564 instead, the local-function-key-map is initialized so as to inherit from
567 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
569 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
570 keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
572 *** In addition to the global function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
573 local-function-key-map variables, and uses them instead of the
574 global keymaps to set up translations and function key sequences
575 relevant to a specific terminal device.
578 ** You can now also pass the value of the `invisible' property to invisible-p
579 to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible. Convenient when
580 checking invisibility of text which has no buffer position
581 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
583 ** Non-breaking space now acts as whitespace.
586 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
588 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
595 ** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
599 ** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
601 ** New function `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide
604 ** The new function `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
606 ** The new function `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
608 ** The new function `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated
609 with a given image specification.
612 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
613 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
616 ** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
617 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
618 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
619 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
620 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
622 ** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
623 returns its output as a list of lines.
626 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
627 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
628 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
629 remote connection has been established already.
631 ** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
632 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
635 ** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
636 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex interactive
637 forms to subroutines.
639 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
641 ** The package isearch-multi.el has been added. It implements a new mode
642 `isearch-buffers-minor-mode' that allows isearch to search through
643 multiple buffers. In this mode a new variable
644 `isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' defines the function to call
645 to get the next buffer to search in the series of multiple buffers.
647 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
650 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
651 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
653 GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
654 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
655 the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
658 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
659 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
660 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
661 GNU General Public License for more details.
663 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
664 along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
665 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
666 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
671 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
674 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2