1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
50 ** There is a new configure option --with-wide-int.
51 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
54 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available.
55 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
56 automatically select it.
59 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
62 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
63 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
64 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
67 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
68 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
71 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used,
72 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
75 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
77 ** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
78 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the "mouse-1
79 pops up *Messages*" feature, which can now easily be changed.
81 ** emacsclient changes
84 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
85 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
86 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
89 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
92 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters can be used to set the
93 frame parameters of a newly-created graphical frame.
96 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
97 error, its exit status is 1.
101 *** shell-mode uses pcomplete rules, with the standard completion UI.
103 *** Many packages have been changed to use completion-at-point rather than
104 their own completion code.
106 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
107 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
109 *** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
111 *** New completion style `substring'.
113 *** Completion style can be set per-category `completion-category-overrides'.
115 *** Completion of buffers now uses substring completion by default.
117 *** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
118 `completing-read-function'.
120 *** minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map is not used any more.
121 Instead, the bindings in minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map are combined
122 with minibuffer-local-must-match-map.
124 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
128 The default of `send-mail-function' has changed from
129 `sendmail-send-it' (on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems) or
130 `mailclient-send-it' (on Windows) to `sendmail-query-once'. This new
131 default will ask the user (once) whether to use the internal smtpmail
132 package to send email, or to use the old, external defaults.
136 *** smtpmail has been largely rewritten to upgrade to STARTTLS if
137 possible, and uses the auth-source framework for getting credentials.
138 The rewrite should be largely compatible with previous versions of
139 smtpmail, but there are two major incompatibilities:
141 *** `smtpmail-auth-credentials' no longer exists. That variable used
142 to be be either ~/.authinfo (in which case you won't see any
143 difference), but if it were a direct list of user names and passwords,
144 it will be ignored, and you will be prompted for the user name and the
145 password instead. They will then be saved to ~/.authinfo.
147 If you wish to copy over all the credentials from
148 `smtpmail-auth-credentials' to your ~/.authinfo file manually, instead
149 of letting smtpmail prompt you for these values, that's also possible.
151 If you had, for instance,
153 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
154 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
156 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
158 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
160 *** Similarly, `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' no longer exists. If
161 you had that set, then then you need to put
163 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert
164 "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
166 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
168 ** Internationalization changes
171 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
173 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
174 additional documentation.
176 To turn this off in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
177 `bidi-display-reordering' to a nil value. The default is t. For text
178 that includes no right-to-left characters, the result of reordering
179 looks exactly as it did in previous versions, i.e. there's no
182 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
183 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
184 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
185 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
186 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
187 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
189 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
190 value of paragraph base direction at point.
192 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
193 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
197 *** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts.
198 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
199 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
200 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
201 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
202 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
203 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
205 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
206 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
208 *** There are two new input methods for Persian/Farsi: farsi and farsi-translit.
210 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
211 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
213 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
214 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
215 is taken from the desktop settings.
217 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
218 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
219 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
222 ** ImageMagick support.
223 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
224 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
225 libraries if they are present at build time. This needs ImageMagick
226 6.2.8 or newer (versions newer than 6.0.7 _may_ work but have not been
227 tested). To disable ImageMagick support, use the configure option
228 `--without-imagemagick'.
230 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
231 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
232 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
233 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
235 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
237 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success' are available to
238 highlight strings that indicate failure, caution or successful operation.
240 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
241 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
243 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
244 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
246 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
247 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
248 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
250 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
251 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
252 displayed as a space.
254 ** On Nextstep/OSX, the menu bar can be hidden by customizing
255 ns-auto-hide-menu-bar.
257 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
258 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
260 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
261 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
262 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
263 context in their return values.
265 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
266 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
268 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
269 for remote machines which support SELinux.
272 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
273 higher-resolution time stamps.
275 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
276 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
278 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
279 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
280 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
282 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
283 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
284 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
285 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
287 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
288 scroll a line instead of full screen.
290 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
291 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
294 ** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
295 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
296 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
297 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
298 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
301 ** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
302 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
303 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
304 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
309 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
310 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
312 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
313 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
315 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
316 for `list-colors-display'.
318 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
319 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
320 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
322 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
323 selected for installation.
325 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
327 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
328 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
329 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
330 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
332 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
333 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
334 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
338 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
340 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
341 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
342 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
343 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
345 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
346 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
347 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
348 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
350 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
351 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
354 ** The use of a "mode: minor" specification in a file local variables section
355 to enable a minor-mode is deprecated. Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
357 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
358 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
361 ** The standalone program `fakemail' has been removed.
362 If you need it, feedmail.el ought to provide a superset of the functionality.
365 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
367 ** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms
368 including md5, sha-1 and sha-2 (sha-224, sha-256, sha-384 and sha-512).
369 The elisp implementation sha1.el is removed. Feature sha1 is provided
374 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
375 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
378 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
383 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
387 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-pop, instead of
391 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
394 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
396 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
398 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
400 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
401 also deletes newlines around point.
405 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
406 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
407 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
410 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
411 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
412 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
414 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
415 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
416 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
417 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
419 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
421 ** Selection changes.
423 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
424 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
425 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
426 use the primary selection.
428 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
429 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
432 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
433 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
434 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
435 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
438 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
439 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
440 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
441 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
442 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
445 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
448 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
449 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
450 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
453 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
455 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
456 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
457 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
460 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
461 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
464 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
465 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
466 between applications.
469 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
470 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
471 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
472 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
473 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
474 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
477 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
479 *** Support for X clipboard managers has been added.
481 **** To inhibit use of the clipboard manager, set
482 `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
484 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
485 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
486 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
488 ** The command shell prompts for the shell path name, when the default
489 directory is a remote file name and neither environment variable
490 $ESHELL nor variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
493 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
497 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.2.93. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
499 ** comint and modes derived from it use the generic completion code.
503 *** Compilation mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
504 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
506 *** `compilation-filter-start' is let-bound to the start of the text
507 inserted by the compilation filter function, when calling
508 compilation-filter-hook.
510 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
512 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
513 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
514 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
516 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
517 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
519 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
523 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
524 Use the variable bibtex-dialect to select support for different BibTeX dialects.
525 bibtex-entry-field-alist is now an obsolete alias for
526 bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist.
528 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries' bound to C-c C-a.
530 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
532 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
534 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
536 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
538 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse and update 7z archives.
540 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
541 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
543 ** `url-queue-retrieve' downloads web pages asynchronously, but allow
544 controlling the degree of parallelism.
546 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers, in certain modes
547 (eg dired, vc-dir, log-edit). For example, adding
548 "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your .dir-locals.el file,
549 will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should
550 call `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
553 ** You can prevent directory local variables from applying to subdirectories.
554 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
555 settings to indicate said section should not be applied to subdirectories.
559 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
560 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
561 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
562 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
565 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
566 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
567 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
568 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
572 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
573 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
574 exists, that is used instead.
576 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
577 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
579 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
580 You can get a comparable behavior with:
581 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
582 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
584 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
586 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
588 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
591 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing `comments'.
592 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
595 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
596 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
599 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
600 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
601 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
604 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
607 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
608 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
611 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
612 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
615 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
616 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
617 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
620 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
621 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
625 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
626 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
627 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
629 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
630 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
632 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
634 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
635 choose a color via list-colors-display.
639 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
640 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
643 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
644 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
646 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
648 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
650 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
651 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
652 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
653 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
656 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
657 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
658 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
659 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
660 creating the session.
662 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
663 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
664 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
665 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
666 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
668 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
669 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
670 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
671 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
672 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
673 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
674 `sql-send-*' functions.
676 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
677 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
678 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
679 connection is established.
681 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
682 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
683 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
684 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
685 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
686 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
687 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
688 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
689 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
690 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
691 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
692 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
695 (database :default DEF
697 :completion COMPLETE)
700 :completion COMPLETE)
702 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
703 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
704 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
706 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
707 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
708 possible values or a function returning such a list).
710 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
711 An alist for recording different username, database and server
712 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
713 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
715 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
717 (setq sql-connection-alist
718 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
719 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
720 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
722 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
724 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
726 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
727 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
728 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
729 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
731 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
732 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
733 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
734 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
735 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
737 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
738 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
739 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
740 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
743 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
744 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
745 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
746 session and save them as a new connection.
748 *** List database objects and details.
749 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
750 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
751 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
753 **** List all objects.
754 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
755 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
756 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceding the command by
757 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
758 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
759 separate window in view-mode.
761 **** List Table details.
762 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
763 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
764 the list of columns in the relation. Preceding the command with the
765 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
766 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
768 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
769 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
770 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
772 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
773 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
774 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
775 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
776 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
778 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
779 This prevents the command interpreter for MySQL and Postgres from
780 listing object name completions when being sent text via
781 `sql-send-*' functions.
783 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
787 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if the displayed
788 image can be animated.
790 *** Option `image-animate-loop', if non-nil, loops the animation.
791 If nil, `image-toggle-animation' plays the animation once.
793 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
795 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
796 superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
797 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
800 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
801 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
802 threads simultaneously.
806 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
807 system or session bus.
809 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
810 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
813 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
814 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
818 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
820 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
821 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
823 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
828 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
829 in the Rmail incoming message.
831 ** VC and related modes
833 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
834 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
835 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
836 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
838 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
840 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
842 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
843 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
844 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
845 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
847 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
849 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
850 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
852 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
853 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
854 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
855 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
857 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
859 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
860 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
862 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
863 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
865 ** CC Mode (C, C++, etc.)
867 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
872 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
875 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
877 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
879 *** The new command `info-display-manual' will display an Info manual
880 specified by its name. If that manual is already visited in some Info
881 buffer within the current session, the command will display that
882 buffer. Otherwise, it will load the manual and display it. This is
883 handy if you have many manuals in many Info buffers, and don't
884 remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual you want to
888 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
890 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
891 original buffers. It is bound to C-x C-q in Occur mode.
893 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
894 and electric-layout-mode.
896 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
897 from which other modes can be derived.
899 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
901 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
902 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
903 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
904 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
907 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
908 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
910 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
911 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
913 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
915 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
916 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to old-emacs-lock.el and moved
917 to obsolete/.) Now, Emacs Lock is a proper minor mode
918 `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection against exiting Emacs and killing the
919 buffer can be set separately. The mechanism for auto turning off
920 protection for buffers with inferior processes has been generalized.
923 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
926 ** `char-direction-table' and the associated function `char-direction'
927 were deleted. They were buggy and inferior to the new support of
928 bidirectional editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the
929 bidirectional properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property'
930 with the last argument `bidi-class'.
932 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
933 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
934 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
935 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
937 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
938 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
939 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
940 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
942 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
943 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
944 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
947 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
949 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
951 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
952 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
953 programmer-visible consequences.
955 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
958 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
959 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
960 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
961 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
962 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
963 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
965 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
966 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
967 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
968 has now been removed.
970 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
972 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
974 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
975 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
976 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
977 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
978 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
979 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
980 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
983 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
985 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
986 font-lock-defaults-alist
988 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
989 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
991 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
994 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
998 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
999 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1000 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1001 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1003 *** FIXME: buffer-display-alist changes
1006 *** New variable completion-extra-properties used to specify extra properties
1007 of the current completion:
1008 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1009 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1011 *** Functions on completion-at-point-functions can return any of the properties
1012 valid for completion-extra-properties.
1014 *** completion-annotate-function is obsolete.
1016 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1017 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1018 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1019 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1020 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1021 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1022 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1024 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1025 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1027 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1028 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1029 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1030 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1031 must also be supplied.
1033 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1034 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
1035 variables. It is typically set via file-local variables, in which case it
1036 applies to all the code in that file.
1038 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1039 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1041 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1042 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1044 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1046 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1047 declared as dynamically bound.
1050 ** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1051 Given a string containing right-to-left (RTL) script, this function
1052 returns another string which can be safely inserted into a buffer as a
1053 distinct RTL "segment", without causing any following text to be
1054 displayed as RTL. (This is done by appending a Unicode "left-to-right
1057 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right (LTR)
1058 paragraph direction and you need to insert a string whose contents and
1059 directionality are not known in advance.
1061 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
1062 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1064 ** New low-level function run-hook-wrapped.
1066 ** `server-eval-at' is provided to allow evaluating forms on different
1067 Emacs server instances.
1069 ** `call-process' allows a `(:file "file")' spec to redirect STDOUT to
1072 ** byte-compile-disable-print-circle is obsolete.
1073 ** deferred-action-list and deferred-action-function are obsolete.
1074 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
1075 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
1076 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
1077 jumping all the way to the top-level.
1079 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
1080 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1082 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1083 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1084 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1087 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
1088 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
1089 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1090 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1091 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1092 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1093 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1094 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1097 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
1100 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1101 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1102 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
1103 The prog-mode-hook it defines can be used to enable features for
1104 programming modes. For example:
1105 (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode)
1106 enables on the fly spell checking for comments and strings for
1108 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
1110 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1111 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1112 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1113 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1115 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
1117 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1118 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
1119 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
1122 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1123 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1124 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1128 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1130 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1132 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1134 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1137 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
1139 ** XML and HTML parsing
1141 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
1142 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
1143 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
1144 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1145 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1147 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
1151 *** Emacs can be compiled with libgnutls support
1152 This is the default. You will then be able to use the functionality
1153 in gnutls.el, namely the `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'
1154 functions. It's easiest to use these functions through
1155 `open-network-stream' because it can upgrade connections through
1156 STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain SSL, depending on your needs.
1158 Only versions 2.8.x and higher or GnuTLS have been tested.
1160 *** gnutls-log-level
1161 Set `gnutls-log-level' higher than 0 to get debug output. 1 is for
1162 important messages, 2 is for debug data, and higher numbers are as per
1163 the GnuTLS logging conventions. The output is in *Messages*.
1167 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1169 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1170 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1171 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1172 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1173 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1174 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1176 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1177 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1179 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook' allow
1180 deferring warnings until the main command loop is executed.
1183 ** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1184 as well as those in the -*- line.
1187 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1189 ** keymaps can inherit from multiple parents.
1191 ** New reader macro ## which stands for the empty symbol.
1192 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1193 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1194 an empty uninterned symbol.
1196 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1198 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
1201 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
1202 included in binary distribution.
1204 ** New configure.bat option --without-gnutls to disable automatic
1207 ** New configure.bat option --lib for general library linkage, works
1208 with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1210 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1213 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1214 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1216 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1217 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1218 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1219 (at your option) any later version.
1221 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1222 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1223 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1224 GNU General Public License for more details.
1226 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1227 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1232 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"