1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
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 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
26 ** New configure option '--without-all' to disable additional features.
27 This disables most of the features that are normally enabled by default.
29 ** New configure option '--enable-link-time-optimization' to utilize
30 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
32 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
33 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
34 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
35 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
38 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
39 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
42 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
43 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
47 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
50 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
51 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
55 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
56 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
59 ** The standalone scripts rcs-checkin and vcdiff have been removed
60 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
61 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
63 ** The configuration option '--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
64 renamed to '--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
65 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
66 check that this option enables.
69 ** The default toolkit has been changed to Gtk+ version 3.
70 If you don't pass --with-x-toolkit to configure or if you pass
71 --with-x-toolkit=gtk or --with-x-toolkit=yes, configure will try to build
72 with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
73 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
74 --with-x-toolkit=gtk2 or --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 to configure.
77 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
79 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
80 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
81 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
84 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
87 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
89 ** Most y-or-n prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
90 Typing C-v or M-v at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
91 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
93 ** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
94 next and previous path separator, respectively.
98 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
99 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
100 that does not have its own specialized help text.
102 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to
103 invokes `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
107 *** `C-h f' (describe-function) can now perform autoloading.
108 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
109 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
110 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
111 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
113 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
114 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
115 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
117 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
118 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
119 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
120 automatically at startup, or when customizing a relevant imagemagick-
123 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
124 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
125 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
127 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
128 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
129 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
132 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
133 :background image spec property.
135 ** Server and client changes
137 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
138 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
139 or expression to evaluate.
141 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
143 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
144 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
147 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
148 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
150 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
151 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
152 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
153 that support backtraces.
155 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
156 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
159 ** New variable `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
160 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
161 files (use this with caution).
164 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
165 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
168 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
169 local variables on remote hosts.
172 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
173 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
175 ** Internationalization changes
177 *** New language environment: Persian.
179 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
182 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
185 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
186 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
189 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
190 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
193 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
194 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
195 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
197 ** Search and Replace changes
199 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
200 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
201 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
202 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
203 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch).
205 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
206 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
208 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
209 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
212 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
213 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
214 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
218 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register.
220 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
221 the text to put between collected texts for use with M-x
222 append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
224 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
226 ** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
228 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
229 prompts for a column number.
231 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
232 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
234 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
235 properties on yanked text, in more ways that are more general than
236 just removing them, as done by `yank-excluded-properties'.
239 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
243 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
244 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
245 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
247 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
248 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
251 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
253 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
254 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
258 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
259 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
261 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
262 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
266 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
267 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
268 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions use
271 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
272 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
273 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
274 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
276 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is just a bunch of aliases that
277 provide the old non-prefixed names.
279 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
280 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
282 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
283 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery (as opposed
284 to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture definitions in
285 closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding' is in use.
287 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
288 A side effect is that vars without corresponding value are bound to nil
289 rather than making them unbound.
293 *** New option `compilation-always-kill'.
297 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
299 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
300 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
305 *** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory. Desktop
306 files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
311 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
314 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
317 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
318 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
321 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
322 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
325 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
328 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
329 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
333 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
336 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
340 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
341 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
342 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition
343 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
344 and `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
346 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
347 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
348 changes in context diffs.
350 *** The new command `diff-remove-trailing-whitespace' fixes trailing
351 whitespace problems introduced by the diff.
355 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
356 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
357 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
359 *** Typing M-n in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
360 `dired-do-chown', `dired-do-touch' pulls the file attributes of the
363 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
364 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
365 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
367 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff) has changed.
368 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
369 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
371 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
372 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
374 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
376 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
377 channel keys found, if any.
379 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
380 See flymake-fringe-indicator-position, flymake-error-bitmap and
381 flymake-warning-bitmap.
385 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
387 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
388 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
392 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
393 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
394 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
398 *** New `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
399 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
401 ** Mouse Avoidance mode
403 The new variable `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to
404 customize Mouse Avoidance mode further.
407 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
408 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
411 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
412 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
416 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
417 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
418 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
421 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed:
422 Old defcustom: | New defcustom:
423 python-indent | python-indent-offset
424 python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset
425 python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate
426 python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert
428 *** Some user options have been removed:
430 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
432 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
433 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
435 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
436 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
438 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
439 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
441 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
442 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
444 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
445 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
448 *** Some commands have been replaced:
449 Old command | New command
450 python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class
451 python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def
452 python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for
453 python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if
454 python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try
455 python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try
456 python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while
457 python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun
458 python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence
459 python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence
460 python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer
461 python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun
462 python-send-region | python-shell-send-region
463 python-send-region-and-go | Emulate with python-shell-send-region and
464 python-shell-switch-to-shell
465 python-send-string | python-shell-send-string
466 python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell
467 python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point
469 ** reStructuredText mode
471 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
472 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
474 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
475 modes. TAB is your friend.
477 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
478 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
480 *** Major revision of comment handling.
482 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
484 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
485 the experience for Sphinx users.
487 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
489 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
491 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
493 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
495 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
497 *** Support `imenu' and `which-func'.
501 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
503 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
505 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
509 *** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies what buffer to use
510 for a new asynchronous shell command when the default output buffer
511 `*Async Shell Command*' is already taken by another running command.
515 *** DB2 added `sql-db2-escape-newlines'
517 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
518 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
519 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
521 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
523 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
524 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
528 The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color' are
529 now deprecated in favor of the `term-face' face, that you can
530 customize. Also, it is now possible to customize how are displayed the
531 ANSI terminal colors and styles by customizing the corresponding
532 `term-color-<COLOR>', `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold'
537 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy
538 definitions. See the manual for details.
540 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
544 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
545 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
546 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
547 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
548 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
550 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
551 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
552 in case that is not properly encoded.
556 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
558 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
560 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
562 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
564 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
567 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
570 ** Obsolete packages:
573 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
574 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
575 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
590 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
592 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
594 ** (random) by default now returns a different random sequence in
595 every Emacs run. Use (random S), where S is a string, to set the
596 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
597 sequence in later calls.
599 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
600 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
601 depends on the graphical library.
603 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
604 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
605 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
608 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
609 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
610 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
614 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
615 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, defun and
616 defmacro currently return the name of the newly defined function/macro
617 but this should not be relied upon.
619 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
620 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
623 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
624 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
625 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
628 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to avoid problems with spelling
629 that is incorrect or inconsistent with how Emacs normally spells a word.
631 *** Renamed functions
633 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
634 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
635 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
636 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
637 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
638 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
639 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
640 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
643 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
644 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
646 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
647 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
648 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
650 *** Renamed Lisp variables
652 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
653 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
654 deactivate-current-input-method-function
656 ** Some obsolete variables and variable aliases were removed:
658 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
659 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
660 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'.
663 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.3
665 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
666 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
668 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
669 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
673 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
674 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
676 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
677 table, but with a different prefix.
681 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
682 These do not trigger the debugger.
684 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill'.
686 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
687 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
688 to work out which code is doing something.
690 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
691 recursive invocations.
695 *** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
696 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
697 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via M-n
698 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
699 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
703 *** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
704 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
706 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
708 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window'.
710 *** New options `temp-buffer-resize-frames' and
711 `temp-buffer-resize-regexps'.
713 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
716 *** New function `fit-frame-to-buffer' and new option
717 `fit-frame-to-buffer-bottom-margin'.
719 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
720 `display-buffer-at-bottom' and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
722 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
723 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
726 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
727 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
729 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
730 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
732 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
733 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
736 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
737 **** `special-display-regexps'
738 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
739 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
740 **** `special-display-function'
741 **** `display-buffer-function'
745 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
746 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
747 by the underlying C implementation.
749 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
750 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
751 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
752 functions that use this format, such as file-attributes and
753 format-time-string, have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
754 stamps are still accepted.
756 *** The format of timers in timer-list and timer-idle-list is now
757 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
758 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
759 accessed via the new timer--psecs accessor.
761 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
762 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args, e.g. (log -1.0).
763 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
764 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
765 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
767 ** Interpreted files are eagerly macro-expanded during load.
768 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
769 but can also bump into harmless and previously unnoticed cyclic
770 dependencies. These should not be fatal: they will simply cause the
771 macro-calls to be left for later expansion (as before), but will also
772 result in a warning describing the cycle.
774 ** Misc new functions:
777 *** `autoload-do-load'.
778 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
779 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
780 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
781 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
782 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary overlay map.
783 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
784 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
785 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
787 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
789 ** New fringe bitmap exclamation-mark.
791 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
792 See the "Face Attributes" section of the Elisp manual.
794 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
796 *** `automount-dir-prefix'
797 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
798 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist').
799 *** `window-system-version'
802 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on non-free operating systems
804 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
806 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
809 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
810 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
811 mouse-autoselect-window.
813 ** On MS-Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
815 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
817 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
820 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
822 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
823 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
824 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
827 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
828 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
829 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
830 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
832 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
833 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
834 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
835 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
837 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
838 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
839 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
840 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
841 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
843 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
844 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
845 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
846 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
848 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
849 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
851 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
852 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
853 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
856 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
857 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
858 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
860 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
861 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
862 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
864 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
865 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
867 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
868 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
871 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
873 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
874 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
875 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
877 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
878 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
879 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
883 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
887 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
888 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
890 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
892 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
893 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
895 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
897 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
898 default completion style in certain circumstances.
900 *** New completion style `substring'.
902 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
904 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
908 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
909 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
910 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
911 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
912 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
913 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
915 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
916 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
917 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
919 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
920 and Mail mode changes
922 ** Emacs server and client changes
924 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
926 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
928 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
929 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
931 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
932 its exit status is 1.
934 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
935 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
936 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
938 ** Internationalization changes
940 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
941 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
942 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
943 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
944 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
945 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
947 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
948 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
950 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
951 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
952 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
953 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
956 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
957 the right window edge.
959 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
960 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
961 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
962 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
963 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
965 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
966 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
968 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
971 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
972 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
973 automatically select it.
975 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
976 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
977 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
979 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
980 selected for installation.
982 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
984 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
985 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
986 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
988 ** Custom theme changes
990 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
991 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
993 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
994 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
995 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
996 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
997 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
998 built-in Custom themes.
1000 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
1001 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
1002 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
1003 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
1005 ** Improved GTK integration
1007 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
1008 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
1010 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
1011 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
1012 the default is taken from desktop settings.
1014 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
1015 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
1016 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
1019 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
1020 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
1022 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
1023 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
1025 ** Graphical interface changes
1027 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
1028 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
1029 displayed as a space.
1031 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
1032 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
1034 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
1035 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
1036 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
1040 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1041 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1043 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
1044 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
1045 do the right thing in batch mode.
1047 ** Scrolling changes
1049 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
1050 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
1051 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
1052 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
1054 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1056 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1057 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1059 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
1060 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
1062 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
1063 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
1064 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
1065 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
1066 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
1068 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
1069 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
1070 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
1071 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
1074 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1075 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1077 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
1078 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
1079 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
1080 now includes the SELinux context.
1082 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1083 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1087 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1088 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1090 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1091 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1093 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1095 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
1096 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
1097 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
1100 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
1101 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
1102 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
1103 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
1104 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
1106 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1107 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1109 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
1110 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
1111 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
1112 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
1117 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1118 in the quitted window.
1120 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1121 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1123 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1125 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
1126 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
1127 for choosing the displaying window).
1129 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1130 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1132 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1133 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1135 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
1136 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
1137 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
1138 from which such space was obtained.
1140 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
1141 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
1142 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
1143 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
1144 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
1146 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1147 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
1148 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1150 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1151 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1153 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
1154 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
1155 been shown in a specific window.
1157 ** Minibuffer changes
1159 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
1160 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
1161 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
1163 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
1164 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
1165 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
1167 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1169 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1171 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
1172 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
1173 successful operation.
1175 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
1176 for `list-colors-display'.
1178 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
1181 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
1185 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
1186 `isearch-yank-line'.
1188 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
1189 `isearch-yank-kill'.
1191 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
1193 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
1195 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
1196 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
1197 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
1198 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
1201 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
1202 also deletes newlines around point.
1206 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
1207 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
1208 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
1211 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
1212 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
1213 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
1215 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
1216 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
1217 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
1218 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
1220 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
1222 ** Selection changes.
1224 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
1225 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
1226 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
1227 mouse commands use the primary selection.
1229 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
1230 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
1232 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
1233 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
1234 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
1235 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
1237 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
1238 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
1239 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
1240 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
1241 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
1243 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
1245 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
1246 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
1247 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
1249 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
1251 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
1252 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
1253 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
1255 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
1256 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
1258 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
1259 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
1260 between applications.
1262 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
1264 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
1265 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
1266 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
1267 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
1268 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
1270 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
1272 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
1273 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
1275 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
1276 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
1277 number to count from and for a format string.
1279 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
1280 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
1281 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
1282 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
1283 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
1285 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
1286 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
1287 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
1288 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
1289 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
1291 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
1292 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
1293 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
1294 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
1295 follows `replace-match'.
1298 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1300 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
1304 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
1305 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
1306 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
1307 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
1309 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
1311 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
1313 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
1317 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
1319 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
1320 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
1322 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
1324 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
1325 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
1327 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
1328 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
1330 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
1331 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
1332 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
1334 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
1336 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
1337 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
1339 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
1340 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
1341 Use `appt-activate' instead.
1343 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1344 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
1345 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
1347 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1348 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1352 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1353 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1355 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1357 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
1358 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
1361 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
1362 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
1363 parsed as a statement continuation.
1365 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1369 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1370 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1372 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
1373 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
1374 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
1376 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
1377 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
1378 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
1383 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
1384 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
1385 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
1387 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
1388 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
1390 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1392 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1393 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1397 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1400 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1401 optionally do not register names.
1403 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1404 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1408 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1409 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1410 instead of using the current buffer.
1412 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1413 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1417 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1418 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1420 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1421 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1422 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1423 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1427 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1428 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1429 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1433 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1434 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1435 debugging of several threads.
1439 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1440 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1444 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1445 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1446 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1447 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1448 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1450 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1451 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1452 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1455 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1457 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1459 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1460 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1461 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1463 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1464 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1466 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1468 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1470 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1471 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1472 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1473 default), this performs tag completion.
1475 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1476 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1478 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1479 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1480 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1484 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1485 in the Rmail incoming message.
1487 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1488 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1489 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1493 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1494 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1495 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1497 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1498 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1502 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1503 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1504 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1507 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1508 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1509 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1510 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1511 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1512 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1513 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1514 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1516 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1517 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1519 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1521 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1523 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1524 the credentials file.
1526 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1527 If you had that set, you need to put
1529 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1531 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1533 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
1534 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
1535 to the address you wish to use instead.
1539 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1540 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1542 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1543 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1544 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1545 connection is established.
1547 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1548 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1550 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1551 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1552 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1553 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1555 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1556 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1557 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1558 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1559 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1560 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1562 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1563 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1565 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1566 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1567 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1569 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1570 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1572 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1576 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1580 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1582 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1583 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1585 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1586 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1588 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1589 default value to "".
1591 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1592 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1594 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1595 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1596 the degree of parallelism.
1598 ** VC and related modes
1600 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1601 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1602 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1603 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1604 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1606 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1608 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1609 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1610 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1611 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1612 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1614 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1615 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1617 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1618 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1619 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1620 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1621 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1622 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1624 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1625 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1627 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1628 this was not advertised at the time.
1630 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1631 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1632 this was not advertised at the time.
1638 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1640 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1641 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1642 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1643 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1645 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1647 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1649 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1651 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1652 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1654 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1658 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1659 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1661 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1662 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1664 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1666 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1668 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1671 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1673 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1674 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1676 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1677 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1678 matching closing one.
1680 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1681 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1682 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1683 electric-indent-functions.
1685 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1686 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1687 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1689 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1690 from which other modes can be derived.
1692 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1694 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1695 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1696 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1697 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1700 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1701 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1703 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1704 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1706 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1708 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1709 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1710 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1711 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1712 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1713 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1716 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1718 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1719 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1721 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1723 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1724 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1725 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1726 command still toggles the minor mode.
1728 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1729 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1730 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1731 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1732 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1734 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1735 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1736 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1737 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1738 argument `bidi-class'.
1740 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1741 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1742 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1743 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1745 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1746 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1747 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1750 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1751 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1752 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1753 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1754 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1755 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1756 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1758 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1759 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1760 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1761 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1764 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1765 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1766 replaced all known uses.
1768 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1769 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1770 major mode is special).
1772 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1774 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1775 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1776 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1777 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1778 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1779 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1781 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1782 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1784 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1785 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1786 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1787 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1789 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1790 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1791 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1793 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1795 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1796 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1797 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1799 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1800 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1801 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1802 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1803 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1804 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1805 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1806 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1807 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1808 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1809 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1810 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1811 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1812 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1813 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1814 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1815 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1816 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1817 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1818 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1819 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1821 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1822 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1824 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1825 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1826 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1827 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1828 *** `e' (`float-e').
1830 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1831 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1833 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1834 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1835 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1836 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1838 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1839 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1840 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1843 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1845 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1846 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1847 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1848 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1851 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1852 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1854 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1855 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1857 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1859 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1860 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1862 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1863 declared as dynamically bound.
1865 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1867 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1868 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1869 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1871 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1873 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1874 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1876 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1877 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1878 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1879 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1880 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1881 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1883 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1884 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1885 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1889 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1890 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1891 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1892 buffer) in the window tree.
1894 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1897 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1898 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1899 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1900 act on any window including internal ones.
1902 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1903 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1904 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1905 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1906 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1908 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1909 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1910 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1911 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1912 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1914 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1915 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1916 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1917 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1918 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1919 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1921 *** Window resizing functions.
1922 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1923 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1924 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1926 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1927 live window on that frame instead.
1929 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1930 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1931 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1932 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1933 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1934 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1936 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1937 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1938 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1939 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1940 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1941 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1943 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1944 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1945 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1946 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1948 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1949 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1950 The old names are kept as aliases.
1954 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1955 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1956 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1957 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1959 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1961 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1962 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1963 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1964 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1965 are user-customizable variables.
1967 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1969 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1970 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1971 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1975 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1976 properties of the current completion:
1977 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1978 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1980 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1981 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1983 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1985 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1986 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1987 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1988 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1989 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1990 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1991 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1993 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1994 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1995 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1997 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1998 behavior of `completing-read'.
2000 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
2001 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
2003 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
2004 Instead, the offending function is removed.
2008 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
2009 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
2010 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
2011 non-nil return value.
2013 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
2014 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
2015 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
2016 advertised at the time.)
2020 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
2021 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
2023 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
2025 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
2027 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
2028 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
2029 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
2031 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
2032 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2034 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2035 named Emacs server instances.
2037 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2038 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2040 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2041 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2043 ** New input reading functions
2045 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2046 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2048 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
2049 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
2052 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2054 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
2055 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
2056 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
2059 ** Syntax parsing changes
2061 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
2062 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
2063 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
2064 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
2065 Together with this new variable come a new hook
2066 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
2067 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
2068 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
2071 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2073 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2075 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2077 ** Major and minor mode changes
2079 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2080 as well as those in the -*- line.
2082 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2085 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
2086 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
2087 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
2089 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2090 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2092 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
2093 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
2094 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
2096 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2098 ** File-handling changes
2100 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
2101 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
2102 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
2103 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
2105 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2107 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
2108 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
2109 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
2113 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2115 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2117 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2119 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2122 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2123 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2125 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2126 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2128 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
2129 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
2130 ImageMagick installation supports.
2132 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2133 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2136 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2137 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2139 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
2140 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
2141 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
2142 `image-transform-set-scale'.
2144 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
2145 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
2146 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
2147 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
2149 ** XML and HTML parsing
2150 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
2151 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
2152 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
2153 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
2155 ** Networking and encryption changes
2157 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
2158 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
2159 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
2160 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
2161 must also be supplied.
2163 *** New library gnutls.el.
2164 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
2165 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
2166 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
2167 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
2168 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
2169 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
2172 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
2173 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
2174 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
2178 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
2180 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
2181 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
2182 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
2183 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
2184 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
2185 displayed with a "spinning bar".
2187 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
2188 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
2190 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
2191 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
2192 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
2193 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
2194 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
2195 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
2197 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
2199 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
2200 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
2201 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
2202 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
2204 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
2205 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
2207 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
2208 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
2209 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
2210 an empty uninterned symbol.
2212 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
2214 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2216 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
2217 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
2219 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
2220 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
2222 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
2224 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
2225 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
2227 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
2230 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
2232 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
2233 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
2235 ** New configure.bat options
2237 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
2239 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
2241 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
2243 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
2245 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
2247 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
2248 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
2250 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
2251 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
2253 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
2254 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
2257 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2258 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2260 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2261 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2262 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2263 (at your option) any later version.
2265 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2266 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2267 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2268 GNU General Public License for more details.
2270 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2271 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2276 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"