1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009 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.
30 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
31 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
34 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
35 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
37 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
38 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
40 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
41 where Emacs is running).
43 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
45 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
48 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
50 ** Changes to image support
52 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
55 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
57 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
59 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
60 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
61 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
63 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
64 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
65 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
66 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
68 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
69 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
71 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
74 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
75 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
77 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
79 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
81 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
83 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
84 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
85 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
87 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
89 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
92 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
94 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
96 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
98 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
100 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
101 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
104 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
105 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
106 you need control over which C compiler is used.
108 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
111 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
112 or any later version.
115 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
116 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
117 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
119 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
121 ** Improved X Window System support
123 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
124 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
125 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
126 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
127 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
129 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
130 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
132 *** Emacs can now start in background, as a daemon when using the
133 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
134 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
135 terminal frames using emacsclient.
137 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
138 --alternate-editor="" is used (or when the evironment variable
139 ALTERNATE_EDITOR is set to "") and emacsclient cannot connect to an
142 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
143 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
145 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
146 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
147 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
148 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
149 for details about XEmbed.
151 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
152 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
153 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
154 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
155 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
157 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
158 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
159 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
160 active frame and INACTIVE is the opactity of non-active frames.
162 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
163 opacity; the default is 20.
165 ** Internationalization changes
167 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
168 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
170 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
171 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. This encoding is backwards
172 compatible with Unicode's UTF-8 encoding. The internal encoding
173 previously used by Emacs, `emacs-mule', is still available.
175 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
176 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
177 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
178 or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule (whether or not they contain
179 multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it may be
180 worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared
183 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
185 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
186 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
187 as tables of unicodes.
189 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
190 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
192 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
193 characters for display.
195 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
196 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
197 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
199 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
200 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
202 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
203 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
204 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
206 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
207 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
208 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
211 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
212 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
213 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
214 the mode-line mouse menu.
218 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
219 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
220 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
221 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
222 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
224 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
225 "Save Options" item is used.
227 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
228 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
229 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
231 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
232 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
233 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
234 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
236 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
237 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
238 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
242 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
243 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
245 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
246 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
248 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
249 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
251 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
253 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
254 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
257 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
258 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
259 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
260 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
263 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
264 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
265 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
266 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
268 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
269 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
270 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
271 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
273 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
276 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
279 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
280 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
281 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
282 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
283 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
285 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
286 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
289 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
290 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
291 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
295 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
297 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
298 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
299 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
300 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
303 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
306 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
307 on the regexp command prefix map.
310 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
311 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
315 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
316 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
317 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
318 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
319 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
320 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
323 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
324 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
325 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
326 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
327 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
328 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
331 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound
332 from `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the
333 global prefix map `M-o' intended for such formatting commands.
336 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
337 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
338 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
339 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
340 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
344 ** If a function in write-region-annotate-functions returns with a
345 different buffer current, Emacs no longer kills that buffer
346 automatically. This behavior existed in previous versions of Emacs,
347 but was undocumented. To kill a buffer after write-region, give the
348 variable `write-region-post-annotation-function' a buffer-local value
352 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
355 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
356 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
357 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
358 behavior (motion by logical lines based on buffer contents alone).
361 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
362 invokes `suspend-frame'. This change is for compatibility with the
363 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
367 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
369 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
371 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
374 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
375 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
377 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
378 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
381 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
384 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
385 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
388 ** Temporarily active regions
390 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
391 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
392 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
393 region, similar to mouse-selection.
395 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
396 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
397 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
398 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
399 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
402 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
404 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
405 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
406 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
407 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
408 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
409 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
410 to create the file or buffer.
412 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
413 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
414 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
415 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
417 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
418 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
419 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
420 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
421 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
422 searching minibuffer completion items.
424 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
426 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
427 name of the current buffer.
429 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
430 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
431 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
432 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
433 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
435 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
436 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
437 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
438 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
440 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
441 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
442 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
443 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
444 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
446 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
447 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
448 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
449 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
450 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
451 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
452 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
454 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
455 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
457 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
458 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
460 *** `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your favorite
463 *** The default completion styles include a form of partial-completion.
465 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
466 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
468 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
469 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
470 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
474 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
475 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
476 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
478 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
479 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
480 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
481 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
483 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
484 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
485 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
486 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
488 *** The command `buffer-face-mode' prompts for a face name, and remaps
489 the default face in the current buffer to that specified face. The
490 command `variable-pitch-mode' turns on Buffer Face mode for the
491 `variable-pitch' face.
493 ** Primary selection changes
495 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
496 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
497 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to
498 bind `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
500 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
501 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
504 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
505 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
506 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
507 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
508 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
509 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
510 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
511 New Modes and Packages, below.
513 ** Window management changes
515 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
516 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
517 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
519 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
520 vertically and horizontally.
522 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
523 is on a different frame.
525 ** Miscellaneous changes:
527 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
528 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
529 successive invokations.
531 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
533 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
534 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
535 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
537 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
538 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
539 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
541 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
542 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
543 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
544 run processes remotely.
546 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
549 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
550 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
552 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
553 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
554 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
555 convenience alias for this function.
557 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
558 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
559 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
561 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
562 kill into the password.
564 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
566 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
568 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
569 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
571 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
572 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
573 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
575 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
577 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
578 See http://xkcd.com/378/
580 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
582 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
583 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
584 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
587 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
588 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
589 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
591 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
593 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
596 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
597 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
598 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
599 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
601 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
602 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
605 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
608 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
609 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
610 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
611 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
614 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
618 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
619 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
620 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
622 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
623 any invalid parts of your document.
625 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
626 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
627 allowed by the schema in that context.
629 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
630 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
631 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
632 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
633 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
634 MS-Windows and Solaris.
636 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
637 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
640 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
643 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
646 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
647 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
648 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
649 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
650 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
651 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
653 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
654 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
655 requires D-Bus for communication.
657 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
658 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
659 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
660 which have installed this software.
662 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
663 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
664 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
665 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
666 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
667 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
668 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
669 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
670 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
673 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
675 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
676 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
677 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
678 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
679 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
680 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
681 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
682 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
683 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
684 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
685 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
686 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
687 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
690 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
691 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
694 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
695 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
696 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
701 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
703 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
704 `string', disabled by default.
706 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
707 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
709 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
711 ** Calendar and diary
714 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
715 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
716 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
717 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
720 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
721 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
722 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
723 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
724 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
728 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
730 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
731 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
734 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
735 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
738 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
739 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
742 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
743 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
747 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
748 associated with the current log entry.
750 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
751 source code associated with a log entry.
753 ** Compile and grep modes
755 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
756 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
757 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
759 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
760 the first error encountered during compilations.
762 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
763 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
765 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
766 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
767 C++ sources and headers.
771 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
772 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
773 considered for update.
775 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
776 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
780 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
781 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
785 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
786 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
787 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
789 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
790 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
791 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
793 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
794 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
798 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
799 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
802 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
803 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
804 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
807 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
808 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
809 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
810 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
811 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
812 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
813 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
814 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
816 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
817 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
818 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
820 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
821 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
822 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
823 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
824 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
825 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
826 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
830 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
831 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
834 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
835 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
838 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
842 *** The Gnus package has been updated
843 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
844 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
846 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
847 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
848 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
849 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
851 *** Password are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
852 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
853 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
854 authentication respectively.
857 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
858 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
860 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
861 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
863 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
864 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
868 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
869 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
870 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
871 while Isearch is active.
873 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
874 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
875 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
876 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
877 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
879 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
880 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
881 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
883 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
884 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
885 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
886 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
887 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
889 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
890 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
893 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
896 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
897 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
898 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
899 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
900 and execute their global definitions.
902 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
903 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
908 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.1. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
911 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
912 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
914 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
915 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
916 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
917 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
921 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
922 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
923 corresponding remote host.
927 *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
928 Instead, it keeps them in their original mbox format, both on disk and
929 in Rmail buffers, and does conversion and decoding when a message is
932 First time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
933 automatically converts it to mbox format. This is a one-time
934 conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
935 your machine and on the size of the file. You should find the rest of
936 Rmail usage unaltered.
938 FIXME: Add more mbox merge details
942 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
943 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
948 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
949 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
950 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
951 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
957 *** New connection methods.
958 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
959 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
960 "tunnel" and "socks".
963 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
964 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
966 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
967 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
968 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
970 *** More default settings.
971 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
972 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
974 *** Connection information is cached.
975 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
976 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
977 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
979 *** Control of remote processes.
980 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
981 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
983 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
984 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
985 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
987 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
988 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
991 ** VC and related modes
993 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
994 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
995 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
996 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
999 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
1000 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
1001 directory or a set of files/directories.
1003 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
1004 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
1005 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
1006 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
1007 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
1008 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
1009 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
1011 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
1013 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
1015 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1016 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1017 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
1018 line" menu entry does the same thing.
1020 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
1022 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1025 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1026 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1029 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1030 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1031 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1033 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1034 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1035 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1037 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1039 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1041 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of maintainer able
1042 to update it to the new VC.
1046 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1047 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1048 on the corresponding remote system.
1050 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1051 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1053 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1054 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1055 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1057 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1058 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1060 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1061 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1063 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1065 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1066 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1068 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1069 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1071 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1073 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1074 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1076 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1077 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1079 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1081 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1083 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1084 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1085 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1087 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1089 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1090 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1093 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1094 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1095 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1096 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1098 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1099 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1101 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1102 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1105 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1107 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1108 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1109 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1110 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1111 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1114 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1115 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1116 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1117 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1118 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1121 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1122 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1123 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1126 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1127 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1128 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1129 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1130 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1132 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1133 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1134 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1135 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1136 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1138 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1139 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1140 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1141 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1142 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1143 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1145 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1146 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1147 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1148 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1149 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1150 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1151 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1152 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1153 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1156 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1159 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1162 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1163 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1166 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1167 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1168 that range have the same value.
1172 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1174 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1175 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1176 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1180 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1181 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1182 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1183 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1184 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1185 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1186 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1189 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1190 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1193 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1194 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1196 ** Internationalization changes
1198 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1200 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1203 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1204 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1205 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1207 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1208 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1209 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1211 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1212 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1214 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1215 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1217 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1218 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1220 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1221 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1223 ** The variable temp-file-name-pattern has been removed.
1224 This variable was only used by call-process-region, which now uses
1225 temporary-file-directory instead.
1228 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1230 ** New coding system alias `emacs-internal'.
1233 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1234 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1235 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1236 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1237 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1241 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `system-process-attributes'
1242 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1243 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1244 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1245 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1248 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1249 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1252 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1253 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1254 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1257 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1261 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1262 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1263 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1264 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1267 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1270 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1271 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1272 strings on the kill ring.
1275 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1276 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1281 ((debug error) nil))
1284 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1287 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
1288 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
1291 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1292 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1293 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1294 remote connection has been established already.
1297 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1298 undefined functions.
1300 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1303 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1304 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1305 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1308 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1309 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1310 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1313 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1314 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1315 interactive forms to subroutines.
1320 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1321 an active region that they should operate on.
1323 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1324 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
1325 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
1326 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
1327 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
1330 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1331 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1332 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1333 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1334 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1336 ** Emacs session information
1339 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1340 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1343 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1346 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1347 Emacs initialization.
1349 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1352 *** New value nil for split-height-threshold inhibits vertical splitting
1353 unless there's no other window.
1356 *** New option split-width-threshold controls horizontal splitting.
1359 *** A window can be split horizontally even when it's not full-width.
1362 *** New option split-window-preferred-function can be set to a function
1363 to override the default splitting mechanism of display-buffer.
1366 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1367 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1370 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have new optional
1371 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1372 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1374 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1375 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1378 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1379 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1381 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1383 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1384 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1385 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1386 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1387 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1390 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1391 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1392 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1395 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1396 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1399 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
1400 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
1402 ** Search and replacement changes
1404 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1406 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1407 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1410 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1411 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1412 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
1416 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1417 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1418 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1419 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
1420 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
1423 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1424 for search related commands.
1427 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1428 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1431 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1432 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1435 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1436 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1437 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1438 unless it ends in whitespace.
1440 ** File handling changes
1443 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1444 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1446 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1447 variables defined in the current buffer.
1451 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
1452 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
1453 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
1454 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
1455 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
1457 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
1458 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
1459 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
1460 Editing Changes, above).
1464 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
1467 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
1470 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
1472 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
1476 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1477 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1478 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1479 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1480 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1483 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1484 returns its output as a list of lines.
1486 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1489 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
1490 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
1491 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
1494 Generic characters no longer exist.
1497 In buffers and strings, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
1498 sequences in a multibyte buffer/string.
1501 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong
1502 to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1503 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1506 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1507 positional codes instead of just 2.
1510 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1513 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1514 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1517 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1518 priorities of charsets.
1521 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1522 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1523 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1524 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1525 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1528 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1529 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1530 entries in that range of characters.
1533 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
1538 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1539 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1542 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1545 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1548 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1551 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1554 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1557 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1560 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1561 a character code property.
1565 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1566 search for a word boundary.
1569 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1572 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1575 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1576 property on printing a string.
1579 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1581 ** Code conversion changes
1584 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1585 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1588 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1589 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1590 conversion should go.
1593 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1594 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1598 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
1599 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
1600 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
1604 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1609 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1610 coding system priority order.
1613 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1614 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1617 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1620 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1624 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1625 ordered by their priorities.
1628 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1630 **** `coding-system-from-name' returns a coding system matching with
1634 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1635 It has three functionalities:
1636 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1637 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1638 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1639 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1641 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1643 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1645 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1649 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1650 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1653 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1655 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
1656 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1658 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1660 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1661 available on your graphic device.
1663 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1664 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1665 currently `x' and `xft'.
1667 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1668 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1673 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1675 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1677 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1679 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1681 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1683 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1685 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1687 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1689 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1690 entity, or font object.
1692 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1694 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1697 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1698 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1701 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1704 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1705 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1706 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1707 takes a frame argument.
1710 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1711 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1714 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1715 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1718 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1722 *** A new `terminal' data type.
1723 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
1724 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
1727 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
1728 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
1729 which is not used directly any more.
1734 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
1735 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
1736 file-local variables.
1739 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
1740 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
1741 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
1742 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1745 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1746 deleting a terminal.
1751 **** `delete-terminal'
1760 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1762 ** Redisplay changes
1764 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1765 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1767 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
1768 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
1769 Convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer position
1770 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1773 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1775 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
1776 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
1777 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
1778 times the default column width.
1780 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
1781 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
1784 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
1786 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1789 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1790 string of days, hours, etc.
1793 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1796 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
1797 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
1800 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1801 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1803 *** New variable `buffer-swapped-with' lets the modes that use
1804 `buffer-swap-text' arrange to save the file from the proper buffer.
1807 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
1810 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1811 attributes of a given face.
1814 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
1815 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
1816 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
1819 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
1820 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
1821 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
1822 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
1825 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1829 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1830 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1834 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
1835 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
1836 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
1838 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
1839 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
1840 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
1842 ** Miscellaneous new variables
1845 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
1846 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
1848 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
1849 marker used for window-point.
1852 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
1853 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
1856 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
1857 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
1859 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1860 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1863 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1865 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1868 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
1869 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
1871 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1873 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
1874 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
1875 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
1876 of multiple buffers. Top-level commands `multi-isearch-buffers',
1877 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
1878 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
1879 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
1881 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
1882 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
1885 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1886 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1888 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1889 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1890 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1891 (at your option) any later version.
1893 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1894 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1895 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1896 GNU General Public License for more details.
1898 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1899 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1904 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
1907 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2