1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
9 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
10 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
11 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
12 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
17 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
18 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer.
21 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
23 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with elisp code.
26 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
27 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
31 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
32 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
33 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
34 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
35 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
36 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
37 in each user's home directory.
40 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
41 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
45 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
47 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
48 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
49 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
50 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
53 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
56 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
57 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
58 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
59 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
61 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
64 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
67 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
70 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 was added.
73 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
76 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
77 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
80 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
83 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
86 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
89 * Changes in Emacs 21.4
91 ** When display margins are present in a window, the fringes are now
92 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
93 at the edges of the window.
95 ** A window may now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
96 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
98 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
99 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
100 or when the frame is resized.
102 ** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
104 ** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which may
105 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
107 ** `describe-char' can show data from the Unicode database file. See
108 user option `unicode-data'.
110 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
112 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
113 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
115 ** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
116 Emacs will prompt her for confirmation.
118 ** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
120 ** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
121 and other common debugger commands.
125 The recent file list is now automatically cleanup when recentf mode is
126 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
129 With the more advanced option: `recentf-filename-handler', you can
130 specify a function that transforms filenames handled by recentf. For
131 example, if set to `file-truename', the same file will not be in the
132 recent list with different symbolic links.
134 To follow naming convention, `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-flag'
135 and `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag' respectively replace the
136 misnamed options `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p' and
137 `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The old names remain available as
138 aliases, but have been marked obsolete.
140 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
145 You can now put the init files .emacs and .emacs_SHELL under
146 ~/.emacs.d or directly under ~. Emacs will find them in either place.
148 ** partial-completion-mode now does partial completion on directory names.
150 ** skeleton.el now supports using - to mark the skeleton-point without
151 interregion interaction. @ has reverted to only setting
152 skeleton-positions and no longer sets skeleton-point. Skeletons
153 which used @ to mark skeleton-point independent of _ should now use -
154 instead. The updated skeleton-insert docstring explains these new
155 features along with other details of skeleton construction.
159 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.3. There have been major changes since
160 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
163 ** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
164 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given elisp
165 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
167 ** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
170 ** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
171 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
172 appears between the position information and the major mode.
174 ** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
175 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
178 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
179 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
180 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
181 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
185 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
186 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
187 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
191 ** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
192 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
193 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you will in fact be able
196 ** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
197 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
199 ** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
203 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
205 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
206 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
207 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
210 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
211 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
212 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
214 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
215 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
216 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories will be
217 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
218 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
220 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
221 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
222 t, and the status is shown.
224 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
225 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
228 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
229 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
230 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
233 ** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Windows-1251, Tajik,
234 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
235 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
236 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
237 automatically according to the locale.)
239 ** Indian support has been updated.
240 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
241 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
242 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
246 ** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
247 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
248 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
249 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
250 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
254 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
255 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
256 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
259 ** Many new coding systems are available by loading the `code-pages'
260 library. These include complete versions of most of those in
261 codepage.el, based on Unicode mappings.
263 ** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
264 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences (mostly representing CJK
265 characters) are simply composed into single quasi-characters. User
266 option `utf-translate-cjk' arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK
267 character sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the
268 Mule-UCS system. This uses significant space, so is not the default.
269 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
270 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
271 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
272 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
273 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
275 ** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
276 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
277 fontset appropriately.
279 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
283 ** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
284 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
285 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
286 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
287 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
288 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
289 mule-unicode-... ones.
291 By default this translation will happen automatically on encoding.
292 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
293 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
296 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
297 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
298 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
299 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
300 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
302 ** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
303 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
304 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
305 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
307 ** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
308 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
309 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
313 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
314 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
315 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
318 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
319 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
320 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
323 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
324 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
325 program files that include other program files.
327 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
328 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
332 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
333 when Emacs visits them.
336 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
338 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
339 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
340 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
343 ** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
344 now shown as a hollow box or a thin bar. However, you can control how
345 it blinks off by setting the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
349 ** Emacs now supports compound-text Extended Segments in X selections.
351 Some versions of X, notably XFree86, use Extended Segments to encode
352 in X selections characters that belong to character sets which are not
353 part of the list of approved standard encodings defined by the
354 compound text spec. An example of such non-standard encodings is
355 BIG5. The new coding system `compound-text-with-extensions' supports
356 these extensions, and is now used by default for encoding and decoding
357 X selections. If you don't want this support, set
358 `selection-coding-system' to `compound-text'.
361 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
362 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
363 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
364 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
366 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
367 hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
368 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
369 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
370 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
371 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
373 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
374 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
377 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
379 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
380 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
381 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
382 TeX commands to use at startup.
383 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
384 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
386 *** New major mode doctex-mode for *.dtx files.
389 ** New display feature: focus follows the mouse from one Emacs window
390 to another, even within a frame. If you set the variable
391 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a
392 different Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can
393 be selected only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this
394 feature is not enabled.
397 ** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
398 description various information about a character, including its
399 encodings and syntax, its text properties, overlays, and widgets at
400 point. You can get more information about some of them, by clicking
401 on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
404 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
405 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
406 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
407 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
408 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
411 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
412 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
413 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
414 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
415 also disable mouse highlighting.
418 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
419 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
420 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
421 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
422 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
425 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
426 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
427 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
431 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
432 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
433 the mode line of the currently selected window.
435 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
436 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
439 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
440 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
441 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
442 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
443 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
444 current date and time, current line and column number in the
448 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
451 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mail
452 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
453 `display-time-mail-directory'.
456 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
457 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
458 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
459 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
460 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
461 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
462 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
464 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
468 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
471 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
472 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
473 argument it toggles the mode.
475 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
476 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
479 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
480 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
481 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
482 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
483 `inhibit-splash-screen').
485 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
488 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
489 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
490 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
491 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
492 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
493 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
494 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
495 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
496 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
499 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
500 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
501 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
502 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
506 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
509 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
511 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
512 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
513 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
514 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
517 ** Info-index offers completion.
520 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
524 ** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
525 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
526 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
527 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
530 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
532 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
534 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
537 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
538 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
540 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
541 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
543 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
545 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
546 run by the key sequence.
548 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
549 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
552 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
553 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
555 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
556 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
558 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
559 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
561 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
562 new-kill-line is on C-k
565 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
566 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
567 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
568 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
571 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
572 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
573 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
574 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
577 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
578 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
579 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
580 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
583 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
584 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep will automatically
585 detect whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
586 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
587 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
588 command lines to be used than was possible before.
591 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
592 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
593 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
594 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
595 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
596 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
597 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
600 ** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
601 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
602 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
603 under the "[State]" button.
605 ** The new customization type `float' specifies numbers with floating
606 point (no integers are allowed).
609 ** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
610 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
613 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
615 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
616 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
617 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
618 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
619 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
621 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
622 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
623 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
626 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
629 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
630 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
631 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
633 Added Customization Variables
635 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
637 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
638 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
639 java sources (previous method).
641 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
642 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
647 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
650 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
651 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
652 changes the behavior of motion commands line C-e and C-p.
655 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
656 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
657 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
658 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
659 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
660 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
663 ** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
664 types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
665 what external viewers to use and when.
668 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
669 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
670 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
671 is only rarely needed.
674 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
676 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
677 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
678 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
679 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
682 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
683 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
684 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
685 each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
686 for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
690 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
691 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
692 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
693 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
694 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
697 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
698 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
699 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
702 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
703 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
704 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
708 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
709 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... will cycle through the
710 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
713 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
714 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
718 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
719 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
720 affects the initial frame.
723 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
724 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
725 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
728 ** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
732 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
733 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
734 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
735 directory listing into a buffer.
738 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
739 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
741 ** Unexpected yanking of text due to accidental clicking on the mouse
742 wheel button (typically mouse-2) during wheel scrolling is now avoided.
743 This behaviour can be customized via the mouse-wheel-click-event and
744 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
747 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
748 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
749 may mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
750 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
751 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
752 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
753 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
754 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
757 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
758 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
759 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
760 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
761 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
764 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
765 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
768 ** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
769 of the recognized cursor types.
772 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
776 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
777 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
780 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
781 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
782 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
785 ** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
786 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
787 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic' now take an optional parameter MARK,
788 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
789 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
790 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
791 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
792 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
793 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
797 *** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
798 the read-only state of the buffer (toggle-read-only). We made this
799 change because we held a poll and found that many users were unhappy
800 with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this behavior, you
801 can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your .emacs:
803 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
805 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
808 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
809 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
810 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
811 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
812 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
815 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
820 *** When comparing directories.
821 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
822 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
823 from one directory to another.
826 *** When comparing files or buffers.
827 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
828 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
829 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
832 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
833 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
834 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
839 *** New regular expressions features
841 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
842 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
843 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
844 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
845 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
846 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
847 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
848 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
849 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
850 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
851 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
853 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc.
854 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
855 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
858 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
859 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
860 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
861 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
863 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
864 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
865 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
867 *** New language parsing features
869 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
870 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
872 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
873 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
874 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
877 **** New language PHP.
878 Tags are functions, classes and defines.
879 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
881 **** New language HTML.
882 Title and h1, h2, h3 are tagged. Also, tags are generated when name= is
883 used inside an anchor and whenever id= is used.
885 **** New default keywords for TeX.
886 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
889 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
890 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
891 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
893 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
895 *** Honour #line directives.
896 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
897 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
898 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
899 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
900 writes tags pointing to the source file.
902 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
903 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
904 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
905 will read from standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to
909 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
910 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
913 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
914 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
917 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
918 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
919 whose names begin with space are omitted.
922 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
923 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
924 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
927 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
928 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
929 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
932 ** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
933 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
934 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
935 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
936 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
937 from the file name or buffer contents.
940 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
943 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
944 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behavior of isearch
945 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
948 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
949 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
950 instead of using default-major-mode.
953 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
956 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
959 ** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
960 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
961 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
964 ** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
965 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
968 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
969 to support use of font-lock.
972 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
973 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
977 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
978 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
979 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
982 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
983 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
984 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
985 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
986 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
987 candidate is a directory.
990 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
991 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
992 it remains unchanged.
995 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
996 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
997 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
1000 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
1003 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
1004 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
1005 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
1008 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
1009 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
1012 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
1013 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
1014 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
1015 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
1016 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
1017 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
1021 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
1022 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
1023 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
1024 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
1025 sound support for those formats.
1028 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
1029 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
1032 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
1033 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
1034 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
1035 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
1038 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
1039 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
1040 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
1041 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
1043 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
1044 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
1046 * New modes and packages in 21.4
1048 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
1049 ** GDB-UI is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1051 This mode acts as an enhanced graphical user interface to GDB. You can
1052 interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but there are also
1053 further buffers which control the execution and describe the state of your
1054 program. It separates the input/output of your program from that of GDB and
1055 displays expressions and their current values in their own buffers. It also
1056 uses features of Emacs 21 such as the display margin for breakpoints, and the
1059 Use M-x gdba to start GDB-UI.
1062 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1064 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
1065 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
1066 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
1067 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
1070 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1072 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
1073 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
1074 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
1075 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
1076 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
1077 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
1079 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
1080 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
1081 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
1082 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
1084 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
1085 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
1086 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
1087 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
1088 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
1089 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
1090 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
1092 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
1093 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
1094 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
1096 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
1097 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
1099 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
1100 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
1101 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
1102 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
1104 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
1105 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
1106 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
1107 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
1109 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
1110 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
1111 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
1112 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
1114 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
1115 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
1116 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
1117 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
1118 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
1120 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
1121 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
1122 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
1123 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
1124 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
1125 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
1127 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
1128 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
1129 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
1130 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
1131 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
1132 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
1133 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
1134 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
1135 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
1138 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
1139 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
1141 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
1142 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
1143 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
1144 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
1146 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
1149 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
1150 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
1151 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
1152 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
1153 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
1156 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
1157 the keyboard macro ring.
1159 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
1160 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
1162 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
1163 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
1164 this behaviour via the variable kmacro-call-repeat-key and
1165 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
1167 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
1168 C-x C-k SPC will step through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
1169 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
1172 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
1173 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
1174 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
1175 C-c C-i b, and so on.
1177 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1179 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
1180 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
1181 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
1182 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
1183 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
1184 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
1187 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1189 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
1190 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
1191 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
1192 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
1195 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
1197 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
1198 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
1199 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
1200 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
1201 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
1202 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
1203 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
1204 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
1205 `rsync' to do the copying).
1207 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
1211 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
1212 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
1213 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
1214 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
1215 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method may
1216 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
1219 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
1220 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
1221 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
1225 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
1226 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
1227 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
1228 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
1230 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
1233 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
1234 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
1236 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
1237 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
1238 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
1239 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
1240 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
1241 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
1244 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
1245 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
1246 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
1247 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
1250 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
1251 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
1252 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
1253 mode-lines in inverse-video.
1256 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
1257 with Custom. cplus-md.el, which required it, has also been removed.
1259 ** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
1260 timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
1263 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
1265 ** The `local-map' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
1266 text-properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
1267 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `keymap' property.
1269 ** `select-window' takes a second optional argument `norecord', like
1270 `switch-to-buffer'. `with-selected-window' is a new macro that uses
1271 this to temporarily switch the selected window without impacting
1272 the order of buffer-list.
1274 ** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
1277 ** VC changes for backends:
1278 *** (vc-switches BACKEND OPERATION) is a new function for use by backends.
1279 *** The new `find-version' backend function replaces the `destfile'
1280 parameter of the `checkout' backend function.
1281 Old code still works thanks to a default `find-version' behavior that
1282 uses the old `destfile' parameter.
1284 ** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
1286 ** The new command `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
1287 for all (existing and future) frames.
1289 ** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
1291 ** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
1293 ** The macro `with-syntax-table' does not copy the table any more.
1295 ** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
1296 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
1297 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
1298 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
1299 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
1301 ** The function `number-sequence' returns a list of equally-separated
1302 numbers. For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9).
1303 By default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different separation
1304 as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns (1.5 3.5 5.5).
1306 ** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
1307 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
1308 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
1309 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
1311 ** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
1312 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
1314 ** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character,
1315 unless it is followed by a `-' in a character constant (e.g. ?\s-A),
1316 in which case it is still interpreted as the super modifier.
1317 In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
1319 ** New function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the multibyteness
1320 of a string given to a process's filter.
1322 ** New function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns t if
1323 a string given to a process's filter is multibyte.
1325 ** A filter function of a process is called with a multibyte string if
1326 the filter's multibyteness is t. That multibyteness is decided by the
1327 value of `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is
1328 created and can be changed later by `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
1330 ** If a process's coding system is raw-text or no-conversion and its
1331 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
1332 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
1333 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
1334 which was not compatible with the behaviour of file reading.
1336 ** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
1337 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
1339 ** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
1340 on garbage collection.
1342 ** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
1343 it is read from a file without decoding.
1345 ** New function `langinfo' accesses locale information.
1347 ** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
1348 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
1349 by calling `select-window'.
1351 ** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
1352 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
1353 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
1354 need to have a name.
1356 ** Byte compiler changes:
1358 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
1359 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
1360 Emacs and XEmacs and may sometimes make the result significantly more
1361 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
1362 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
1365 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
1366 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
1367 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
1368 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
1371 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
1372 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
1374 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
1375 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
1376 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
1377 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
1378 macro expansion), but such tests may be nested. Note that `when' and
1379 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
1381 ** New translation table `translation-table-for-input'.
1384 ** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
1385 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
1386 current file redefined it).
1388 ** New Lisp library testcover.el works with edebug to help you determine
1389 whether you've tested all your Lisp code. Function testcover-start
1390 instruments all functions in a given file. Then test your code. Function
1391 testcover-mark-all adds overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to
1392 show where coverage is lacking. Command testcover-next-mark (bind it to
1393 a key!) will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
1395 *** Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely evaluated;
1396 a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same value. The red
1397 splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly complete their evaluation,
1398 such as `error'. The brown splotches are skipped for forms that are expected
1399 to always evaluate to the same value, such as (setq x 14).
1401 *** For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to help
1402 out the test coverage tool. The macro 1value suppresses a brown splotch for
1403 its argument. The macro noreturn suppresses a red splotch.
1406 ** New function unsafep returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly
1407 do anything dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be
1408 unsafe (calls dangerous function, alters global variable, etc).
1410 ** When you are printing using print-continuous-numbering,
1411 if no objects have had to be recorded in print-number-table,
1412 all elements of print-number-table are nil.
1414 ** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
1415 the scroll-bar-width frame parameter value is nil.
1417 ** The new function copy-abbrev-table returns a new abbrev table that
1418 is a copy of a given abbrev table.
1421 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
1422 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
1423 can start with this line:
1425 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
1427 ** A function's docstring can now hold the function's usage info on
1428 its last line. It should match the regexp "\n\n(fn.*)\\'".
1430 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
1431 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
1433 ** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional buffer
1434 argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted it defaults to
1437 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
1438 and `display-warning'.
1440 ** The functions all-completions and try-completion now accept lists
1441 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
1442 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
1445 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
1446 much pure storage it will approximately need.
1448 ** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
1449 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
1450 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
1451 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
1453 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
1454 of one coding system from another coding system.
1456 ** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
1457 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
1458 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
1459 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
1462 ** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
1463 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
1464 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
1465 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
1466 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
1467 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
1469 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
1470 confirmation as before.
1472 ** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
1474 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
1475 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
1476 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
1477 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
1479 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
1480 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
1481 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
1482 between the left and right fringe. For force a specific fringe width,
1483 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
1484 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
1486 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
1487 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
1488 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
1489 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
1491 ** Per-window fringes settings
1493 Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and position
1496 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
1497 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
1498 `set-window-fringes'.
1500 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
1501 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
1502 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
1503 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
1505 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
1506 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
1507 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
1508 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
1509 an update of the display margins.
1511 ** Per-window vertical scroll-bar settings
1513 Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
1514 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
1516 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
1517 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
1518 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
1519 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
1520 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
1521 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
1522 of the display margins.
1524 ** The function `set-window-buffer' now has an optional third argument
1525 KEEP-MARGINS which will preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
1526 and scroll-bar settings if non-nil.
1529 ** Renamed file hooks to follow the convention:
1530 find-file-hooks to find-file-hook,
1531 find-file-not-found-hooks to find-file-not-found-functions,
1532 write-file-hooks to write-file-functions,
1533 write-contents-hooks to write-contents-functions.
1534 Marked local-write-file-hooks as obsolete (use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook').
1536 ** The new variable `delete-frame-functions' replaces `delete-frame-hook'.
1537 It was renamed to follow the naming conventions for abnormal hooks. The old
1538 name remains available as an alias, but has been marked obsolete.
1540 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
1541 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
1542 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
1543 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
1544 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
1546 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
1547 to override the internal read-file-name function.
1549 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
1550 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
1551 will only show directories.
1553 ** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
1554 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
1555 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
1557 ** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
1558 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
1559 (require 'cl) when loaded.
1561 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the apperance of fringes.
1563 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
1564 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
1565 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
1567 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
1569 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
1570 declaration specifiers supported are:
1573 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
1576 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
1577 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
1579 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
1581 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
1582 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
1583 binding and lookup functionality.
1585 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
1586 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
1590 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
1591 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
1592 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
1593 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
1596 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
1597 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
1598 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
1599 map using define-key:
1601 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
1602 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
1604 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
1605 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
1607 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
1608 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
1609 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
1611 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
1613 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
1614 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
1615 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
1616 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
1618 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
1619 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
1621 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
1622 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
1624 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
1625 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
1626 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
1627 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
1628 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
1629 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
1631 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
1632 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
1633 command was not remapped.
1635 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
1637 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
1638 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
1641 ** Atomic change groups.
1643 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
1644 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
1645 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
1647 (atomic-change-group
1649 (delete-region x y))
1651 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
1652 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
1653 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
1654 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
1656 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
1657 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
1659 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
1660 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
1661 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
1662 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
1664 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
1665 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
1668 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
1669 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
1670 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
1671 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
1673 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
1674 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
1675 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
1676 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
1677 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
1678 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
1681 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
1682 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
1683 returned values, like this:
1685 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
1686 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
1688 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
1689 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
1690 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
1692 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
1693 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
1694 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
1695 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
1699 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
1701 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
1702 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
1703 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
1704 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
1706 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
1708 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
1709 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
1710 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
1711 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
1713 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
1715 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
1716 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
1717 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
1719 ** New function insert-for-yank.
1721 This function normally works like `insert' but removes the text
1722 properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list. However, if the
1723 inserted text has a `yank-handler' text property on the first
1724 character of the string, the insertion of the text may be modified in
1725 a number of ways. See the description of `yank-handler' below.
1727 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
1729 This function works like `insert-buffer-substring', but removes the
1730 text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
1732 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
1734 This function is like insert-buffer-substring, but removes all
1735 text properties from the inserted substring.
1737 ** New `yank-handler' text property may be used to control how
1738 previously killed text on the kill-ring is reinserted.
1740 The value of the yank-handler property must be a list with one to five
1741 elements with the following format:
1742 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
1744 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
1745 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
1746 element on the kill-ring). If a yank-handler property is found,
1747 the normal behaviour of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
1749 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
1750 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
1751 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
1752 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
1753 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
1755 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
1756 yank-excluded-properties is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
1757 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
1758 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
1759 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
1760 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
1761 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
1762 FUNCTION may set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
1764 *** The functions kill-new, kill-append, and kill-region now has an
1765 optional third argument to specify the yank-handler text property
1766 to put on the killed text.
1768 *** The function yank-pop will now use a non-nil value of the variable
1769 `yank-undo-function' (instead of delete-region) to undo the previous
1770 yank or yank-pop command (or a call to insert-for-yank). The function
1771 insert-for-yank automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
1772 element of the string argument's yank-handler text property if present.
1774 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
1775 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
1777 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
1778 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
1779 defined with defface.
1781 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
1782 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
1783 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
1785 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
1786 help with handling relative face attributes.
1788 ** Enhancements to process support
1790 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
1791 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
1793 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
1794 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
1795 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
1797 *** Function signal-process now accepts a process object or process
1798 name in addition to a process id to identify the signalled process.
1800 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
1801 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
1803 The new functions process-get and process-put are used to access, add,
1804 and modify elements on this property list.
1806 The new low-level functions process-plist and set-process-plist are
1807 used to access and replace the entire property list of a process.
1810 ** Enhanced networking support.
1812 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
1813 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
1814 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
1816 - A server is started using :server t arg.
1817 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
1818 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
1819 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
1820 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
1821 - The process' property list may be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
1822 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
1823 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
1825 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
1826 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
1828 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
1830 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
1832 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
1833 without waiting for the connection to be established. It takes the
1834 filter and sentinel functions as arguments; when the non-blocking
1835 connect completes, the sentinel is called with a status string
1836 matching "open" or "failed".
1838 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
1840 This function creates a network server process for a TCP service.
1841 When a client connects to the specified service, a new subprocess
1842 is created to handle the new connection, and the sentinel function
1843 is called for the new process.
1845 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
1847 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
1848 and set the current address of the remote partner.
1850 *** New function format-network-address.
1852 This function reformats the lisp representation of a network address
1853 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
1854 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
1855 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
1856 string for other formatting options.
1858 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
1859 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
1860 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
1862 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
1863 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
1864 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
1865 the fifth is the port number.
1867 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
1868 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
1869 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
1870 no input is received in the stopped state.
1872 ** New function copy-tree.
1874 ** New function substring-no-properties.
1876 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
1878 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
1880 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
1881 are now always lower case. If you specify the
1882 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
1883 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
1885 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
1886 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
1888 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
1889 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
1890 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
1891 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
1893 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
1894 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
1896 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
1897 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
1898 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
1901 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
1902 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
1905 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
1906 (function (lambda ()
1908 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
1909 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
1910 (function (lambda ()
1911 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
1913 ** File local variables.
1915 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
1916 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
1919 *** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
1920 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
1921 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
1924 ** New function window-body-height.
1926 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
1929 ** New function format-mode-line.
1931 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
1932 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
1934 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
1936 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
1937 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
1939 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
1941 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' must not be used (as previously
1942 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
1943 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
1944 you specify the map to use as an argument.
1947 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
1949 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
1950 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
1951 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
1954 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
1956 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
1957 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
1958 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
1959 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
1960 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
1963 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
1964 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
1965 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
1966 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
1968 ** Mode line display ignores text properties in the value
1969 of a variable whose `risky-local-variables' property is nil.
1972 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
1973 cl-indent package. The new user options
1974 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
1975 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
1976 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
1979 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
1980 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
1982 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
1984 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
1985 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
1986 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
1989 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
1991 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
1992 the time it takes to convert the format.
1994 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
1997 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
1998 over minor mode keymaps.
2000 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
2001 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
2003 ** At the end of a command, point moves out from within invisible
2004 text, in the same way it moves out from within text covered by an
2005 image or composition property.
2007 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
2008 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
2009 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
2010 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
2011 post-command-hook and thus does not care about intermediate states.
2013 ** Only one of the beginning or end of an invisible, intangible region is
2014 considered an acceptable value for point; which one is determined by
2015 examining how the invisible/intangible properties are inherited when new
2016 text is inserted adjacent to them. (The `front-sticky' and `rear-sticky'
2017 properties control this.)
2019 If the invisible/intangible would be inherited by any text inserted
2020 before this region, then the position before it is considered
2021 unacceptable, and point is forced to continue (if moving forwards, to
2022 the position following the invisible/intangible text; if moving
2023 backwards, to one position before). If the properties would be
2024 inherited by any text inserted after, then the position after is
2025 considered unacceptable, and point is forced to keep moving (if moving
2026 backwards, to the position preceding the invisible/intangible text; if
2027 moving forwards, to one position later).
2029 Thus, point can only go to one end of an invisible, intangible region, but
2030 not the other one. This prevents C-f and C-b from appearing to stand still
2033 You should not set it up so that both the position before and the position
2034 after are unacceptable.
2036 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
2040 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
2041 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
2042 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
2043 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
2046 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
2048 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
2050 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
2051 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
2052 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
2053 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
2054 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
2055 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
2057 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
2058 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
2059 bindings of the parent keymap.
2061 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
2062 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
2063 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
2064 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
2065 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
2066 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
2074 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
2075 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
2076 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
2077 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
2079 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
2080 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
2082 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
2083 (the last group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
2085 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
2086 it receives a request from emacsclient.
2088 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
2089 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
2090 than 3 levels of nesting.
2092 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
2093 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
2094 in Indented-Text mode.
2096 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
2097 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
2100 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
2101 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
2102 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
2104 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
2105 properties from surrounding text.
2107 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
2109 - Function: buffer-local-value variable buffer
2111 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
2112 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
2113 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
2115 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
2116 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
2119 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
2120 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
2121 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
2122 other properties than `face'.
2123 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
2124 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
2126 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
2127 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
2128 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors.
2130 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
2131 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
2132 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
2134 ** define-minor-mode now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
2135 and simply passes them to defcustom, if applicable.
2137 ** define-derived-mode by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
2138 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
2141 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
2142 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
2143 and run any code associated with the provided feature.
2145 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
2146 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
2149 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
2150 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
2151 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
2153 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
2154 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
2155 accepts a float as UID parameter.
2157 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
2159 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
2161 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
2162 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
2163 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
2164 the output of other GNU tools.
2166 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
2168 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
2170 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
2171 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
2173 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
2175 - Function: defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
2177 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
2178 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
2179 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
2180 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
2182 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
2183 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
2185 - Function: indirect-variable VARIABLE
2187 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
2188 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
2189 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
2191 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
2192 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
2194 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
2195 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
2197 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
2198 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
2200 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
2201 have been moved from the CL package to the core.
2203 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
2204 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
2205 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
2207 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-keysequence and alike that
2208 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer now display the prompt
2209 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
2213 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
2214 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
2216 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
2217 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
2220 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
2221 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
2223 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
2224 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
2225 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
2226 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
2227 as help and apropos buffers.
2230 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
2232 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
2233 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
2234 charsets in this release.
2236 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
2238 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
2240 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
2241 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
2244 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
2245 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
2246 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
2247 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
2248 necessary changes to unexec.
2250 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
2251 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
2253 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
2254 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
2256 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
2257 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
2259 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
2260 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
2261 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
2262 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
2263 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
2265 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
2266 new display features described below.
2269 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
2271 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
2273 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
2274 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
2275 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
2276 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
2279 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
2281 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
2282 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
2283 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
2284 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
2287 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
2288 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
2289 under Lisp changes, below.
2291 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
2293 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
2294 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
2295 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
2296 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
2297 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
2298 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
2301 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
2302 supported on character terminals.
2304 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
2305 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
2306 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
2307 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
2309 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
2313 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
2314 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
2315 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
2316 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
2319 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
2321 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
2322 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
2323 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
2324 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
2326 - User option: max-mini-window-height
2328 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
2329 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
2330 specifies a number of lines.
2334 - User option: resize-mini-windows
2336 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
2337 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
2338 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
2341 Default is `grow-only'.
2345 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
2346 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
2348 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
2350 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
2351 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
2354 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
2356 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
2357 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
2358 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
2360 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
2362 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
2363 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
2364 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
2365 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
2366 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
2369 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
2370 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
2371 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
2372 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
2373 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
2374 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
2376 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
2377 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
2378 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
2379 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
2380 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
2381 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
2383 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
2384 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
2385 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
2386 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
2387 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
2389 ** Tool bar support.
2391 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
2392 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
2393 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
2394 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
2395 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
2398 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
2399 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
2403 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
2404 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
2405 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
2407 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
2408 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
2409 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
2410 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
2412 ** Automatic Hscrolling
2414 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
2415 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
2418 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
2419 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
2420 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
2421 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
2422 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
2424 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
2425 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
2426 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
2427 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
2428 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
2429 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
2431 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
2432 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
2433 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
2434 customizing face `fringe'.
2436 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
2437 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
2438 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
2439 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
2440 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
2441 the window to be partially obscured.)
2443 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
2444 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
2445 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
2446 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
2448 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
2450 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
2451 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
2452 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
2453 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
2454 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
2457 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
2459 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
2461 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
2463 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
2464 `*') toggles the status.
2466 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
2468 ** Hourglass pointer
2470 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
2471 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
2475 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
2476 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
2477 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
2480 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
2482 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
2483 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
2484 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
2487 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
2488 have to do anything to activate it.
2490 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
2492 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
2493 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
2495 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
2496 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
2497 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
2498 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
2499 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
2500 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
2501 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
2502 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
2504 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
2505 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
2506 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
2507 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
2508 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
2509 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
2511 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
2512 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
2514 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
2515 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
2518 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
2519 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
2520 beginning and end of the buffer.
2522 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
2523 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
2526 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
2527 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
2529 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
2530 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
2533 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
2534 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
2537 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
2539 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
2540 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
2541 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
2543 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
2544 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
2545 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
2547 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
2550 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
2552 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
2553 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
2554 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
2555 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
2556 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
2559 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
2560 all frames except the selected one.
2562 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
2563 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
2565 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
2566 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
2567 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
2568 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
2569 `Info-use-header-line'.
2571 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
2572 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
2573 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
2575 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
2577 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
2578 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
2581 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
2582 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
2583 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
2584 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
2586 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
2588 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
2589 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
2590 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
2591 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
2593 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
2594 point in a pop-up window.
2596 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
2597 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
2598 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
2600 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
2601 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
2603 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
2604 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
2605 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
2606 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
2608 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
2610 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
2611 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
2613 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
2614 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
2615 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
2617 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
2618 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
2621 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
2622 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
2623 file that is already visited under a different name.
2625 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
2626 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
2628 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
2629 and displays information about that.
2631 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
2632 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
2634 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
2635 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
2636 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
2637 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
2638 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
2639 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
2641 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
2642 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
2644 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
2645 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
2646 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
2647 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
2648 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
2649 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
2650 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
2652 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
2653 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
2655 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
2656 system for keyboard input.
2658 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
2659 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
2660 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
2661 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
2662 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
2663 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
2664 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
2665 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
2666 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
2668 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
2669 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
2671 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
2672 displays all characters in that character set.
2674 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
2675 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
2677 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
2678 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
2679 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
2681 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
2682 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
2683 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
2684 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
2685 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
2686 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
2689 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
2690 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
2693 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
2694 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
2695 Lisp Coding Convention".
2697 new command old-binding
2698 --- ------- -----------
2699 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
2700 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
2701 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
2703 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
2704 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
2705 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
2707 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
2708 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
2709 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
2710 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
2711 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
2712 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
2714 ** There are new Leim input methods.
2715 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
2716 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
2719 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
2720 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
2721 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
2722 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
2723 "`", you must type "=q".
2725 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
2726 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
2727 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
2728 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
2729 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
2732 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
2733 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
2734 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
2735 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
2737 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
2738 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
2739 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
2740 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
2742 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
2743 on the display using several methods
2745 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
2746 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
2747 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
2749 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
2750 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
2752 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
2754 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
2755 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
2757 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
2758 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
2759 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
2760 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
2762 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
2763 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
2764 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
2766 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
2767 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
2769 ** New X resources recognized
2771 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
2772 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
2773 is useful for debugging X problems.
2777 emacs.synchronous: true
2779 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
2780 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
2781 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
2782 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
2783 visual class names are
2792 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
2793 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
2796 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
2797 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
2798 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
2803 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
2805 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
2806 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
2807 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
2808 resource values are `true' or `on'.
2812 emacs.privateColormap: true
2814 ** Faces and frame parameters.
2816 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
2817 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
2818 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
2819 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
2820 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
2821 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
2822 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
2824 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
2825 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
2826 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
2827 `default' face and vice versa.
2831 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
2833 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
2835 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
2836 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
2837 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
2838 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
2840 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
2841 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
2842 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
2844 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
2847 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
2849 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
2850 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
2851 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
2852 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
2854 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
2856 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
2858 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
2860 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
2863 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
2866 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
2868 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
2869 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
2870 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
2872 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
2873 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
2875 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
2876 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
2877 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
2879 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
2881 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
2882 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
2883 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
2884 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
2886 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
2887 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
2888 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
2889 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
2891 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
2892 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
2893 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
2896 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
2898 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
2899 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
2900 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
2902 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
2903 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
2904 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
2905 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
2906 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
2907 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
2909 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
2911 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
2912 notably at the end of lines.
2914 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
2915 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
2917 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
2919 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
2920 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
2922 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
2923 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
2924 after each match to get the replacement text.
2926 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
2927 you edit the replacement string.
2929 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
2930 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
2931 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
2933 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
2935 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
2936 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
2938 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
2939 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
2940 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
2941 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
2944 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
2945 read mail from the menu etc.
2947 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
2948 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
2949 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
2950 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
2952 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
2953 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
2955 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
2956 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
2957 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
2958 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
2959 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
2962 ** Customize changes
2964 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
2965 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
2966 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
2967 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
2968 earlier versions of Emacs.
2970 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
2971 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
2974 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
2975 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
2976 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
2977 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
2980 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
2981 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
2982 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
2983 already in your init file.
2985 ** New features in evaluation commands
2987 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
2988 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
2989 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
2990 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
2991 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
2993 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
2994 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
2995 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
2996 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
2999 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
3000 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
3002 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
3003 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
3005 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
3006 code when called with a prefix argument.
3010 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
3011 current user setups (although it's believed that these
3012 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
3013 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
3014 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
3015 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
3018 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
3019 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
3020 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
3023 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
3024 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
3025 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
3026 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
3028 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
3029 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
3031 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
3032 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
3034 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
3035 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
3036 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
3037 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
3039 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
3040 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
3041 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
3042 earlier statement. An example:
3044 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
3046 res += a[i]->offset;
3049 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
3050 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
3051 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
3052 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
3055 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
3058 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
3059 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
3060 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
3061 documentation or other natural language text.
3063 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
3064 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
3065 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
3066 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
3067 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
3068 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
3069 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
3071 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
3072 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
3073 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
3074 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
3076 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
3077 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
3078 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
3079 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
3082 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
3083 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
3084 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
3085 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
3086 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
3087 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
3088 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
3089 is reported afterwards.
3091 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
3092 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
3093 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
3095 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
3096 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
3097 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
3098 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
3099 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
3100 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
3103 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
3104 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
3105 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
3106 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
3107 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
3110 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
3111 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
3112 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
3113 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
3114 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
3115 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
3117 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
3118 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
3119 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
3120 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
3121 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
3122 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
3123 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
3124 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
3126 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
3127 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
3128 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
3129 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
3132 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
3133 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
3134 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
3135 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
3136 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
3137 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
3138 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
3139 function documentation for more info.
3141 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
3142 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
3143 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
3144 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
3145 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
3146 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
3147 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
3148 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
3150 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
3152 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
3153 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
3155 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
3156 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
3157 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
3158 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
3159 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
3162 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
3163 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
3164 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
3167 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
3168 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
3169 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
3170 chapter about this in the manual.
3172 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
3173 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
3174 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
3175 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
3176 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
3178 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
3179 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
3180 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
3182 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
3183 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
3185 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
3186 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
3187 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
3190 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
3191 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
3192 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
3193 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
3196 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
3197 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
3198 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
3199 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
3200 they were before the filling.
3202 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
3203 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
3204 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
3207 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
3208 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
3209 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
3210 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
3213 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
3214 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
3215 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
3216 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
3217 Thanks to Eric Eide.
3219 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
3220 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
3221 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
3223 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
3225 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
3226 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
3227 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
3228 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
3230 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
3231 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
3232 the column specified by comment-column.
3234 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
3235 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
3236 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
3237 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
3238 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
3239 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
3241 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
3242 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
3245 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
3247 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
3248 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
3249 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
3250 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
3253 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
3257 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
3258 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
3259 is, delete only empty directories.
3261 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
3262 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
3263 copy directories recursively.
3265 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
3266 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
3267 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
3269 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
3270 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
3273 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
3274 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
3275 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
3276 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
3277 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
3279 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
3282 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
3283 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
3284 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
3285 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
3289 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
3290 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
3291 internationalization and mail-fetching.
3293 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
3294 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
3296 If you used procmail like in
3298 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
3299 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
3300 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
3301 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
3303 this now has changed to
3306 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
3309 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
3310 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
3312 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
3313 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
3314 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
3315 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
3317 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
3318 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
3319 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
3321 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
3322 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
3323 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
3324 now just a compatibility layer.
3326 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
3329 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
3330 called to position point.
3332 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
3333 summary buffers and NOV files.
3335 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
3336 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
3338 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
3339 subtly different manner.
3341 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
3342 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
3343 ever-changing layouts.
3345 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
3347 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
3349 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
3351 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
3355 -------------------------
3359 C-c C-c q @quotation
3361 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
3364 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
3366 ** Changes in Outline mode.
3368 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
3369 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
3370 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
3372 ** Changes to Emacs Server
3374 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
3375 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
3376 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
3377 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
3378 buffers to kill, as before.
3380 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
3381 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
3384 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
3385 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
3387 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
3389 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
3390 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
3391 use. Default is 1000.
3393 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
3394 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
3396 ** Changes to hideshow.el
3398 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
3400 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
3401 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
3402 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
3403 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
3405 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
3406 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
3407 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
3410 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
3411 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
3412 the normal block-hiding function.
3414 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
3416 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
3417 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
3418 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
3419 for `hs-minor-mode'.
3421 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
3422 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
3424 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
3426 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
3427 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
3428 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
3430 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
3433 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
3436 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
3437 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
3438 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
3439 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
3440 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
3441 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
3443 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
3445 ** Changes to cmuscheme
3447 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
3448 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
3450 ** Changes in Font Lock
3452 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
3453 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
3455 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
3456 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
3458 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
3459 the face used for each string/comment.
3461 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
3462 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
3464 ** Changes to Shell mode
3466 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
3467 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
3468 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
3469 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
3471 ** Comint (subshell) changes
3473 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
3474 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
3476 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
3477 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
3478 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
3479 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
3480 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
3481 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
3483 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
3484 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
3485 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
3486 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
3487 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
3488 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
3489 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
3490 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
3492 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
3493 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
3495 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
3496 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
3497 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
3499 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
3500 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
3501 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
3503 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
3504 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
3505 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
3507 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
3508 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
3509 argument, it appends to the file.
3511 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
3512 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
3515 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
3518 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
3519 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
3520 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
3522 ** Changes to Rmail mode
3524 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
3525 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
3526 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
3527 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
3528 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
3531 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
3532 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
3533 regexp matching your mail addresses.
3535 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
3536 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
3537 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
3538 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
3539 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
3541 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
3544 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
3545 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
3548 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
3549 in which folder to put messages automatically.
3551 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
3552 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
3553 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
3555 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
3556 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
3558 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
3559 use the -f option when sending mail.
3561 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
3562 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
3563 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
3564 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
3565 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
3566 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
3568 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
3569 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
3570 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
3572 ** Changes to TeX mode
3574 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
3577 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
3579 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
3581 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
3583 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3585 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
3586 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
3587 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
3588 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
3589 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
3590 can be edited from that buffer.
3592 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
3593 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
3594 `A' to use all marked entries).
3596 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
3597 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
3599 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
3600 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
3601 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
3604 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
3605 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
3606 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
3607 in column 1 are always made leaves.
3609 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
3610 has the following new features:
3612 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
3613 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
3614 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
3615 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
3617 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
3618 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
3619 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
3620 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
3621 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
3624 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
3629 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
3630 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
3631 spell-checks the current buffer.
3633 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
3636 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
3637 correction is made and re-checked.
3639 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
3641 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
3644 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
3647 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
3650 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
3652 ** Makefile mode changes
3654 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
3656 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
3657 Fontlock mode is active.
3661 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
3662 so that searches can be resumed.
3664 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
3665 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
3666 that started the search.
3668 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
3669 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
3671 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
3673 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
3674 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
3675 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
3676 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
3677 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
3678 `secondary-selection'.
3680 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
3681 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
3682 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
3683 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
3684 usual snappy response.
3686 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
3687 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
3688 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
3689 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
3693 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
3694 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
3695 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
3696 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
3697 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
3698 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
3699 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
3700 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
3701 file is registered in that backend.
3703 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
3704 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
3705 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
3706 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
3707 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
3708 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
3710 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
3711 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
3712 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
3713 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
3714 where it doesn't make sense.)
3716 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
3717 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
3718 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
3722 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
3723 checks are always done now.
3725 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
3728 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
3729 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
3730 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
3732 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
3733 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
3734 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
3735 the working file (``merge news'').
3737 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
3738 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
3741 *** Multiple Backends
3743 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
3744 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
3745 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
3746 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
3749 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
3750 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
3751 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
3752 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
3754 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
3755 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
3756 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
3757 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
3758 current revision number from the more remote backend.
3760 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
3761 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
3762 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
3763 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
3765 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
3766 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
3767 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
3768 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
3772 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
3773 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
3774 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
3775 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
3776 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
3777 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
3778 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
3780 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
3781 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
3782 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
3783 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
3784 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
3785 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
3786 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
3787 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
3788 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
3789 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
3790 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
3793 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
3794 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
3795 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
3796 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
3797 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
3798 entire directory tree.
3800 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
3801 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
3802 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
3803 "watched" by other developers.)
3805 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
3806 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
3807 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
3808 starting at the given directory.
3810 *** Lisp Changes in VC
3812 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
3813 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
3814 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
3815 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
3816 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
3817 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
3818 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
3819 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
3820 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
3822 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
3823 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
3824 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
3825 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
3827 ** New modes and packages
3829 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
3830 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
3831 the default is not applicable.
3833 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
3834 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
3835 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
3839 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
3840 drawn, like this: | \ /
3844 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
3845 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
3846 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
3847 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
3848 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
3851 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
3852 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
3854 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
3857 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
3858 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
3859 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
3860 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
3862 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
3863 also do without the mouse.
3865 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
3866 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
3867 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
3868 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
3869 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
3871 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
3873 lines straight-lines
3875 poly-lines straight poly-lines
3877 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
3878 spray-can setting size for spraying
3879 vaporize line vaporize lines
3880 erase characters erase rectangles
3882 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
3883 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
3884 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
3887 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
3888 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
3889 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
3890 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
3892 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
3895 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
3896 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
3897 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
3898 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
3899 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
3900 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
3901 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
3902 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
3903 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
3905 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
3906 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
3907 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
3908 on certain projects.
3910 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
3911 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
3913 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
3915 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
3916 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
3917 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
3918 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
3919 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
3920 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
3921 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
3922 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
3924 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
3927 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
3928 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
3930 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
3931 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
3933 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
3934 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
3935 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
3936 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
3937 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
3939 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
3940 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
3941 separate Texinfo file.
3943 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
3944 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
3945 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
3946 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
3947 enter check-in log messages.
3949 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
3950 without invoking external programs.
3952 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
3953 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
3954 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
3955 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
3956 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
3958 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
3959 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
3961 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
3962 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
3964 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
3965 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
3966 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
3967 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
3968 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
3971 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
3972 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
3973 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
3974 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
3976 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
3977 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
3978 actually modifying content of a buffer.
3980 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
3983 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
3985 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
3987 ; comment (until end of line)
3991 $A default non-terminal
3992 $"C" default terminal
3993 $?C? default special
3994 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
3995 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
3996 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
3997 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
3998 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
3999 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
4000 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
4001 C+ one or more occurrences of C
4002 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
4003 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
4004 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
4005 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
4006 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
4007 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
4008 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
4010 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
4012 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
4013 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
4014 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
4015 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
4016 equal signs of assignments.
4018 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
4019 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
4021 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
4022 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
4023 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
4025 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
4027 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
4028 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
4029 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
4030 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
4031 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
4032 which answers different needs.
4034 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
4035 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
4036 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
4037 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
4038 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
4041 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
4042 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
4044 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
4046 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
4047 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
4048 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
4050 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
4052 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
4053 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
4054 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
4055 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
4056 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
4057 and background colors.
4059 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
4062 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
4065 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
4067 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
4069 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
4070 whitespace in a file.
4072 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
4073 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
4074 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
4075 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
4076 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
4077 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
4078 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
4080 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
4082 Here is an example of columns:
4085 dog pineapple car EXTRA
4086 porcupine strawberry airplane
4088 Doing the following settings:
4090 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
4091 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
4092 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
4093 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
4096 Selecting the lines above and typing:
4098 M-x delimit-columns-region
4102 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
4103 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
4104 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
4106 delim-col has the following options:
4108 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
4111 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
4112 between each column.
4114 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
4117 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
4120 delim-col has the following commands:
4122 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
4123 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
4125 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
4126 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
4127 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
4128 recent file list can be displayed:
4130 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
4131 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
4132 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
4134 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
4135 dynamically change the menu appearance.
4137 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
4140 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
4141 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
4142 specific to Message mode.
4144 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
4145 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
4146 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
4148 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
4149 interface to access directory servers using different directory
4150 protocols. It has a separate manual.
4152 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
4153 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
4155 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
4157 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
4158 minibuffer with completion.
4160 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
4161 with the diary features.
4163 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
4164 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
4166 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
4169 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
4170 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
4171 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
4172 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
4174 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
4175 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
4178 ** Changes in sort.el
4180 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
4181 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
4182 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
4185 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
4187 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
4188 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
4189 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
4191 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
4192 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
4194 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
4195 output ^M at the end of lines.
4197 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
4198 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
4200 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
4201 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
4204 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
4207 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
4208 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
4211 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
4212 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
4213 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
4214 nil -- just delete one character.
4216 Default value is `untabify'.
4218 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
4220 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
4221 symbol, not double-quoted.
4223 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
4224 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
4225 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
4226 moved to lisp/obsolete.
4228 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
4229 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
4230 `auto-compression-mode' command.
4232 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
4233 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
4234 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
4236 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
4237 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
4239 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
4240 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
4242 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
4243 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
4245 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
4246 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
4247 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
4248 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
4249 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
4250 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
4252 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
4253 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
4255 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
4257 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
4258 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
4260 ** Shell script mode changes.
4262 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
4263 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
4264 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
4268 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
4270 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
4271 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
4272 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
4273 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
4274 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
4276 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
4277 declarations when given the --declarations option.
4279 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
4280 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
4282 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
4283 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
4284 `template' keywords.
4286 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
4287 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
4289 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
4292 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
4294 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
4296 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
4299 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
4301 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
4302 variables are tagged.
4304 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
4306 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
4309 ** Changes in etags.el
4311 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
4312 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
4313 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
4315 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
4316 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
4318 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
4319 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
4320 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
4321 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
4323 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
4325 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
4326 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
4328 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
4330 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
4331 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
4332 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
4334 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
4335 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
4337 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
4338 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
4340 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
4341 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
4342 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
4343 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
4344 point will go to the beginning of the file.
4346 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
4347 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
4348 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
4350 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
4351 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
4352 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
4354 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
4355 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
4356 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
4358 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
4360 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
4362 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
4363 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
4364 expression from that list, are not checked.
4366 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
4367 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
4368 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
4369 the buffer, just like for the local files.
4371 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
4373 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
4374 displays local abbrevs, only.
4376 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
4377 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
4379 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
4380 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
4381 is measured in pixels.
4383 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
4384 to be visited as images.
4386 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
4387 were added to compile.el.
4389 ** Withdrawn packages
4391 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
4392 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
4394 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
4396 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
4399 * Incompatible Lisp changes
4401 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
4402 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
4403 See the sections below for details.
4405 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
4406 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
4407 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
4408 to remove the properties of the copy.
4410 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
4411 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
4412 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
4413 these properties are active.
4415 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
4416 ranges may affect some code.
4418 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
4419 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
4420 make a difference to some code.
4422 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
4423 operates on the minibuffer.
4425 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
4426 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
4427 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
4428 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
4429 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
4430 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
4431 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
4432 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
4433 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
4434 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
4435 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
4436 the buffer as multibyte characters.
4438 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
4439 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
4440 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
4442 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
4443 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
4444 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
4446 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
4447 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
4448 such as `mapconcat'.
4450 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
4453 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
4454 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
4455 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
4456 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
4457 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
4458 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
4459 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
4460 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
4462 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
4463 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
4464 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
4465 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
4466 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
4467 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
4468 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
4469 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
4470 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
4471 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
4474 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
4475 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
4477 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
4479 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
4480 allows the animated display of strings.
4482 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
4483 interactive form of a function.
4485 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
4486 between custom options. Example:
4488 (defcustom default-input-method nil
4489 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
4490 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
4491 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
4493 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
4494 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
4496 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
4497 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
4498 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
4500 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
4501 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
4502 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
4503 (signal or normal termination).
4505 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
4506 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
4508 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
4509 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
4511 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
4512 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
4514 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
4516 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
4517 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
4520 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
4522 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
4523 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
4524 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
4525 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
4526 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
4529 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
4530 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
4533 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
4534 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
4536 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
4537 with the more general `:mask' property.
4539 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
4541 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
4544 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
4545 is running in batch mode. For example,
4547 (message "%s" (read t))
4549 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
4552 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
4553 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
4555 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
4556 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
4559 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
4562 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
4564 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
4565 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
4567 - Function: remq ELT LIST
4569 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
4570 comparison is done with `eq'.
4572 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
4574 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
4575 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
4576 `key-and-value', in addition the `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
4578 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
4579 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
4580 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
4582 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
4583 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
4585 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
4586 function was declared obsolete.
4588 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
4589 retained as an alias).
4591 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
4592 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
4593 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
4595 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
4597 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
4599 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
4600 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
4601 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
4602 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
4603 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
4604 means never include the minibuffer window.
4606 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
4608 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
4610 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
4612 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
4613 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
4614 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
4615 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
4618 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
4619 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
4620 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
4621 minibuffer even if it is active.
4623 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
4624 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
4625 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
4626 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
4627 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
4628 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
4630 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
4631 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
4632 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
4633 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
4634 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
4635 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
4636 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
4638 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
4639 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
4640 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
4642 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
4643 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
4644 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
4645 Default value is nil.
4647 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
4650 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
4651 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
4652 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
4654 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
4655 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
4656 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
4658 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
4659 list of a primitive.
4661 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
4663 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
4664 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
4665 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
4666 than replacing the local map.
4668 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
4669 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
4670 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
4673 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
4675 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
4676 as promised long ago.
4678 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
4680 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
4681 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
4682 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
4685 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
4687 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
4688 regular expressions.
4690 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
4692 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
4696 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
4698 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
4702 matches string STRING literally.
4705 matches character CHAR literally.
4708 matches any character except a newline.
4711 matches any character
4714 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
4715 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
4721 matches any character not in SET
4724 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
4725 in the text being matched
4728 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
4731 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
4732 string being matched against.
4735 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
4736 string being matched against.
4739 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
4740 buffer being matched against.
4743 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
4744 buffer being matched against.
4747 matches the empty string, but only at point.
4750 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
4754 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
4757 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
4760 `(not word-boundary)'
4761 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
4765 matches 0 through 9.
4768 matches ASCII control characters.
4771 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
4774 matches space and tab only.
4777 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
4781 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
4785 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4786 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4789 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4790 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4793 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
4796 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
4799 matches anything lower-case.
4802 matches anything upper-case.
4805 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4806 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
4809 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
4812 matches anything that has word syntax.
4815 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
4816 of the following symbols.
4818 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
4819 `punctuation' (\\s.)
4822 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
4823 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
4824 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
4825 `string-quote' (\\s\")
4826 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
4828 `character-quote' (\\s/)
4829 `comment-start' (\\s<)
4830 `comment-end' (\\s>)
4832 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
4833 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
4835 `(category CATEGORY)'
4836 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
4837 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
4839 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
4841 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
4842 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
4846 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
4848 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
4849 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
4850 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
4851 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
4852 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
4853 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
4854 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
4855 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
4856 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
4857 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
4858 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
4867 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
4871 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
4878 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
4879 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
4881 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4882 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
4884 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4885 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
4886 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
4888 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4889 another name for `submatch'.
4891 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
4892 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
4893 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
4896 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
4897 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
4898 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
4899 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
4900 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
4902 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
4903 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
4905 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
4906 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
4909 like `zero-or-more'.
4912 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
4915 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
4917 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
4918 matches one or more occurrences of A.
4924 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
4927 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
4929 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
4930 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
4936 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
4939 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
4942 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
4945 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
4948 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
4952 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
4954 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
4956 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
4957 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
4958 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
4959 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
4961 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
4962 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
4963 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
4964 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
4966 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
4967 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
4968 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
4970 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
4971 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
4972 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
4973 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
4974 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
4975 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
4976 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
4979 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
4981 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
4982 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
4983 character set as previously.
4985 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
4986 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
4987 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
4989 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
4990 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
4991 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
4992 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
4994 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
4995 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
4997 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
4998 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
5001 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
5002 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
5004 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
5005 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
5006 buffers and strings.
5008 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
5009 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
5010 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
5011 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
5012 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
5013 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
5014 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
5017 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
5018 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
5019 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
5021 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
5022 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
5023 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
5024 may differ between buffer and string text.
5026 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
5027 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
5029 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
5030 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
5031 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
5032 `composition' from STRING.
5034 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
5035 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
5037 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
5040 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
5041 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
5043 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
5044 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
5045 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
5046 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
5048 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
5049 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
5050 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
5051 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
5052 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
5053 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
5055 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
5056 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
5057 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
5059 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
5060 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
5061 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
5063 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
5064 have been introduced.
5066 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
5067 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
5068 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
5069 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
5070 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
5071 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
5072 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
5073 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
5074 their multibyte equivalent.
5076 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
5077 that offset in the file before writing.
5079 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
5080 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
5082 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
5083 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
5084 from which the command was issued.
5086 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
5087 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
5088 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
5089 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
5092 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
5093 to `window-buffer-height'.
5095 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
5097 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
5098 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
5099 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
5101 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
5104 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
5105 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
5107 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
5108 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
5109 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
5111 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
5112 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
5113 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
5114 is currently displayed in some window.
5116 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
5117 argument function's results.
5119 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
5120 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
5121 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
5122 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
5125 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
5126 header in the list of headers passed to it.
5128 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
5129 ignores differences in case and text representation.
5131 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
5132 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
5135 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
5136 nil don't display a cursor
5137 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
5138 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
5139 others display a box cursor.
5141 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
5142 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
5143 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
5144 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
5146 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
5147 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
5148 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
5149 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
5153 (string-to-syntax "()")
5156 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
5159 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
5160 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
5167 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
5172 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
5177 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
5184 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
5185 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
5188 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
5189 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
5190 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
5191 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
5193 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
5195 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
5196 for a regexp in a string.
5198 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
5199 `mouse-position-function'.
5201 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
5202 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
5204 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
5205 Keywords are now always considered constants.
5207 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
5210 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
5211 returned by function `recent-keys'.
5213 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
5214 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
5215 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
5216 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
5219 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
5220 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
5222 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
5223 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
5224 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
5225 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
5228 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
5229 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
5230 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
5231 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
5233 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
5234 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
5235 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
5237 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
5238 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
5241 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
5243 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
5244 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
5245 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
5248 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
5249 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
5250 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
5251 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
5252 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
5254 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
5255 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
5257 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
5258 instead of being optional.
5260 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
5261 modify read-only text.
5263 ** New functions and variables for locales.
5265 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
5266 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
5267 time functions like strftime. The new variables
5268 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
5269 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
5271 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
5272 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
5273 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
5274 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
5275 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
5276 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
5277 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
5279 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
5280 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
5281 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
5284 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
5285 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
5287 ** New function `propertize'
5289 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
5290 strings with text properties.
5292 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
5294 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
5295 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
5296 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
5297 specified value of that property. Example:
5299 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
5301 ** push and pop macros.
5303 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
5304 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
5305 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
5307 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
5308 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
5309 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
5311 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
5313 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
5314 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
5316 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
5317 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
5318 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
5319 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
5321 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
5322 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
5323 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
5324 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
5326 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
5327 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
5328 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
5331 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
5332 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
5333 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
5334 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
5335 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
5337 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
5339 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
5340 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5341 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
5342 [:alpha:] matches letters.
5343 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5344 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
5345 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
5346 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
5347 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
5348 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
5349 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5350 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
5351 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
5352 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
5353 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
5355 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
5357 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
5359 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
5361 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
5362 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
5366 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
5367 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
5368 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
5372 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
5373 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
5375 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
5377 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
5378 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
5379 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
5380 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
5381 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
5383 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
5385 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
5386 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
5387 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
5391 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
5392 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
5393 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
5394 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
5395 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
5397 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
5399 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
5401 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
5403 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
5405 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
5407 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
5410 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
5412 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
5414 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
5416 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
5418 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
5420 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
5422 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
5424 Returns the size of TABLE.
5426 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
5428 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
5430 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
5432 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
5434 - Function: clrhash TABLE
5438 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
5440 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
5443 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
5445 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
5446 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
5448 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
5450 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
5452 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
5454 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
5455 arguments KEY and VALUE.
5457 - Function: sxhash OBJ
5459 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
5461 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
5463 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
5464 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
5465 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
5466 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
5467 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
5469 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
5471 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
5472 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
5473 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
5475 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
5476 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
5478 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
5479 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
5481 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
5482 (sxhash (upcase a)))
5484 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
5485 'case-fold-string-hash))
5487 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
5489 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
5491 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
5492 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
5493 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
5495 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
5497 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
5498 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
5500 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
5501 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
5502 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
5503 is too short to reach that column.
5505 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
5506 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
5507 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
5508 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
5510 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
5511 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
5512 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
5514 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
5515 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
5517 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
5518 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
5520 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
5521 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
5522 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
5523 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
5524 temporary-file-directory instead.
5526 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
5527 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
5528 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
5529 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
5531 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
5532 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
5534 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
5536 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
5537 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
5538 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
5540 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
5542 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
5543 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
5544 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
5545 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
5546 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
5547 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
5549 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
5550 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
5551 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
5552 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
5554 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
5556 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
5557 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
5558 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
5561 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
5562 string where arguments appear in the result string.
5566 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
5568 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
5569 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
5572 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
5574 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
5576 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
5577 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
5580 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
5582 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
5583 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
5588 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
5589 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
5591 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
5592 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
5593 to enable sound support.
5595 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
5596 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
5597 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
5598 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
5599 sound to play, before playing the sound.
5601 The following sound properties are supported:
5605 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
5606 searched relative to `data-directory'.
5610 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
5611 may be present, but not both.
5615 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
5616 0..1. This property is optional.
5620 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
5621 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
5623 Other properties are ignored.
5625 An alternative interface is called as
5626 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
5628 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
5630 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
5633 ** Changes to garbage collection
5635 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
5636 of live and free strings.
5638 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
5639 strings that have been consed so far.
5642 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
5645 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
5648 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
5649 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
5650 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
5652 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
5654 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
5656 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
5659 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
5661 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
5663 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
5664 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
5665 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
5666 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
5667 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
5669 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
5672 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
5674 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
5675 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
5676 or omitted means use the selected frame.
5678 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
5679 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
5681 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
5684 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
5688 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
5690 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
5691 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
5693 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
5694 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
5695 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
5696 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
5697 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
5698 just display it black instead.
5700 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
5703 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
5707 ** New face implementation.
5709 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
5710 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
5714 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
5716 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
5718 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
5719 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
5721 3. Font height in 1/10pt
5723 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
5725 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
5727 6. Foreground color.
5729 7. Background color.
5731 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
5733 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
5735 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
5737 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
5739 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
5742 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
5743 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
5745 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
5746 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
5747 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
5748 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
5749 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
5750 attributes mentioned above.
5752 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
5753 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
5756 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
5757 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
5762 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
5763 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
5764 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
5765 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
5766 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
5767 results in a fully-specified face.
5769 *** Face realization.
5771 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
5772 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
5773 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
5774 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
5775 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
5776 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
5778 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
5779 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
5780 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
5781 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
5783 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
5784 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
5785 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
5786 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
5787 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
5789 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
5790 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
5791 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
5792 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
5793 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
5796 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
5797 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
5798 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
5799 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
5801 **** Clearing face caches.
5803 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
5804 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
5809 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
5810 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
5811 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
5813 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
5814 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
5815 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
5816 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
5817 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
5819 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
5820 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
5821 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
5823 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
5825 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
5826 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
5827 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
5828 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
5829 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
5830 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
5831 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
5833 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
5834 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
5837 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
5838 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
5841 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
5844 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
5849 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
5850 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
5853 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
5854 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
5855 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
5856 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
5857 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
5860 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
5862 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
5864 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
5866 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
5868 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
5869 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
5870 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
5872 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
5873 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
5874 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
5875 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
5876 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
5877 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
5878 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
5879 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
5880 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
5881 of the face font sort order.
5883 - Function: x-font-family-list
5885 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
5886 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
5887 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
5888 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
5890 - Variable: font-list-limit
5892 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
5893 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
5894 matching font. The default is currently 100.
5896 *** Setting face attributes.
5898 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
5899 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
5900 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
5903 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
5904 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
5906 The following attributes are recognized:
5910 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
5911 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
5912 and `?' are allowed.
5916 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
5917 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
5918 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
5919 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
5923 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
5924 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
5925 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
5926 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
5930 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
5931 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
5932 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
5936 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
5937 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
5940 `:foreground', `:background'
5942 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
5946 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
5947 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
5948 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
5953 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
5954 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
5955 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
5960 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
5961 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
5962 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
5963 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
5967 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
5968 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
5969 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
5970 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
5971 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
5972 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
5973 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
5974 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
5975 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
5976 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
5977 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
5978 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
5979 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
5980 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
5981 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
5982 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
5987 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
5988 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
5992 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
5993 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
5994 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
5995 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
5996 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
5997 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
5999 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
6000 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
6004 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
6005 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
6006 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
6009 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
6010 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
6011 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
6013 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
6018 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
6019 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
6020 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
6022 *** Face attributes and X resources
6024 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
6027 Face attribute X resource class
6028 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
6029 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
6030 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
6031 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
6032 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
6033 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
6034 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
6035 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
6036 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
6037 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
6038 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
6039 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
6040 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
6041 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
6042 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
6043 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
6044 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
6045 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
6046 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
6047 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
6049 *** Text property `face'.
6051 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
6052 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
6053 specification can be
6055 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
6057 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
6058 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
6059 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
6060 for face attribute names.
6062 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
6063 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
6064 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
6066 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
6068 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
6069 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
6070 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
6071 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
6072 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
6073 used to clear the mapping table.
6075 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
6077 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
6078 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
6079 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
6080 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
6081 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
6082 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
6083 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
6084 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
6085 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
6086 modify their color-related behavior.
6088 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
6091 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
6093 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
6094 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
6095 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
6096 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
6097 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
6098 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
6099 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
6100 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
6101 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
6103 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
6104 display can display image files.
6106 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
6108 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
6109 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
6110 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
6111 `Inviolable' option.
6113 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
6114 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
6115 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
6117 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
6119 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
6120 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
6121 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
6123 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
6124 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
6125 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
6126 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
6127 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
6128 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
6129 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
6132 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
6133 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
6134 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
6136 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
6138 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
6140 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
6142 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6143 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
6144 constrained position if that is different.
6146 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
6147 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
6148 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
6149 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
6150 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
6151 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
6152 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
6153 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
6154 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
6156 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
6157 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
6158 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
6159 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
6160 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
6162 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
6163 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
6165 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
6167 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
6169 Delete the field surrounding POS.
6170 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6171 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
6173 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
6175 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
6176 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6177 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
6178 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
6179 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
6181 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
6183 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
6184 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6185 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
6186 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
6187 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
6189 - Function: field-string &optional POS
6191 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
6192 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6193 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
6195 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
6197 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
6198 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6199 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
6203 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
6204 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
6205 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
6206 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
6208 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
6209 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
6210 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
6211 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
6214 IMAGE is an image specification.
6216 *** Image specifications
6218 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
6219 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
6220 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
6221 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
6222 described below are ignored.
6224 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
6228 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
6229 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
6230 to use for its ascent.
6232 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
6233 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
6235 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
6236 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
6237 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
6238 overlays that apply to the image.
6242 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
6243 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
6244 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
6248 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
6253 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
6255 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
6256 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
6258 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
6259 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
6260 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
6261 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
6262 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
6263 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
6264 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
6265 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
6268 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
6270 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
6272 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
6273 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
6274 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
6275 of the factors' absolute values.
6277 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
6283 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
6289 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
6294 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
6295 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
6296 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
6297 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
6298 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
6299 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
6300 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
6303 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
6304 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
6309 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
6310 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
6311 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
6312 may be present in the image specification.
6316 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
6317 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
6318 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
6319 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
6321 *** Supported image types
6323 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
6325 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
6326 properties supported are:
6330 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
6331 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
6335 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
6336 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
6338 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
6339 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
6340 instead of a `:file' property.
6344 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
6348 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
6354 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
6355 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
6357 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
6359 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
6362 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
6363 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
6366 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
6368 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
6369 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
6370 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
6371 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
6373 Additional image properties supported are:
6375 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
6377 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
6378 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
6381 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
6382 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
6384 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
6385 to display compressed images.
6387 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
6389 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
6390 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
6395 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
6396 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
6400 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
6401 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
6403 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
6405 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
6406 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
6409 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
6411 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
6412 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
6415 **** GIF, image type `gif'
6417 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
6418 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
6420 Additional image properties supported are:
6424 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
6425 multi-image GIF file. An error is signaled if INDEX is too large.
6427 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
6428 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
6429 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
6432 (defun show-anim (file max)
6433 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
6434 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
6436 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
6439 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
6442 (goto-char (point-min))
6443 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
6444 (insert-image img "x"))
6445 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
6447 **** PNG, image type `png'
6449 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
6450 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
6453 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
6455 Additional image properties supported are:
6459 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
6460 integer. This is a required property.
6464 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
6465 must be a integer. This is an required property.
6469 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
6470 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
6471 files. This is an required property.
6473 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
6478 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
6479 which are supported in the current configuration.
6481 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
6482 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
6483 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
6484 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
6485 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
6487 *** Simplified image API, image.el
6489 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
6490 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
6491 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
6492 define an image based on available image types. The functions
6493 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
6498 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
6501 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
6502 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
6503 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
6504 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
6505 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
6506 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
6507 of the display margins.
6509 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
6510 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
6511 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
6512 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
6517 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
6518 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
6519 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
6520 that have a `help-echo' property.
6522 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
6523 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
6524 the window in which the help was found.
6526 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
6527 `help-echo' text property was found.
6529 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
6530 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
6532 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
6533 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
6536 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
6537 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
6539 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
6540 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
6541 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
6542 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
6543 used as help string.
6545 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
6546 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
6547 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
6549 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
6551 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
6552 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
6554 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
6555 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
6556 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
6557 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
6560 (global-set-key [A-down]
6563 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
6564 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
6565 (global-set-key [A-up]
6568 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
6569 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
6571 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
6573 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
6574 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
6575 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
6576 is called with one argument, POS.
6578 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
6579 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
6580 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
6581 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
6582 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
6584 ** Tool bar support.
6586 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
6587 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
6588 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
6589 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
6590 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
6591 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
6593 *** Tool bar item definitions
6595 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
6596 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
6597 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
6599 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
6600 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
6601 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
6602 property (see below).
6604 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
6605 binding are currently ignored.
6607 The following properties are recognized:
6611 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
6616 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
6620 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
6621 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
6622 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
6624 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
6626 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
6627 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
6631 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
6632 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
6633 meaning of each of the four elements:
6635 Index Use when item is
6636 ----------------------------------------
6637 0 enabled and selected
6638 1 enabled and deselected
6639 2 disabled and selected
6640 3 disabled and deselected
6642 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
6643 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
6645 `:help HELP-STRING'.
6647 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
6648 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
6650 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
6651 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
6652 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
6655 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
6656 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
6657 buffer-locally to override the global map.
6659 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
6661 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
6662 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
6663 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
6665 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
6666 raised when the mouse moves over them.
6668 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
6669 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
6670 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
6671 vertical margins . Default is 1.
6673 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
6674 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
6676 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
6678 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
6681 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
6682 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
6683 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
6685 is the original tool bar item definition, then
6687 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
6689 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
6692 ** Mode line changes.
6694 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
6696 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
6697 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
6698 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
6700 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
6701 a `local-map' text property.
6703 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
6704 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
6706 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
6707 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
6708 `local-map' property.
6710 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
6711 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
6714 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
6715 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
6717 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
6718 variable mode-line-format to nil.
6720 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
6722 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
6723 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
6724 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
6725 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
6728 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
6731 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
6732 position in the header-line.
6734 ** Text property `display'
6736 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
6737 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
6738 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
6739 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
6740 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
6742 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
6744 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
6745 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
6747 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
6748 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
6749 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
6750 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
6751 simpler form STRING as property value.
6753 *** Variable width and height spaces
6755 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
6756 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
6757 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
6758 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
6759 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
6760 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
6761 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
6763 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
6764 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
6765 properties described below.
6767 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
6768 characters having the `display' property.
6772 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
6773 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
6775 - :relative-width FACTOR
6777 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
6778 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
6779 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
6780 width of that character by FACTOR.
6784 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
6785 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
6787 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
6791 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
6794 - :relative-height FACTOR
6796 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
6797 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
6801 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
6802 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
6803 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
6806 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
6810 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
6811 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
6812 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
6813 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
6814 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
6815 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
6816 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
6817 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
6818 as display specification.
6820 *** Other display properties
6822 - (space-width FACTOR)
6824 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
6825 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
6830 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
6832 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
6833 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
6834 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
6835 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
6836 a font is available counts as a step.
6838 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
6839 as tall as the frame's default font.
6841 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
6842 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
6844 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
6845 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
6849 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
6850 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
6851 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
6852 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
6853 `height' subproperty.
6855 *** Conditional display properties
6857 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
6858 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
6859 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
6860 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
6861 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
6862 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
6863 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
6864 different when object is a string.
6866 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
6869 ** New menu separator types.
6871 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
6872 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
6873 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
6874 to specify other menu separator types.
6876 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
6878 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
6881 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
6883 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
6885 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
6887 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
6889 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
6891 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
6893 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
6895 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
6897 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
6899 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
6900 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
6902 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
6904 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
6906 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
6908 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
6910 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
6912 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
6914 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
6916 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
6918 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
6920 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
6922 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
6924 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
6926 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
6928 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
6930 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
6931 the corresponding single-line separators.
6933 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
6935 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
6936 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
6937 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
6938 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
6939 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
6940 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
6941 default foreground is black.
6943 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
6944 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
6945 `ScrollBarBackground').
6947 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
6948 settings for scroll bar colors.
6950 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
6951 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
6953 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
6954 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
6955 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
6956 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
6957 the original window start.
6959 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
6960 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
6961 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
6963 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
6965 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
6966 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
6967 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
6968 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
6970 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
6971 fixed-width and fixed-height.
6973 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
6975 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
6976 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
6977 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
6978 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
6979 temporarily to nil, for example
6981 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
6982 (enlarge-window 10))
6984 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
6985 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
6987 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
6988 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
6989 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
6990 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
6991 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
6992 support a vertical-bar cursor).
6996 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
6998 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
7001 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
7003 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
7005 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
7006 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
7007 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
7008 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
7009 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
7011 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
7015 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
7017 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
7021 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7023 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
7024 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
7026 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
7028 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
7030 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
7031 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
7032 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
7034 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
7035 is the one that is used.
7037 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
7038 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
7039 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
7040 separate from the command's regular output.
7041 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
7042 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
7043 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
7046 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
7047 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
7048 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
7049 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
7051 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
7052 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
7053 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
7054 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
7056 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
7057 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
7058 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
7059 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
7061 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
7062 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
7063 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
7064 they never ignore case.
7066 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
7067 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
7068 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
7069 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
7070 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
7071 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
7072 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
7074 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
7075 the same format that was used in the file before.
7077 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
7078 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
7080 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
7081 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
7082 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
7084 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
7085 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
7086 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
7087 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
7088 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
7089 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
7090 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
7092 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
7093 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
7094 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
7095 format. You can now customize these variables.
7097 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
7098 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
7099 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
7100 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
7102 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
7103 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
7104 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
7106 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
7107 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
7108 doesn't have any effect.
7110 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
7113 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
7114 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
7115 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
7117 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
7118 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
7119 `auto-show-mode' command.
7121 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
7122 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
7123 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
7124 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
7125 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
7127 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
7128 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
7130 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
7131 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
7132 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
7134 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
7135 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
7136 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
7137 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
7139 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
7141 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
7142 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
7143 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
7144 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
7145 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
7147 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
7148 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
7150 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
7151 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
7152 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
7153 `?' on other systems.
7155 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
7156 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
7159 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
7160 current codepage when it starts.
7164 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
7165 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
7166 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
7167 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
7168 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
7169 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
7173 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
7174 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
7176 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
7177 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
7178 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
7179 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
7180 buffer-file-coding-system.
7182 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
7183 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
7186 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
7187 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
7188 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
7189 list of possible coding systems.
7193 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
7194 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
7195 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
7196 docstring for details.
7198 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
7199 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
7200 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
7201 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
7202 lineup functions use this feature currently.
7204 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
7205 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
7207 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
7208 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
7210 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
7211 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
7212 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
7213 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
7216 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
7217 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
7219 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
7220 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
7221 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
7222 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
7224 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
7225 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
7226 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
7227 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
7228 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
7230 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
7232 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
7234 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
7235 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
7237 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
7239 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
7240 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
7241 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
7242 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
7243 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
7247 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
7248 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
7249 Gnus manual for the full story.
7251 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
7252 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
7253 group, which is created automatically.
7255 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
7258 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
7260 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
7261 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
7263 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
7266 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
7268 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
7269 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
7271 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
7273 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
7274 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
7276 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
7277 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
7279 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
7280 control over simplification.
7282 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
7284 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
7287 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
7289 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
7291 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
7292 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
7293 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
7295 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
7296 `a' forces normal posting method.
7298 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
7301 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
7304 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
7305 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
7307 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
7310 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
7312 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
7314 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
7315 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
7317 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
7318 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
7320 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
7322 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
7325 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
7326 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
7328 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
7329 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
7331 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
7333 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
7335 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
7337 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
7339 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
7340 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
7341 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
7343 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
7344 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
7345 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
7346 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
7347 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
7349 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
7350 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
7351 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
7352 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
7354 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
7355 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
7356 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
7359 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
7361 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
7362 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
7364 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
7365 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
7366 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
7367 removed from the label.
7369 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
7370 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
7372 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
7373 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
7375 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
7376 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
7379 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
7381 ** New/deleted modes and packages
7383 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
7384 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
7386 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
7387 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
7388 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
7390 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
7391 changes with a special face.
7393 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
7394 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
7395 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
7397 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
7399 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
7400 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
7401 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
7402 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
7403 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
7405 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
7406 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
7407 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
7409 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
7410 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
7411 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
7412 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
7413 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
7414 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
7415 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
7416 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
7417 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
7419 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
7420 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
7421 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
7422 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
7423 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
7426 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
7427 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
7428 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
7429 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
7430 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
7431 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
7433 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
7434 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
7435 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
7436 was not documented clearly before.
7438 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
7439 This includes Tetris and Snake.
7441 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
7443 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
7444 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
7445 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
7446 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
7448 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
7449 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
7450 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
7452 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
7454 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
7455 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
7457 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7458 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
7461 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
7462 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
7463 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
7464 file names and attributes are returned.
7466 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
7467 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
7468 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
7469 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
7472 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
7473 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
7475 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
7477 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
7478 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
7479 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
7482 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
7483 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
7486 The new function process-running-child-p
7487 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
7488 terminal to its own child process.
7490 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
7491 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
7492 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
7493 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
7495 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
7496 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
7498 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
7499 :included is an alias for :visible.
7501 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
7502 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
7503 to move or copy menu entries.
7505 ** Multibyte editing changes
7507 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
7508 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
7509 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
7510 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
7511 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
7512 (setq char (sref str idx)
7513 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
7514 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
7516 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
7517 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
7518 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
7520 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
7521 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
7522 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
7524 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
7526 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
7527 across the boundary.
7529 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
7530 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
7531 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
7532 contains 8-bit characters.
7533 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
7534 contains invalid characters.
7536 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
7537 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
7538 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
7539 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
7542 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
7543 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
7544 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
7545 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
7547 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
7548 compose Thai characters in a string.
7550 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
7551 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
7552 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
7553 menus should always use the third argument.
7555 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
7556 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
7557 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
7558 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
7560 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
7561 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
7562 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
7563 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
7565 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
7566 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
7567 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
7570 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
7572 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
7573 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
7574 requested feature cannot be loaded.
7576 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
7577 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
7578 means to clear out that attribute.
7580 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
7581 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
7583 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
7584 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
7585 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
7586 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
7588 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
7589 the gap of the current buffer.
7591 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
7592 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
7595 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
7596 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
7597 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
7598 it back in after any modifications have been made.
7600 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
7602 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
7603 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
7604 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
7605 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
7606 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
7608 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
7609 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
7610 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
7611 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
7612 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
7614 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
7615 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
7616 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
7618 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
7619 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
7620 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
7621 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
7622 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
7625 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
7626 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
7627 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
7628 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
7630 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
7632 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
7633 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
7634 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
7635 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
7637 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
7638 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
7639 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
7640 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
7641 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
7642 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
7643 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
7646 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
7649 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
7650 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
7651 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
7652 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
7653 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
7655 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
7656 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
7657 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
7658 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
7660 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
7661 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
7662 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
7663 something that most users not do.
7665 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
7666 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
7667 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
7670 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
7673 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
7674 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
7675 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
7676 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
7679 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
7680 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
7681 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
7682 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
7683 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
7686 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
7687 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
7688 to be confused by TeX commands.
7690 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
7691 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
7692 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
7693 of various alternative replacements and actions.
7695 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
7696 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
7697 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
7698 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
7699 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
7701 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
7702 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
7704 ** Changes in input method usage.
7706 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
7707 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
7710 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
7712 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
7713 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
7715 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
7716 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
7718 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
7720 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
7722 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
7723 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
7725 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
7726 given in the following case:
7727 o When you are using a complex input method.
7728 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
7730 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
7731 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
7732 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
7733 setting it to t is helpful.
7735 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
7737 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
7739 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
7740 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
7741 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
7742 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
7745 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
7746 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
7747 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
7750 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
7752 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
7754 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
7755 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
7757 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
7758 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
7759 its owner and group.
7761 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
7762 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
7764 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
7765 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
7767 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
7768 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
7769 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
7770 by the left edge of the rectangle.
7772 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
7773 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
7774 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
7775 for writing keyboard macros.
7777 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
7778 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
7779 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
7780 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
7781 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
7784 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
7786 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
7787 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
7790 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
7791 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
7792 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
7793 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
7795 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
7796 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
7797 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
7799 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
7800 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
7801 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
7802 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
7804 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
7805 failure if the command produces no output.
7807 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
7808 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
7811 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
7812 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
7813 function and variable names.
7815 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
7816 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
7817 file-coding-system-alist.
7819 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
7820 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
7821 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
7822 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
7823 according to the current fontset.
7825 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
7827 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
7828 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
7829 nonascii-insert-offset.
7831 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
7832 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
7833 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
7834 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
7836 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
7837 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
7839 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
7840 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
7842 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
7843 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
7846 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
7847 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
7849 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
7850 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
7851 all variables that have documentation.
7853 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
7854 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
7855 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
7856 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
7857 it should show; the default is 20.
7859 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
7860 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
7863 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
7864 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
7865 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
7866 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
7867 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
7868 Newly added options are included as well.
7870 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
7871 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
7872 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
7874 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
7877 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
7878 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
7880 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
7881 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
7884 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
7885 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
7888 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
7889 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
7890 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
7891 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
7894 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
7896 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
7897 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
7898 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
7900 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
7901 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
7902 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
7907 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
7908 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
7910 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
7911 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
7913 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
7914 read and post multi-lingual articles.
7916 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
7917 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
7918 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
7919 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
7920 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
7921 made invisible again.
7923 ** Mail reading and sending changes
7925 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
7926 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
7927 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
7930 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
7931 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
7932 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
7933 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
7934 rmail-default-body-file.
7936 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
7937 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
7938 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
7940 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
7941 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
7942 is evaluated to insert the signature.
7944 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
7945 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
7946 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
7947 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
7948 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
7949 especially interested in trying feedmail.
7951 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
7952 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
7953 provided by feedmail are:
7955 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
7956 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
7957 there is also a queue for draft messages
7959 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
7960 be prompted for confirmation
7962 **** does smart filling of address headers
7964 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
7965 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
7966 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
7968 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
7969 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
7970 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
7971 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
7975 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
7976 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
7978 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
7979 run Dired on the directory name at point.
7981 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
7982 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
7983 for a specified regexp.
7987 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
7990 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
7991 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
7994 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
7995 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
7996 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
7997 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
7999 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
8000 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
8001 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
8002 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
8003 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
8005 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
8006 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
8007 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
8008 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
8009 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
8011 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
8012 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
8013 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
8014 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
8016 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
8017 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
8018 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
8020 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
8021 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
8022 session to resolve them.
8024 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
8025 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
8026 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
8029 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
8030 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
8031 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
8032 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
8033 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
8034 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
8037 ** Changes in Font Lock
8039 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
8040 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
8041 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
8042 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
8043 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
8045 ** Frame name display changes
8047 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
8048 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
8049 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
8050 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
8052 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
8053 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
8056 ** Comint (subshell) changes
8058 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
8059 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
8060 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
8062 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
8064 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
8065 that is, the line after the last line you got.
8066 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
8068 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
8069 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
8072 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
8073 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
8074 previously sent input.
8076 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
8077 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
8078 as the search string.
8080 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
8081 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
8085 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
8086 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
8087 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
8090 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
8091 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
8092 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
8093 style is still the default however.
8095 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
8097 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
8098 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
8099 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
8101 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
8102 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
8104 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
8105 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
8107 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
8108 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
8110 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
8111 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
8113 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
8114 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
8115 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
8116 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
8118 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
8120 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
8121 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
8122 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
8124 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
8125 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
8126 expanding dynamically.
8128 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
8129 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
8131 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
8132 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
8133 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
8134 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
8136 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
8138 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8140 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
8141 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
8142 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
8143 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
8144 against the first word in the title.
8146 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
8147 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
8148 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
8149 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
8150 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
8151 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
8153 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
8154 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
8155 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
8156 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
8158 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
8160 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
8161 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
8162 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
8163 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
8164 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
8165 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
8167 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
8168 Editing group once the package is loaded.
8170 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
8171 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
8172 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
8174 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
8175 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
8179 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
8180 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
8181 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
8183 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
8184 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
8185 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
8186 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
8189 o URLs are automatically skipped
8190 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
8192 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
8194 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
8196 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
8197 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
8198 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
8199 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
8201 *** New recursive parser.
8203 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
8204 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
8205 recursive parser scans the individual files.
8207 *** Parsing only part of a document.
8209 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
8210 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
8211 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
8213 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
8215 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
8217 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
8219 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
8221 *** Using multiple selection buffers
8223 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
8224 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
8226 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
8228 *** References to external documents.
8230 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
8231 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
8232 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
8233 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
8234 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
8235 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
8236 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
8238 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
8240 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
8241 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
8243 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
8244 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
8246 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
8248 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
8249 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
8251 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
8253 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
8254 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
8255 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
8256 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
8257 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
8258 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
8261 *** Support for the varioref package
8263 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
8267 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
8268 and citations are created. These hooks are
8269 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
8270 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
8272 *** Citations outside LaTeX
8274 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
8275 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
8277 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
8279 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
8280 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
8283 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
8285 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
8286 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
8287 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
8288 directories that contain the same file name.
8290 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
8291 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
8292 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
8293 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
8294 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
8295 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
8296 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
8299 ** New modes and packages
8301 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
8302 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
8303 it, but some do not.
8305 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
8308 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
8309 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
8312 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
8314 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
8315 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
8316 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
8317 established system of notation similar to Chess.
8319 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
8320 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
8321 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
8323 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
8324 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
8325 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
8326 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
8327 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
8330 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
8331 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
8333 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
8334 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
8335 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
8336 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
8338 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
8340 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
8341 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
8342 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
8343 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
8344 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
8345 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
8346 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
8347 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
8348 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
8349 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
8350 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
8352 Platform-specific modes:
8354 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
8355 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
8356 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
8357 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
8358 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
8359 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
8360 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
8361 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
8362 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
8364 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
8366 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
8367 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
8368 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
8369 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
8371 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
8372 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
8373 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
8375 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
8376 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
8377 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
8378 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
8380 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
8381 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
8382 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
8385 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
8386 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
8387 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
8388 current input method for reading this one event.
8390 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
8391 now control whether to output certain characters as
8392 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
8393 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
8394 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
8395 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
8397 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
8399 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
8400 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
8402 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
8403 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
8404 always increases point by 1.
8406 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
8407 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
8409 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
8411 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
8412 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
8413 default value changed. For example,
8415 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
8420 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
8423 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
8424 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
8425 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
8426 `:version' in the top level group.
8428 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
8430 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
8431 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
8433 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
8434 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
8435 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
8438 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
8439 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
8442 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
8443 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
8444 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
8446 ** Frame-local variables.
8448 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
8449 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
8450 local bindings for that variable.
8452 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
8453 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
8454 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
8457 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
8458 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
8459 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
8460 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
8462 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
8463 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
8464 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
8465 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
8467 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
8468 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
8469 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
8470 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
8471 See the documentation in sregex.el.
8473 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
8474 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
8475 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
8476 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
8478 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
8479 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
8481 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
8482 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
8483 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
8485 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
8486 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
8487 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
8488 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
8490 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
8491 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
8494 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
8495 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
8496 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
8497 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
8498 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
8500 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
8501 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
8502 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
8503 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
8505 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
8506 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
8507 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
8508 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
8509 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
8511 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
8512 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
8513 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
8514 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
8516 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
8517 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
8518 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
8520 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
8521 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
8522 was directed to display this buffer.
8524 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
8525 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
8526 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
8527 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
8528 set-window-configuration.
8530 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
8531 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
8532 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
8533 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
8535 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
8536 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
8537 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
8539 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
8540 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
8541 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
8543 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
8544 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
8546 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
8547 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
8549 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
8550 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
8551 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
8553 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
8554 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
8555 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
8556 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
8560 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
8561 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
8564 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
8565 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
8566 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
8567 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
8568 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
8570 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
8572 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
8573 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
8574 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
8575 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
8578 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
8579 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
8580 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
8581 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
8582 The supported properties include
8584 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
8586 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
8587 item should appear in the menu.
8589 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
8590 which will be REAL-BINDING.
8591 It should return a binding to use instead.
8593 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
8594 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
8595 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
8596 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
8597 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
8600 This means that the command normally has no
8601 keyboard equivalent.
8602 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
8603 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
8604 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
8605 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
8606 value says whether this button is currently selected.
8608 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
8609 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
8611 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
8615 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
8616 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
8617 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
8618 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
8620 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
8622 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
8623 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
8624 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
8625 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
8626 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
8627 forward, away from the user.
8629 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
8631 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
8632 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
8633 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
8634 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
8635 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
8637 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
8639 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
8640 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
8641 that were dragged and dropped.
8643 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
8645 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
8647 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
8648 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
8649 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
8651 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
8652 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
8653 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
8655 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
8656 in Emacs 19 and before.
8658 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
8659 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
8661 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
8662 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
8663 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
8664 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
8666 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
8667 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
8668 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
8669 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
8670 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
8672 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
8673 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
8674 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
8675 consistent with the new representation.
8677 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
8678 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
8679 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
8680 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
8682 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
8683 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
8684 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
8686 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
8687 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
8688 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
8690 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
8691 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
8692 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
8694 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
8695 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
8697 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
8698 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
8700 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
8701 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
8702 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
8703 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
8705 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
8706 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
8708 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
8709 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
8710 buffer or string being searched.
8712 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
8713 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
8714 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
8715 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
8716 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
8717 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
8718 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
8720 *** Structure of coding system changed.
8722 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
8723 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
8724 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
8725 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
8726 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
8727 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
8728 define-coding-system-alias.
8730 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
8731 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
8732 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
8733 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
8734 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
8735 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
8736 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
8739 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
8740 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
8741 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
8742 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
8744 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
8745 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
8746 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
8747 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
8749 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
8750 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
8751 This function requires a user interaction.
8753 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
8754 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
8755 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
8756 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
8757 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
8758 select-safe-coding-system.
8760 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
8761 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
8762 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
8765 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
8766 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
8767 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
8769 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
8770 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
8771 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
8772 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
8774 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
8775 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
8776 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
8779 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
8780 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
8782 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
8783 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
8784 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
8785 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
8786 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
8787 range of characters.
8789 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
8790 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
8792 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
8793 in the current buffer at position POS.
8795 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
8796 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
8797 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
8798 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
8799 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
8800 binding input-method-function to nil.
8802 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
8803 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
8804 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
8805 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
8806 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
8808 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
8809 subsequent events of a key sequence.
8811 *** You can customize any language environment by using
8812 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
8814 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
8815 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
8816 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
8817 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
8818 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
8820 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
8822 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
8823 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
8824 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
8827 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
8828 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
8830 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
8831 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
8832 in your .emacs file.)
8834 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
8835 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
8837 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
8838 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
8840 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
8841 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
8844 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
8845 delete the character before point, as usual.
8847 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
8848 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
8849 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
8851 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
8852 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
8853 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
8854 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
8855 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
8858 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
8859 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
8860 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
8861 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
8862 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
8864 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
8865 and is an alias for it.
8867 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
8868 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
8870 ** Scrolling changes
8872 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
8873 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
8875 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
8876 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
8879 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
8880 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
8881 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
8882 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
8884 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
8885 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
8886 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
8887 recenters the window.
8889 ** International character set support (MULE)
8891 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
8892 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
8893 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
8894 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
8895 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
8896 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
8898 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
8899 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
8900 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
8901 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
8902 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
8904 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
8905 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
8906 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
8907 language, to make it possible to type them.
8909 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
8910 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
8912 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
8913 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
8915 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
8917 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
8919 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
8920 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
8921 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
8922 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
8923 characters for their work until they want to change.
8927 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
8928 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
8929 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
8930 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
8931 support several input methods.
8933 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
8934 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
8937 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
8938 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
8939 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
8940 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
8941 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
8944 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
8945 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
8946 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
8947 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
8948 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
8950 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
8951 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
8952 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
8953 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
8955 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
8956 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
8957 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
8958 the first guess is wrong.
8960 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
8961 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
8963 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
8964 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
8965 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
8966 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
8968 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
8969 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
8970 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
8971 translate automatically to and from either one.
8973 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
8975 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
8976 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
8977 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
8980 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
8981 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
8982 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
8983 multibyte characters in that buffer.
8985 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
8986 character conversion as well.
8988 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
8990 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
8991 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
8992 requires using many fonts.
8994 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
8995 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
8997 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
8998 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
8999 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
9000 you would use a font.
9002 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
9003 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
9004 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
9006 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
9007 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
9010 *** Defining fontsets.
9012 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
9013 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
9014 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
9016 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
9017 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
9018 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
9019 standard fontset are created automatically.
9021 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
9022 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
9023 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
9024 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
9025 name is `fontset-startup'.
9027 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
9028 The resource value should have this form:
9029 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
9030 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
9031 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
9032 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
9033 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
9034 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
9035 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
9036 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
9037 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
9039 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
9040 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
9041 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
9043 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
9044 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
9046 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
9047 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
9048 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
9049 Here is the substitution rule:
9050 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
9051 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
9052 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
9053 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
9054 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
9056 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
9057 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
9058 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
9060 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
9061 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
9062 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
9063 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
9066 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
9067 defaults for a particular choice of language.
9069 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
9070 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
9071 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
9072 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
9073 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
9074 system for new files that you create.
9076 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
9077 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
9078 whole Emacs session.
9080 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
9081 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
9082 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
9084 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
9085 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
9086 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
9087 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
9088 coding systems that Emacs supports.
9090 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
9091 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
9092 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
9093 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
9094 is used for *the immediately following command*.
9096 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
9097 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
9099 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
9100 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
9102 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
9103 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
9105 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
9106 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
9107 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
9108 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
9111 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
9112 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
9113 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
9114 translated into that character code.
9116 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
9117 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
9119 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
9121 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
9122 the coding system for keyboard input.
9124 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
9125 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
9126 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
9128 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
9130 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
9131 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
9132 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
9133 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
9134 designed to work with terminals.
9136 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
9137 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
9138 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
9139 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
9140 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
9141 in the corresponding buffer.
9143 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
9145 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
9146 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
9147 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
9149 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
9150 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
9151 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
9154 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
9155 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
9157 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
9158 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
9159 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
9160 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
9162 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
9163 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
9164 related information.
9166 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
9167 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
9170 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
9171 information about the support for a particular language.
9172 You specify the language as an argument.
9174 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
9175 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
9178 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
9179 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
9180 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
9181 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
9183 A alternativnyj (Russian)
9185 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
9186 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
9187 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
9188 E euc-japan (Japanese)
9189 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
9190 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
9191 K euc-korea (Korean)
9194 S shift_jis (Japanese)
9197 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
9198 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
9199 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
9203 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
9204 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
9205 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
9206 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
9208 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
9209 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
9211 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
9212 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
9213 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
9214 Rmail files themselves.
9216 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
9217 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
9219 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
9222 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
9223 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
9224 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
9225 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
9226 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
9228 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
9229 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
9230 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
9233 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
9234 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
9235 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
9236 without any conversion.
9238 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
9239 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
9240 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
9241 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
9243 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
9244 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
9246 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
9247 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
9249 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
9250 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
9252 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
9253 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
9254 in the buffer before point.
9256 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
9257 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
9260 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
9261 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
9263 ** File locking works with NFS now.
9265 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
9266 in the same directory as FILENAME.
9268 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
9269 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
9270 can become a bottleneck.
9272 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
9273 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
9274 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
9275 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
9276 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
9277 so useful that the change is worth while.
9279 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
9280 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
9281 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
9282 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
9284 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
9285 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
9288 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
9289 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
9290 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
9292 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
9293 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
9294 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
9296 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
9297 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
9298 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
9300 ** Changes in View mode.
9302 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
9303 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
9305 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
9306 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
9308 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
9311 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
9312 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
9314 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
9315 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
9316 not just the selected window.
9318 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
9319 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
9320 turns View mode on or off.
9322 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
9323 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
9324 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
9326 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
9327 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
9329 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
9330 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
9331 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
9332 which version to compare with.
9334 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
9335 blocks if a match is inside the block.
9337 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
9338 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
9339 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
9340 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
9342 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
9343 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
9344 blocks, all of them or none.
9346 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
9347 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
9350 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
9351 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
9352 However, the mode will not be changed if
9353 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
9354 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
9355 not suitable for ordinary files, or
9356 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
9358 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
9360 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
9361 these commands do not change the major mode.
9363 ** M-x occur changes.
9365 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
9366 it performs a case-sensitive search.
9368 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
9369 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
9370 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
9372 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
9373 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
9374 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
9375 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
9376 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
9378 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
9379 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
9380 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
9381 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
9383 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
9384 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
9385 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
9387 ** Outline mode changes.
9389 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
9391 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
9393 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
9394 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
9395 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
9398 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
9399 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
9402 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
9403 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
9405 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
9407 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
9408 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
9409 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
9410 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
9412 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
9413 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
9414 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
9416 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
9417 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
9420 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
9421 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
9422 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
9423 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
9425 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
9426 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
9427 can be. The default value is 30.
9429 ** Changes in Mail mode.
9431 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
9432 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
9433 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
9434 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
9435 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
9438 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
9439 compose-mail-other-frame.
9441 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
9442 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
9443 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
9444 buffer that shows the original message.
9446 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
9447 with separator lines around the contents.
9449 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
9450 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
9451 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
9452 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
9454 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
9456 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
9457 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
9458 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
9459 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
9461 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
9462 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
9465 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
9466 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
9469 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
9470 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
9471 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
9472 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
9474 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
9475 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
9476 be taken to be magic.
9478 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
9479 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
9480 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
9482 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
9483 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
9485 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
9486 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
9488 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
9490 new key dired.el binding old key
9491 ------- ---------------- -------
9492 * c dired-change-marks c
9494 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
9495 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
9496 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
9498 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
9499 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
9500 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
9501 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
9502 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
9503 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
9507 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
9508 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
9509 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
9510 each time you run it.
9512 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
9513 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
9515 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
9516 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
9517 means to move in the opposite direction.
9519 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
9520 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
9522 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
9523 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
9524 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
9525 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
9530 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
9532 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
9535 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
9536 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
9538 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
9541 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
9543 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
9545 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
9547 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
9548 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
9549 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
9551 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
9553 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
9555 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
9556 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
9558 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
9559 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
9560 used to pick articles.
9562 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
9563 another have been added.
9565 `M-x gnus-change-server'
9567 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
9568 generating lines in buffers.
9570 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
9573 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
9575 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
9577 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
9579 *** Scores can be decayed.
9581 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
9583 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
9584 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
9586 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
9589 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
9591 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
9592 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
9594 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
9596 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
9597 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
9599 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
9600 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
9602 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
9605 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
9606 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
9608 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
9610 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
9612 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
9614 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
9616 Use the `Y c' command.
9618 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
9620 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
9622 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
9624 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
9625 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
9627 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
9629 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
9631 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
9632 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
9634 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
9636 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
9637 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
9638 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
9639 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
9642 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
9643 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
9644 particular news group. This can be done by:
9646 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
9648 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
9649 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
9650 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
9651 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
9652 for reading and posting).
9654 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
9655 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
9656 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
9657 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
9660 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
9661 default. Here are some of these default settings:
9663 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
9664 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
9665 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
9666 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
9667 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
9669 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
9670 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
9674 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
9675 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
9676 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
9677 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
9678 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
9681 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
9682 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
9683 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
9684 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
9685 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
9686 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
9688 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
9689 of the current buffer.
9691 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
9692 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
9693 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
9695 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
9696 style that the Python developers like.
9698 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
9699 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
9700 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
9704 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
9705 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
9706 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
9708 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
9709 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
9712 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
9713 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
9715 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
9716 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
9717 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
9718 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
9720 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
9721 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
9723 ** Calendar changes.
9725 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
9726 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
9727 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
9728 following/previous years.
9730 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
9731 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
9732 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
9733 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
9734 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
9735 supposed attribute of God.
9739 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
9742 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
9744 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
9745 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
9746 printer system has this behavior, set variable
9747 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
9749 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
9750 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
9751 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
9753 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
9754 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
9756 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
9757 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
9758 printing for your printer.
9760 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
9761 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
9763 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
9764 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
9766 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
9767 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
9768 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
9769 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
9770 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
9771 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
9772 The default value is nil.
9774 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
9775 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
9777 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
9778 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
9779 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
9780 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
9781 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
9782 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
9783 color). The default is 0 ("black").
9785 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
9786 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
9788 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
9789 The default is 0 ("black").
9791 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
9792 The default is 0 ("black").
9794 border-width Specify the border width.
9797 Any other property is ignored.
9799 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
9800 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
9803 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
9804 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
9805 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
9806 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
9807 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
9808 controlling headers.
9810 *** Color management (subgroup)
9812 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
9815 *** Face Management (subgroup)
9817 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
9818 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
9819 background should be used. Valid values are:
9821 t always use face background color.
9822 nil never use face background color.
9823 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
9825 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
9827 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
9830 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
9831 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
9833 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
9836 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
9837 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
9838 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
9840 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
9844 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
9848 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
9852 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
9856 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
9858 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
9860 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
9863 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
9864 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
9865 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
9867 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
9868 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9869 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9870 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9871 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9875 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9876 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9877 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9880 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9881 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9882 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
9883 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
9884 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
9885 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9886 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9887 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
9888 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
9889 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
9890 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
9893 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
9895 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
9898 *** Printer management (subgroup)
9900 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
9901 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
9902 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
9903 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
9906 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
9907 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
9908 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
9910 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
9911 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
9914 *** Page settings (subgroup)
9916 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
9917 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
9918 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
9919 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
9920 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
9921 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
9924 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
9925 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
9926 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
9928 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
9929 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
9930 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
9931 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
9932 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
9933 its TO, are ignored.
9935 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
9936 pages. Valid values are:
9938 nil print all pages.
9940 `even-page' print only even pages.
9942 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
9944 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
9945 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
9946 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
9947 print only the even sheet of paper.
9949 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
9950 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
9951 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
9952 only the odd sheet of paper.
9954 Any other value is treated as nil.
9956 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
9957 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
9958 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
9960 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
9962 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
9963 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
9965 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
9966 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
9967 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
9968 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
9969 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
9970 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
9971 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
9973 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
9974 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
9975 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
9976 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
9977 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
9978 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
9979 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
9981 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
9983 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
9984 messages should be sent.
9986 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
9987 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
9988 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
9990 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
9992 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
9993 points for line numbers.
9995 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
9996 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
9998 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
9999 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
10000 to 2, the printing will look like:
10012 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
10013 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
10016 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
10017 zebra stripe is to be printed.
10019 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
10021 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
10022 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
10023 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
10024 3, the output will look like:
10038 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
10039 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
10041 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
10042 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
10045 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
10046 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
10049 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
10051 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
10052 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
10054 ** hideshow changes.
10056 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
10059 *** Support for java-mode added.
10061 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
10062 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
10064 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
10065 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
10066 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
10068 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
10069 robust and a lot faster.
10071 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
10073 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
10074 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
10075 documentation for more details.
10077 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
10079 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
10080 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
10081 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
10082 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
10083 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
10085 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
10086 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
10087 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
10088 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
10094 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
10095 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
10096 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
10097 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
10098 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
10099 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
10101 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
10103 *** Maximum decoration
10105 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
10106 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
10107 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
10108 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
10109 to get the old behavior.
10113 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
10115 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
10116 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
10118 *** Configurable support
10120 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
10121 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
10122 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
10123 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
10124 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
10125 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
10126 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
10128 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
10129 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
10130 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
10132 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
10134 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
10135 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
10138 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
10140 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
10146 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
10147 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
10148 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
10149 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
10151 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
10153 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
10154 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
10155 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
10157 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
10159 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
10160 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
10161 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
10162 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
10163 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
10164 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
10165 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
10167 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
10168 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
10169 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
10170 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
10171 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
10172 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
10174 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
10176 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
10177 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
10178 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
10179 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
10181 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
10184 ** Ada mode changes.
10186 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
10187 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
10188 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
10189 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
10192 *** There are two new commands:
10193 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
10194 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
10196 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
10197 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
10198 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
10200 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
10201 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
10202 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
10204 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
10205 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
10206 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
10207 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
10209 ** Scheme mode changes.
10211 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
10212 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
10213 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
10214 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
10217 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
10218 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
10219 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
10220 variables as buffer-local variables.
10222 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
10223 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
10225 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
10227 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
10228 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
10229 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
10230 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
10232 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
10233 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
10236 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
10237 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
10238 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
10239 option takes precedence.
10241 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
10242 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
10243 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
10245 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
10246 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
10249 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
10250 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
10252 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
10253 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
10256 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
10257 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
10258 these register values no longer become completely useless.
10259 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
10260 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
10261 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
10263 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
10264 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
10265 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
10266 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
10268 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
10269 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
10270 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
10271 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
10272 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
10274 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
10275 since it applies only to the current frame.
10277 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
10278 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
10279 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
10281 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
10282 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
10283 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
10284 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
10285 instead of just the file you are editing.
10289 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
10290 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
10291 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
10292 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
10293 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
10296 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
10297 knows which kind of label is needed.
10299 C-c ) reftex-reference
10300 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
10301 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
10303 C-c [ reftex-citation
10304 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
10305 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
10307 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
10308 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
10311 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
10312 can quickly jump to every section.
10314 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
10315 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
10316 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
10317 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
10318 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
10320 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
10322 *** Info documentation is now available.
10324 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
10325 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
10327 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
10328 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
10330 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
10331 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
10333 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
10334 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
10335 appropriate functions.
10337 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
10338 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
10340 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
10343 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
10344 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
10346 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
10347 shall be delimited.
10349 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
10350 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
10351 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
10353 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
10354 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
10355 prefixed with `ALT'.
10357 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
10358 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
10359 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
10362 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
10363 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
10364 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
10366 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
10367 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
10369 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
10370 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
10371 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
10373 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
10375 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
10377 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
10378 from alien sources.
10380 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
10381 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
10384 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
10387 *** Added support for imenu.
10389 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
10390 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
10391 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
10392 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
10394 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
10395 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
10397 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
10399 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
10401 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
10402 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
10403 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
10406 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
10407 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
10409 ** browse-url changes
10411 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
10412 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
10413 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
10414 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
10415 customization variables.
10417 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
10419 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
10420 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
10421 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
10423 ** Changes in Ediff
10425 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
10426 pops up the Info file for this command.
10428 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
10429 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
10430 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
10433 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
10434 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
10435 files in the same directory.
10437 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
10438 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
10439 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
10441 ** Changes in Viper
10443 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
10444 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
10446 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
10447 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
10448 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
10449 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
10450 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
10451 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
10452 color when Viper is in insert state.
10453 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
10454 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
10455 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
10459 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
10460 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
10461 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
10462 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
10463 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
10465 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
10467 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
10468 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
10470 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
10471 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
10472 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
10474 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
10475 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
10476 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
10477 methods and protocols.
10479 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
10480 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
10481 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
10484 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
10485 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
10486 at least M times and as many as N times.
10488 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
10489 in files has changed slightly.
10491 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
10492 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
10493 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
10494 with old time-stamp-format values.
10496 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
10497 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
10498 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
10501 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
10502 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
10503 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
10504 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
10505 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
10506 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
10508 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
10509 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
10510 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
10512 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
10513 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
10514 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
10515 recommended now will continue to work then.
10517 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
10520 ** There are some additional major modes:
10522 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
10523 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
10524 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
10526 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
10527 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
10530 ** New Lisp packages include:
10532 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
10534 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
10535 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
10537 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
10539 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
10542 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
10543 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
10546 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
10547 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
10548 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
10549 strings or comments.
10551 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
10552 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
10553 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
10554 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
10557 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
10558 can visit them by short forms of their names.
10560 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
10561 Emacs Lisp function at point.
10563 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
10565 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
10566 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
10568 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
10570 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
10572 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
10574 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
10575 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
10577 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
10578 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
10579 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
10580 original place after inserting the copy.
10582 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
10585 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
10586 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
10587 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
10589 Enable mouse-drag with:
10590 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
10592 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
10594 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
10595 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
10597 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
10598 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
10602 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
10603 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
10604 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
10605 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
10606 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
10607 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
10608 instance) and vice versa.
10610 To use this package load it using
10611 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
10612 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
10613 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
10614 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
10615 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
10616 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
10618 *** Interface to ph.
10620 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
10622 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
10623 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
10626 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
10628 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
10629 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
10630 while the real cursor does not move.
10632 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
10633 for visiting your favorite web sites.
10635 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
10636 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
10640 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
10641 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
10642 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
10643 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
10645 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
10647 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
10649 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
10651 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
10652 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
10653 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
10654 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
10655 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
10657 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
10658 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
10659 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
10660 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
10661 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
10662 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
10664 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
10666 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
10667 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
10668 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
10669 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
10671 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
10672 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
10674 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
10675 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
10678 ** Basic Lisp changes
10680 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
10681 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
10683 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
10684 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
10687 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
10689 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
10691 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
10692 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
10694 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
10695 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
10698 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
10700 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
10702 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
10704 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
10705 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
10706 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
10709 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
10710 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
10711 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
10713 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
10714 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
10715 adding one of these suffixes.
10717 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
10718 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
10719 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
10721 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
10722 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
10724 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
10726 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
10727 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
10729 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
10730 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
10732 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
10734 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
10735 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
10737 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
10738 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
10739 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
10740 works using `save-current-buffer'.
10742 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
10743 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
10746 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
10747 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
10748 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
10751 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
10752 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
10755 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
10757 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
10758 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
10759 Then it returns that string.
10761 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
10763 (with-output-to-string
10764 (princ "The buffer is ")
10765 (princ (buffer-name)))
10767 returns "The buffer is foo".
10769 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
10772 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
10773 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
10774 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
10776 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
10777 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
10779 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
10780 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
10781 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
10782 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
10783 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
10784 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
10786 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
10787 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
10788 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
10791 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
10792 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
10793 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
10794 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
10795 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
10797 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
10798 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
10799 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
10800 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
10802 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
10803 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
10805 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
10807 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
10808 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
10809 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
10810 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
10813 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
10814 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
10817 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
10819 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
10820 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
10821 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
10822 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
10823 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
10825 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
10827 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
10828 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
10829 more than the number of characters.
10831 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
10832 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
10833 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
10834 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
10835 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
10836 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
10838 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
10839 and returns a string containing those characters.
10841 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
10842 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
10843 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
10844 character, sref signals an error.
10846 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
10847 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
10848 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
10850 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
10851 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
10852 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
10854 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
10855 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
10856 to a vector of the characters in it.
10858 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
10859 of a string. You call it as follows:
10861 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
10863 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
10864 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
10865 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
10866 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
10867 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
10869 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
10870 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
10872 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
10873 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
10875 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
10876 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
10877 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
10878 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
10880 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
10882 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
10884 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
10885 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
10886 are not included in the resulting value.
10888 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
10889 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
10890 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
10891 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
10893 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
10894 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
10895 character extends across that column), then the padding character
10896 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
10897 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
10898 column START-COLUMN.
10900 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
10901 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
10902 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
10903 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
10904 changed text, before the change.
10906 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
10907 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
10908 one character set for each script, not for each language.
10910 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
10912 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
10914 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
10915 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
10917 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
10918 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
10919 which identify the character within that character set.
10921 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
10922 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
10923 opposite of split-char.
10925 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
10926 of all the characters between BEG and END.
10928 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
10929 of all the characters in a string.
10931 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
10932 and specifying coding systems.
10934 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
10935 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
10936 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
10937 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
10938 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
10939 as what to do about code conversion.)
10941 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
10942 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
10944 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
10945 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
10946 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
10948 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
10949 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
10950 to match against a file name.
10952 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
10953 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
10954 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
10955 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
10956 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
10957 specifies the coding system for encoding.
10959 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
10960 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
10962 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
10963 the coding system to use for network sockets.
10965 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
10966 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
10967 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
10970 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
10971 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
10972 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
10973 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
10974 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
10975 specifies the coding system for encoding.
10977 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
10978 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
10980 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
10981 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
10982 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
10983 start the subprocess.
10985 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
10986 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
10987 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
10988 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
10989 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
10991 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
10992 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
10995 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
10996 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
10997 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
10998 connection permanently or until overridden.
11000 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
11001 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
11002 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
11003 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
11004 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
11005 system for one operation at a time.
11007 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
11008 files, subprocesses or network connections.
11010 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
11011 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
11012 The value is a cons cell,
11013 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
11014 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
11015 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
11016 input to the subprocess.
11018 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
11019 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
11021 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
11022 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
11023 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
11025 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
11026 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
11027 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
11028 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
11031 Thus, instead of writing
11033 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
11034 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
11036 you would now write this:
11038 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
11039 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
11043 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
11044 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
11045 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
11046 for a description of them.
11048 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
11049 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
11051 (defgroup ispell nil
11052 "Spell checking using Ispell."
11055 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
11056 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
11057 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
11058 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
11059 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
11061 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
11062 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
11063 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
11064 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
11065 first-level subgroups.
11067 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
11069 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
11070 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
11074 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
11075 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
11076 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
11077 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
11078 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
11079 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
11081 ** Text property changes
11083 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
11086 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
11087 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
11088 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
11089 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
11090 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
11092 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
11093 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
11094 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
11095 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
11097 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
11098 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
11099 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
11101 ** Changes in invisibility features
11103 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
11104 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
11105 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
11106 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
11107 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
11108 make the overlay visible.
11110 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
11111 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
11112 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
11113 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
11114 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
11115 t when it should hide it.
11117 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
11119 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
11120 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
11121 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
11122 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
11123 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
11124 Here is an example of how to do this:
11126 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
11127 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
11128 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
11129 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
11132 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
11135 ;; When done with the overlays:
11136 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
11137 ;; Or respectively:
11138 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
11140 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
11142 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
11143 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
11144 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
11145 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
11147 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
11148 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
11149 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
11151 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
11152 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
11154 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
11155 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
11157 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
11158 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
11159 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
11161 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
11162 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
11163 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
11164 determine the syntax type of the character.
11166 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
11167 of the current buffer.
11169 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
11170 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
11171 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
11173 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
11174 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
11175 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
11176 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
11177 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
11179 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
11182 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
11183 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
11184 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
11186 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
11187 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
11188 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
11189 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
11190 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
11192 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
11193 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
11194 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
11196 ** Changes in face features
11198 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
11199 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
11201 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
11202 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
11204 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
11205 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
11207 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
11208 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
11210 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
11211 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
11212 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
11213 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
11216 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
11217 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
11219 ** Changes in file-handling functions
11221 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
11222 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
11223 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
11224 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
11226 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
11229 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
11230 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
11232 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
11233 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
11235 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
11236 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
11238 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
11239 character code conversion as well as other things.
11241 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
11242 (formerly it did not).
11244 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
11245 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
11247 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
11248 instead of constant strings.
11250 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
11251 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
11252 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
11254 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
11255 in the same way as before.
11257 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
11258 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
11259 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
11261 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
11262 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
11263 else, and returns nil.
11265 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
11266 directory cannot be listed.
11268 ** Changes in minibuffer input
11270 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
11271 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
11272 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
11273 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
11276 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
11277 It is available through the history command M-n.
11279 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
11280 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
11281 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
11282 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
11283 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
11285 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
11286 argument in this way.
11288 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
11289 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
11290 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
11292 ** Echo area features
11294 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
11295 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
11296 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
11297 after the echo area is cleared.
11299 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
11300 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
11302 ** Keyboard input features
11304 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
11305 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
11307 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
11308 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
11309 by keyboard macros.
11311 ** Frame-related changes
11313 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
11314 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
11315 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
11317 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
11318 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
11319 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
11321 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
11322 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
11323 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
11324 in the selected frame.
11326 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
11327 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
11328 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
11330 ** X Windows features
11332 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
11333 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
11334 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
11336 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
11337 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
11339 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
11340 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
11341 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
11343 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
11344 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
11346 ** Subprocess features
11348 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
11349 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
11352 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
11353 and returns the output from the command as a string.
11355 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
11356 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
11358 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
11359 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
11361 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
11362 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
11363 goes after the other menu items.
11365 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
11366 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
11367 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
11370 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
11371 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
11373 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
11374 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
11377 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
11378 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
11379 but its hook is still run.
11381 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
11382 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
11384 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
11385 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
11386 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
11388 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
11389 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
11390 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
11393 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
11394 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
11396 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
11397 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
11398 functions like display-time.
11400 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
11401 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
11403 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
11404 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
11405 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
11407 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
11408 if there is an error in compilation.
11410 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
11411 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
11412 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
11413 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
11415 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
11416 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
11417 the *scratch* buffer.
11419 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
11420 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
11421 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
11422 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
11424 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
11425 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
11426 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
11428 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
11429 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
11430 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
11431 and compose-mail-other-frame.
11433 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
11434 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
11435 full name of the specified user will be returned.
11437 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
11438 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
11439 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
11440 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
11441 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
11444 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
11445 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
11446 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
11447 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
11449 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
11450 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
11451 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
11452 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
11454 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
11456 ** imenu.el changes.
11458 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
11459 item from menu created by imenu.
11461 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
11462 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
11463 select one of those items.
11465 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
11467 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
11468 Copyright information:
11470 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
11472 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
11473 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
11474 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
11475 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
11477 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
11478 of this document, or of portions of it,
11479 under the above conditions, provided also that they
11480 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
11484 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"