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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 23 Jan 1999
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7
8 \f
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
11 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
12 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
13 \f
14 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
15
16 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
17 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
18 .emacs file.
19
20 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
21 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
22
23 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
24 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
25 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
26
27 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
28 is running in batch mode. For example,
29
30 (message "%s" (read t))
31
32 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
33 to standard output.
34
35 ** Faces and frame parameters.
36
37 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
38 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
39 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
40 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
41 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
42 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
43 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
44
45 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
46 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
47 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
48 `default' face and vice versa.
49
50 ** New face `menu'.
51
52 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
53 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
54 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
55
56 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
57
58 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
59 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
60 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
61 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
62
63 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
64 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
65 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
66
67 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
68 `ScreenGamma'.
69
70 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
71
72 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
73 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
74 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
75 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
76 the text.
77
78 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
79
80 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
81 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
82 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
83 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
84 specify a font.
85
86 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
87 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
88 under Lisp changes, below.
89
90 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
91
92 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
93 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
94 it is hollow.
95
96 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
97 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
98 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
99 customizing face `fringe'.
100
101 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
102 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
103
104 ** LessTif support.
105
106 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
107 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
108
109 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
110
111 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
112 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
113 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
114 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
115 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
116 Emacs.
117
118 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
119 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
120 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
121 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
122 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
123 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
124
125 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
126 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
127 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
128 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
129 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
130 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
131
132 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
133 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
134 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
135 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
136 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
137
138 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
139
140 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
141 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
142 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
143
144 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
145
146 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
147 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
148 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
149 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
150 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
151 whitespace.
152
153 ** Busy-cursor.
154
155 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
156 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
157
158 ** Blinking cursor
159
160 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
161 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
162 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
163 the group `cursor'.
164
165 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
166
167 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
168 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
169 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
170 details.
171
172 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
173 have to do anything to activate it.
174
175 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
176
177 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
178 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
179 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
180 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
181
182 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
183
184 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
185
186 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
187
188 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the Motif
189 one.
190
191 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, like in
192 Motif.
193
194 ** Hscrolling in C code.
195
196 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically.
197
198 ** Tool bar support.
199
200 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
201 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
202
203 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
204
205 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
206 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
207 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
208 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
209 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
210
211 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
212
213 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
214 buffers.
215
216 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
217 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
218
219 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
220
221 - Mouse-1 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
222 toggles the read-only status.
223
224 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
225
226 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
227
228 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
229 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialogs' is
230 non-nil.
231
232 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
233
234 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
235 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
236 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
237 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
238 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
239 attributes like overlines, strike-throught, box are ignored.
240
241 ** Sound support
242
243 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
244 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
245 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
246 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
247 to enable sound support.
248
249 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
250 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
251 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
252 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
253 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
254 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
255
256 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
257
258 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
259
260 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
261 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
262 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
263
264 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
265 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
266
267 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
268 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
269 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
270
271 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
272
273 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
274 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
275 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
276 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
277
278 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
279 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
280 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
281 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
282
283 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
284 notably at the end of lines.
285
286 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
287 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
288
289 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
290 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
291 after each match to get the replacement text.
292
293 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
294
295 If a message is longer than one line, or mini-buffer contents are
296 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the mini-window unless it is
297 on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum mini-window size
298 by setting the following variable:
299
300 - User option: max-mini-window-height
301
302 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
303 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
304 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
305
306 Default is 0.25.
307
308 ** Changes to TeX mode
309
310 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
311 `latex-mode'.
312
313 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
314
315 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
316 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
317 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
318 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
319 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
320 can be edited from that buffer.
321
322 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
323 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
324 `A' to use all marked entries).
325
326 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
327 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
328
329 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
330 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
331 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
332 been cited.
333
334 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
335 has the following new features:
336
337 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
338 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
339 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
340 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
341
342 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
343 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
344 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
345 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
346 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
347 defaults to 1.
348
349 ** Tooltips.
350
351 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
352 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
353 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
354
355 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
356 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
357 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
358 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
359
360 ** Customize changes
361
362 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
363 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
364 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
365
366 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
367 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
368 default).
369
370 ** New features in evaluation commands
371
372 The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
373 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
374 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
375 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
376 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
377
378 ** Dired changes
379
380 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
381 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
382 is, delete only empty directories.
383
384 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
385 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
386 copy directories recursively.
387
388 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
389 use the -f option when sending mail.
390
391 ** Isearch changes
392
393 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
394 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
395
396 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
397
398 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
399 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
400 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
401 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
402 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
403 `secondary-selection'.
404
405 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
406 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
407 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
408 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
409 usual snappy response.
410
411 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
412 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
413 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
414 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
415
416
417 ** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
418 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
419 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
420
421 ** Shell script mode changes.
422
423 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
424 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
425 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
426
427 ** Etags changes.
428
429 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
430
431 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
432 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
433 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
434 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
435 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
436
437 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
438 declarations when given the --declarations option.
439
440 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
441 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
442
443 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
444 types.
445
446 *** In Fortran, procedure is no more tagged.
447
448 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
449
450 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
451 are now tagged.
452
453 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
454 variables are tagged.
455
456 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
457
458 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
459 for PSWrap.
460
461 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
462 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
463 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
464
465 ** New language environments `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
466 These correspond respectively to the ISO character sets 8859-14
467 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign). There is
468 currently no specific input method support for them.
469
470 ** New modes and packages
471
472 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
473
474 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
475
476 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
477
478 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
479 Pascal) language.
480
481 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
482 the text at point.
483
484 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
485
486 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
487
488 *** whitespace.el ???
489
490 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
491 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
492 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
493 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
494 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
495 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
496 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
497
498 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
499
500 Here is an example of columns:
501
502 horse apple bus
503 dog pineapple car EXTRA
504 porcupine strawberry airplane
505
506 Doing the following settings:
507
508 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
509 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
510 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
511 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
512
513
514 Selecting the lines above and typing:
515
516 M-x delimit-columns-region
517
518 It results:
519
520 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
521 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
522 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
523
524 delim-col has the following options:
525
526 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
527 before all columns.
528
529 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
530 between each column.
531
532 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
533 after all columns.
534
535 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
536 each column.
537
538 delim-col has the following commands:
539
540 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
541 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
542
543 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
544 were operated on recently. When enabled, a new "Open Recent" submenu
545 is displayed in the "Files" menu.
546
547 The recent files list is automatically saved across Emacs sessions.
548
549 To enable/disable recentf use M-x recentf-mode.
550
551 To enable recentf at Emacs startup use
552 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET.
553
554 To change the number of recent files displayed and others options use
555 M-x customize-group RET recentf RET.
556
557 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
558 text.
559
560 ** Withdrawn packages
561
562 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
563 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
564
565 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el.
566
567 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
568 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
569
570 \f
571 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
572
573 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
574 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
575 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
576 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
577
578 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
579 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
580 specified table.
581
582 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
583
584 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
585 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
586 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
587 what BODY returns.
588
589 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
590 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
591
592 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
593 instead of being optional.
594
595 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
596 modify read-only text.
597
598 ** New functions and variables for locales.
599
600 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
601 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
602 time functions like strftime. The new variables
603 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
604 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
605
606 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
607 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
608 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
609 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
610 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
611 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
612 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
613
614 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
615 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
616 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
617 start sequences.
618
619 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
620 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
621
622 ** New function `propertize'
623
624 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
625 strings with text properties.
626
627 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
628
629 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
630 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
631 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
632 specified value of that property. Example:
633
634 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
635
636 +++
637 ** push and pop macros.
638
639 A simple version of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
640 is now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
641 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
642
643 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
644 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
645 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
646
647 +++
648 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
649 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
650
651 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
652 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
653 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
654 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
655 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
656 space, and DEL.
657 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
658 and DEL.
659 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
660 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
661 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
662 [:alpha:] matches letters.
663 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
664 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
665 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
666 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
667 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
668 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
669 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
670 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
671 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
672 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
673 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
674
675 +++
676 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
677
678 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
679
680 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
681
682 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
683 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
684
685 :test TEST
686
687 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
688 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
689 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
690
691 :size SIZE
692
693 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
694 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
695
696 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
697
698 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
699 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
700 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
701 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
702 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
703
704 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
705
706 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
707 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
708 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
709
710 :weakness WEAK
711
712 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
713 Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
714 their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
715 hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
716
717 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
718
719 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
720
721 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
722
723 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
724
725 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
726
727 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
728 values are shared.
729
730 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
731
732 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
733
734 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
735
736 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
737
738 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
739
740 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
741
742 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
743
744 Returns the size of TABLE.
745
746 - Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
747
748 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
749
750 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
751
752 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
753
754 - Function: clrhash TABLE
755
756 Clear TABLE.
757
758 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
759
760 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
761 not found.
762
763 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
764
765 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
766 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
767
768 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
769
770 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
771
772 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
773
774 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
775 arguments KEY and VALUE.
776
777 - Function: sxhash OBJ
778
779 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
780
781 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
782
783 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
784 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
785 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
786 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
787 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
788
789 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
790
791 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
792 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
793 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
794
795 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
796 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
797
798 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
799 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
800
801 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
802 (sxhash (upcase a)))
803
804 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
805 'case-fold-string-hash))
806
807 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
808
809 +++
810 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
811
812 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
813 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
814 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
815
816 +++
817 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
818
819 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
820 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
821
822 +++
823 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
824 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
825 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
826 is too short to reach that column.
827
828 +++
829 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
830 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
831 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
832 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
833
834 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
835 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
836 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
837
838 +++
839 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
840 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
841
842 +++
843 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
844 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
845
846 +++
847 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
848 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
849 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
850 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
851 temporary-file-directory instead.
852
853 +++
854 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
855 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
856 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
857 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
858
859 +++
860 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
861 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
862
863 +++
864 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
865
866 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
867 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
868 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
869
870 +++
871 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
872
873 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
874 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
875 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
876 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
877 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
878 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
879
880 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
881 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
882 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
883 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
884
885 +++
886 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
887
888 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
889 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
890 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
891 result string.
892
893 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
894 string where arguments appear in the result string.
895
896 Example:
897
898 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
899 (s2 "world"))
900 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
901 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
902 (format s1 s2))
903
904 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
905
906 +++
907 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
908
909 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
910 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
911 argument in it.
912
913 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
914 (arg "world"))
915 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
916 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
917 (message msg arg))
918
919 +++
920 ** Sound support
921
922 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
923 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
924
925 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
926 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
927 to enable sound support.
928
929 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
930 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
931 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
932 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
933 sound to play, before playing the sound.
934
935 The following sound properties are supported:
936
937 - `:file FILE'
938
939 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
940 searched relative to `data-directory'.
941
942 - `:volume VOLUME'
943
944 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
945 0..1. This property is optional.
946
947 Other properties are ignored.
948
949 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
950 \f
951 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
952
953 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
954 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
955 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
956 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
957
958 ** New face implementation.
959
960 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
961 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
962
963 +++
964 *** New faces.
965
966 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
967
968 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
969
970 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
971 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
972
973 3. Font height in 1/10pt
974
975 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
976
977 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
978
979 6. Foreground color.
980
981 7. Background color.
982
983 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
984
985 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
986
987 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
988
989 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
990
991 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
992 color.
993
994 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
995 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
996
997 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
998 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
999 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
1000 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
1001 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
1002 attributes mentioned above.
1003
1004 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
1005 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
1006 created frames.
1007
1008 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
1009 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
1010 `fully-specified'.
1011
1012 +++
1013 *** Face merging.
1014
1015 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
1016 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
1017 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
1018 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
1019 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
1020 results in a fully-specified face.
1021
1022 +++
1023 *** Face realization.
1024
1025 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
1026 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
1027 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
1028 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
1029 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
1030 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
1031
1032 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
1033 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
1034 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
1035 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
1036
1037 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
1038 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
1039 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
1040 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
1041 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
1042
1043 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
1044 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
1045 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
1046 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
1047 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
1048 Emacs.
1049
1050 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
1051 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
1052 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
1053 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
1054
1055 ++++
1056 **** Clearing face caches.
1057
1058 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
1059 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
1060 unused fonts.
1061
1062 +++
1063 *** Font selection.
1064
1065 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
1066 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
1067 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
1068
1069 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
1070 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
1071 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
1072 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
1073 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
1074
1075 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
1076 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
1077 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
1078
1079 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
1080
1081 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
1082 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
1083 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
1084 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
1085 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
1086 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
1087 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
1088
1089 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
1090 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
1091 face doesn't exist.
1092
1093 +++
1094 **** Scalable fonts
1095
1096 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
1097 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
1098 servers.
1099
1100 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
1101 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
1102 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
1103 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
1104 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
1105 that list. Example:
1106
1107 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
1108
1109 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
1110
1111 +++
1112 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
1113
1114 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
1115
1116 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
1117 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
1118 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
1119
1120 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
1121 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
1122 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
1123 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
1124 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
1125 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
1126 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
1127 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
1128 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
1129 of the face font sort order.
1130
1131 - Function: x-font-family-list
1132
1133 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
1134 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
1135 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
1136 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
1137
1138 - Variable: font-list-limit
1139
1140 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
1141 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
1142 matching font. The default is currently 100.
1143
1144 +++
1145 *** Setting face attributes.
1146
1147 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
1148 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
1149 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
1150 `face-attribute'.
1151
1152 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
1153 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
1154
1155 The following attributes are recognized:
1156
1157 `:family'
1158
1159 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
1160 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
1161 and `?' are allowed.
1162
1163 `:width'
1164
1165 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
1166 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
1167 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
1168 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
1169
1170 `:height'
1171
1172 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
1173 1/10 pt.
1174
1175 `:weight'
1176
1177 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
1178 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
1179 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
1180
1181 `:slant'
1182
1183 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
1184 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
1185 `reverse-oblique'.
1186
1187 `:foreground', `:background'
1188
1189 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
1190
1191 `:underline'
1192
1193 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
1194 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
1195 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
1196 don't underline.
1197
1198 `:overline'
1199
1200 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
1201 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
1202 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
1203 overline.
1204
1205 `:strike-through'
1206
1207 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
1208 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
1209 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
1210 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
1211
1212 `:box'
1213
1214 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
1215 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
1216 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
1217 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
1218 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
1219 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
1220 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
1221 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
1222 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
1223 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
1224 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
1225 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
1226 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
1227 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
1228 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
1229 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
1230 box.
1231
1232 `:inverse-video'
1233
1234 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
1235 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
1236
1237 `:stipple'
1238
1239 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
1240 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
1241 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
1242 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
1243 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
1244 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
1245
1246 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
1247 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
1248
1249 `:font'
1250
1251 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
1252 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
1253 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
1254 versions of Emacs.
1255
1256 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
1257 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
1258 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
1259
1260 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
1261 `defface'.
1262
1263 *** Face attributes and X resources
1264
1265 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
1266 from X resources:
1267
1268 Face attribute X resource class
1269 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
1270 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
1271 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
1272 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
1273 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
1274 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
1275 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
1276 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
1277 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
1278 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
1279 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
1280 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
1281 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
1282 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
1283 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
1284 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
1285 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1286 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
1287 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
1288 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1289
1290 +++
1291 *** Text property `face'.
1292
1293 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
1294 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
1295 specification can be
1296
1297 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
1298
1299 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
1300 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
1301 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
1302 for face attribute names.
1303
1304 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
1305 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
1306 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
1307
1308 +++
1309 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
1310
1311 The function `face-register-tty-color' can be used to define colors
1312 for use on TTY frames. It maps a color name to a color number on the
1313 terminal. Emacs defines a couple of default color mappings by
1314 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
1315 `tty-defined-colors'. The function `face-clear-tty-colors' can be
1316 used to clear the mapping table.
1317
1318 +++
1319 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
1320
1321 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
1322
1323 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
1324 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
1325 Otherwise, it returns zero.
1326
1327 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
1328
1329 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
1330 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
1331 text-property.
1332
1333 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
1334 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
1335 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
1336 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
1337 commands continue into the next field if repeated.
1338
1339 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
1340 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
1341 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
1342
1343 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
1344
1345 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
1346
1347 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
1348 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1349 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
1350 constrained position if that is is different.
1351
1352 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
1353 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
1354 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
1355 constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
1356 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1357 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
1358 fields.
1359
1360 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
1361 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
1362 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
1363 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
1364 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
1365
1366 - Function: erase-field &optional POS
1367
1368 Erases the field surrounding POS.
1369 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1370 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1371
1372 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1373
1374 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
1375 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1376 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1377 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
1378 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
1379
1380 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
1381
1382 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
1383 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1384 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1385 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
1386 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
1387
1388 - Function: field-string &optional POS
1389
1390 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
1391 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1392 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1393
1394 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
1395
1396 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
1397 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
1398 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
1399
1400 +++
1401 ** Image support.
1402
1403 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
1404 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
1405 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
1406 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
1407
1408 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
1409 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
1410 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
1411 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
1412 area.
1413
1414 IMAGE is an image specification.
1415
1416 *** Image specifications
1417
1418 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
1419 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
1420 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
1421 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
1422 described below are ignored.
1423
1424 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
1425
1426 `:ascent ASCENT'
1427
1428 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, and specifies the percentage
1429 of the image's height to use for its ascent. Default is 50.
1430
1431 `:margin MARGIN'
1432
1433 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
1434 margin around the image. Default is 0.
1435
1436 `:relief RELIEF'
1437
1438 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
1439 around an image.
1440
1441 `:algorithm ALGO'
1442
1443 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
1444 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
1445 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
1446 which is intended to display images "disabled."
1447
1448 `:heuristic-mask BG'
1449
1450 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
1451 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
1452 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
1453 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
1454 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
1455 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
1456 background of the image.
1457
1458 `:file FILE'
1459
1460 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
1461 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
1462 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
1463 may be present in the image specification.
1464
1465 *** Supported image types
1466
1467 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
1468
1469 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
1470 properties supported are
1471
1472 `:foreground FG'
1473
1474 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
1475 is the frame's foreground.
1476
1477 `:background FG'
1478
1479 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
1480 the frame's background color.
1481
1482 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
1483 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
1484 instead of a `:file' property.
1485
1486 `:width WIDTH'
1487
1488 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
1489
1490 `:height HEIGHT'
1491
1492 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
1493
1494 `:data DATA'
1495
1496 DATA must be either
1497
1498 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
1499 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
1500
1501 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
1502
1503 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
1504 bitmap.
1505
1506 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
1507
1508 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
1509 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
1510 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
1511 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
1512
1513 Additional image properties supported are:
1514
1515 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
1516
1517 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
1518 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
1519 name.
1520
1521 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
1522 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
1523
1524 `:data DATA'
1525
1526 DATA must be a string containing an XPM image. The contents of the
1527 string are of the same format as that of XPM files.
1528
1529 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
1530 to display compressed images.
1531
1532 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
1533
1534 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
1535 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
1536 defined.
1537
1538 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
1539
1540 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
1541 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1542 properties defined.
1543
1544 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
1545
1546 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
1547 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1548 properties defined.
1549
1550 **** GIF, image type `gif'
1551
1552 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
1553 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
1554
1555 Additional image properties supported are:
1556
1557 `:index INDEX'
1558
1559 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
1560 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
1561
1562 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
1563 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
1564 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
1565 every 0.1 seconds.
1566
1567 (defun show-anim (file max)
1568 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
1569 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
1570
1571 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
1572 (when (= idx max)
1573 (setq idx 0))
1574 (let ((img (create-image file nil :index idx)))
1575 (save-excursion
1576 (set-buffer buffer)
1577 (goto-char (point-min))
1578 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
1579 (insert-image img "x"))
1580 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
1581
1582 **** PNG, image type `png'
1583
1584 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
1585 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1586 properties defined.
1587
1588 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
1589
1590 Additional image properties supported are:
1591
1592 `:pt-width WIDTH'
1593
1594 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
1595 integer. This is a required property.
1596
1597 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
1598
1599 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
1600 must be a integer. This is an required property.
1601
1602 `:bounding-box BOX'
1603
1604 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
1605 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
1606 files. This is an required property.
1607
1608 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
1609 lisp/gs.el.
1610
1611 *** Lisp interface.
1612
1613 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
1614 which are supported in the current configuration.
1615
1616 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
1617 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
1618 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
1619 manually.
1620
1621 *** Simplified image API, image.el
1622
1623 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
1624 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
1625 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
1626 define an image based on available image types. The functions
1627 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
1628 buffer.
1629
1630 +++
1631 ** Display margins.
1632
1633 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
1634 and images.
1635
1636 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
1637 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
1638 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
1639 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
1640 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
1641 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
1642 of the display margins.
1643
1644 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
1645 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
1646 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
1647 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
1648 in this file).
1649
1650 +++
1651 ** Help display
1652
1653 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
1654 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
1655 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
1656 that have a `help-echo' property.
1657
1658 The value of the `help-echo' property must be a string. For tool-bar
1659 items, their key definition is used to determine the help to display.
1660 If their definition contains a property `:help FORM', FORM is
1661 evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the caption of the
1662 tool-bar item is used.
1663
1664 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
1665 help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
1666 help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
1667
1668 +++
1669 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
1670
1671 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
1672 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
1673
1674 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
1675 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
1676 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
1677 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
1678 used.
1679
1680 (global-set-key [A-down]
1681 #'(lambda ()
1682 (interactive)
1683 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
1684 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
1685 (global-set-key [A-up]
1686 #'(lambda ()
1687 (interactive)
1688 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
1689 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
1690
1691 +++
1692 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
1693
1694 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
1695 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
1696 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
1697 is called with one argument, POS.
1698
1699 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
1700 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
1701 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
1702 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
1703 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
1704
1705 +++
1706 ** Tool bar support.
1707
1708 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
1709 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
1710 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
1711 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
1712 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
1713 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
1714
1715 *** Tool bar item definitions
1716
1717 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
1718 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
1719 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
1720
1721 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
1722 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
1723 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
1724 property (see below).
1725
1726 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
1727 binding are currently ignored.
1728
1729 The following properties are recognized:
1730
1731 `:enable FORM'.
1732
1733 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
1734 or disabled.
1735
1736 `:visible FORM'
1737
1738 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
1739
1740 `:filter FUNCTION'
1741
1742 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
1743 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
1744 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
1745
1746 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
1747
1748 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
1749 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
1750
1751 `:image IMAGES'
1752
1753 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
1754 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
1755 meaning of each of the four elements:
1756
1757 Index Use when item is
1758 ----------------------------------------
1759 0 enabled and selected
1760 1 enabled and deselected
1761 2 disabled and selected
1762 3 disabled and deselected
1763
1764 `:help HELP-STRING'.
1765
1766 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
1767 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
1768
1769 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
1770
1771 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
1772 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
1773 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
1774
1775 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
1776 raised when the mouse moves over them.
1777
1778 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
1779 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
1780 pixels. Default is 1.
1781
1782 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
1783 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
1784
1785 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
1786
1787 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
1788 a tool bar item. If
1789
1790 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
1791 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
1792 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
1793
1794 is the original tool bar item definition, then
1795
1796 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
1797
1798 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
1799 item.
1800
1801 ** Mode line changes.
1802
1803 +++
1804 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
1805
1806 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
1807 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
1808 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
1809
1810 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
1811 a `local-map' text property.
1812
1813 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
1814 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
1815
1816 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
1817 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
1818 `local-map' property.
1819
1820 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
1821 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
1822 example.
1823
1824 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
1825 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
1826
1827 +++
1828 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
1829 variable mode-line-format to nil.
1830
1831 +++
1832 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
1833
1834 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
1835 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
1836 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
1837 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
1838 line.
1839
1840 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
1841 `header-line'.
1842
1843 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
1844 position in the header-line.
1845
1846 +++
1847 ** Text property `display'
1848
1849 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
1850 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
1851 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
1852 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
1853
1854 *** Variable width and height spaces
1855
1856 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
1857 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
1858 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
1859 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
1860 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
1861 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
1862 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
1863
1864 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
1865 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
1866 properties described below.
1867
1868 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
1869 characters having the `display' property.
1870
1871 - :width WIDTH
1872
1873 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
1874 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
1875
1876 - :relative-width FACTOR
1877
1878 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
1879 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
1880 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
1881 width of that character by FACTOR.
1882
1883 - :align-to HPOS
1884
1885 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
1886 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
1887
1888 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
1889
1890 - :height HEIGHT
1891
1892 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
1893 normal line height.
1894
1895 - :relative-height FACTOR
1896
1897 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
1898 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
1899
1900 - :ascent ASCENT
1901
1902 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
1903 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
1904 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
1905 equal to 100.
1906
1907 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
1908
1909 *** Images
1910
1911 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
1912 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
1913 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
1914 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
1915 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
1916 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
1917 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
1918 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
1919 as display specification.
1920
1921 *** Other display properties
1922
1923 - :space-width FACTOR
1924
1925 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
1926 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
1927 integer or float.
1928
1929 - :height HEIGHT
1930
1931 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
1932
1933 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
1934 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
1935 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
1936 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
1937 a font is available counts as a step.
1938
1939 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
1940 as tall as the frame's default font.
1941
1942 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
1943 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
1944
1945 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
1946 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
1947
1948 - :raise FACTOR
1949
1950 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
1951 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
1952 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
1953 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
1954 `:height' subproperty.
1955
1956 *** Conditional display properties
1957
1958 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
1959 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
1960 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
1961 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
1962 the text having the `display' property.
1963
1964 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
1965 `(:when t SPEC)'.
1966
1967 +++
1968 ** New menu separator types.
1969
1970 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
1971 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
1972 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
1973 to specify other menu separator types.
1974
1975 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
1976
1977 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
1978 separator occurs.
1979
1980 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
1981
1982 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
1983
1984 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
1985
1986 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
1987
1988 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
1989
1990 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
1991
1992 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
1993
1994 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
1995
1996 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
1997
1998 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
1999 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
2000
2001 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
2002
2003 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
2004
2005 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
2006
2007 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
2008
2009 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
2010
2011 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
2012
2013 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
2014
2015 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2016
2017 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
2018
2019 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
2020
2021 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
2022
2023 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2024
2025 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
2026
2027 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
2028
2029 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
2030 the corresponding single-line separators.
2031
2032 +++
2033 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
2034
2035 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
2036 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
2037 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
2038 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
2039 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
2040 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
2041 default foreground is black.
2042
2043 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
2044 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
2045 `ScrollBarBackground').
2046
2047 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
2048 settings for scroll bar colors.
2049
2050 +++
2051 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
2052 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
2053
2054 ---
2055 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
2056 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
2057 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
2058 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
2059 the original window start.
2060
2061 ---
2062 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
2063 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
2064 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
2065
2066 +++
2067 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
2068
2069 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
2070 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
2071 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
2072 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
2073
2074 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
2075 fixed-width and fixed-height.
2076
2077 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
2078
2079 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
2080 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
2081 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
2082 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
2083 temporarily to nil, for example
2084
2085 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
2086 (enlarge-window 10))
2087
2088 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
2089 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
2090 \f
2091 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
2092
2093 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
2094
2095 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
2096 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
2097 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
2098
2099 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
2100 is the one that is used.
2101
2102 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
2103 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
2104 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
2105 separate from the command's regular output.
2106 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
2107 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
2108 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
2109 the buffer name.
2110
2111 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
2112 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
2113 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
2114 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
2115
2116 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
2117 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
2118 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
2119 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
2120
2121 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
2122 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
2123 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
2124 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
2125
2126 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
2127 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
2128 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
2129 they never ignore case.
2130
2131 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
2132 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
2133 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
2134 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
2135 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
2136 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
2137 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
2138
2139 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
2140 the same format that was used in the file before.
2141
2142 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
2143 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
2144
2145 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
2146 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
2147 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
2148
2149 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
2150 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
2151 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
2152 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
2153 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
2154 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
2155 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
2156
2157 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
2158 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
2159 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
2160 format. You can now customize these variables.
2161
2162 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
2163 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
2164 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
2165 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
2166
2167 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
2168 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
2169 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
2170
2171 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
2172 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
2173 doesn't have any effect.
2174
2175 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
2176 not one per buffer.
2177
2178 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
2179 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
2180 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
2181
2182 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
2183 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
2184 `auto-show-mode' command.
2185
2186 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
2187 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
2188 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
2189 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
2190 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
2191
2192 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
2193 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
2194
2195 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
2196 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
2197 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
2198
2199 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
2200 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
2201 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
2202 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
2203
2204 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
2205
2206 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
2207 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
2208 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
2209 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
2210 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
2211
2212 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
2213 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
2214
2215 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
2216 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
2217 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
2218 `?' on other systems.
2219
2220 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
2221 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
2222 Unix.
2223
2224 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
2225 current codepage when it starts.
2226
2227 ** Mail changes
2228
2229 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
2230 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
2231 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
2232 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
2233 buffer-file-coding-system.
2234
2235 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
2236 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
2237 mail.
2238
2239 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
2240 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
2241 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
2242 list of possible coding systems.
2243
2244 ** CC Mode changes
2245
2246 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
2247 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
2248 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
2249 docstring for details.
2250
2251 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
2252 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
2253 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
2254 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
2255 lineup functions use this feature currently.
2256
2257 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
2258 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
2259
2260 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
2261 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
2262
2263 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
2264 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
2265 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
2266 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
2267 anonymous classes.
2268
2269 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
2270 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
2271
2272 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
2273 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
2274 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
2275 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
2276
2277 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
2278 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
2279 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
2280 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
2281 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
2282
2283 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
2284
2285 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
2286
2287 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
2288 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
2289
2290 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
2291
2292 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
2293 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
2294 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
2295 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
2296 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
2297
2298 ** Gnus changes.
2299
2300 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
2301 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
2302 Gnus manual for the full story.
2303
2304 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
2305 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
2306 group, which is created automatically.
2307
2308 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
2309 values.
2310
2311 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
2312
2313 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
2314 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
2315
2316 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
2317 `C-u C-c C-c'.
2318
2319 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
2320
2321 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
2322 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
2323
2324 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
2325
2326 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
2327 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
2328
2329 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
2330 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
2331
2332 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
2333 control over simplification.
2334
2335 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
2336
2337 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
2338 limit.
2339
2340 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
2341
2342 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
2343
2344 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
2345 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
2346 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
2347
2348 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
2349 `a' forces normal posting method.
2350
2351 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
2352 -- `W d'.
2353
2354 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
2355 to a non-nil value.
2356
2357 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
2358 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
2359
2360 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
2361 has been added.
2362
2363 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
2364
2365 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
2366
2367 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
2368 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
2369
2370 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
2371 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
2372
2373 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
2374
2375 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
2376 been added.
2377
2378 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
2379 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
2380
2381 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
2382 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
2383
2384 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
2385
2386 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
2387
2388 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
2389
2390 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
2391
2392 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
2393 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
2394 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
2395
2396 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
2397 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
2398 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
2399 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
2400 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
2401
2402 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
2403 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
2404 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
2405 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
2406
2407 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
2408 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
2409 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
2410 mismatch.
2411
2412 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
2413
2414 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
2415 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
2416
2417 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
2418 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
2419 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
2420 removed from the label.
2421
2422 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
2423 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
2424
2425 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
2426 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
2427
2428 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
2429 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
2430 expressions.
2431
2432 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
2433
2434 ** New/deleted modes and packages
2435
2436 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
2437 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
2438
2439 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
2440 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
2441 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
2442
2443 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
2444 changes with a special face.
2445
2446 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
2447 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
2448 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
2449 \f
2450 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
2451
2452 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
2453 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
2454 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
2455 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
2456 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
2457
2458 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
2459 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
2460 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
2461
2462 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
2463 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
2464 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
2465 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
2466 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
2467 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
2468 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
2469 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
2470 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
2471
2472 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
2473 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
2474 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
2475 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
2476 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
2477 program.
2478
2479 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
2480 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
2481 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
2482 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
2483 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
2484 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
2485
2486 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
2487 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
2488 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
2489 was not documented clearly before.
2490
2491 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
2492 This includes Tetris and Snake.
2493 \f
2494 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
2495
2496 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
2497 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
2498 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
2499 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
2500
2501 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
2502 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
2503 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
2504
2505 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
2506
2507 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
2508 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
2509
2510 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
2511 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
2512 integers.
2513
2514 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
2515 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
2516 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
2517 file names and attributes are returned.
2518
2519 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
2520 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
2521 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
2522 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
2523 returns the result.
2524
2525 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
2526 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
2527
2528 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
2529
2530 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
2531 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
2532 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
2533 optionally.
2534
2535 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
2536 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
2537
2538 **
2539 The new function process-running-child-p
2540 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
2541 terminal to its own child process.
2542
2543 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
2544 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
2545 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
2546 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
2547
2548 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
2549 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
2550
2551 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
2552 :included is an alias for :visible.
2553
2554 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
2555 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
2556 to move or copy menu entries.
2557
2558 ** Multibyte editing changes
2559
2560 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
2561 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
2562 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
2563 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
2564 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
2565 (setq char (sref str idx)
2566 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
2567 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
2568
2569 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
2570 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
2571 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
2572
2573 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
2574 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
2575 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
2576
2577 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
2578
2579 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
2580 across the boundary.
2581
2582 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
2583 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
2584 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
2585 contains 8-bit characters.
2586 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
2587 contains invalid characters.
2588
2589 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
2590 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
2591 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
2592 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
2593 way.
2594
2595 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
2596 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
2597 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
2598 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
2599
2600 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
2601 compose Thai characters in a string.
2602
2603 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
2604 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
2605 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
2606 menus should always use the third argument.
2607
2608 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
2609 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
2610 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
2611 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
2612
2613 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
2614 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
2615 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
2616 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
2617
2618 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
2619 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
2620 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
2621 echo area contents.
2622
2623 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
2624
2625 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
2626 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
2627 requested feature cannot be loaded.
2628
2629 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
2630 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
2631 means to clear out that attribute.
2632
2633 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
2634 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
2635
2636 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
2637 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
2638 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
2639 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
2640
2641 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
2642 the gap of the current buffer.
2643
2644 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
2645 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
2646 current buffer.
2647
2648 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
2649 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
2650 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
2651 it back in after any modifications have been made.
2652 \f
2653 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
2654
2655 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
2656 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
2657 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
2658 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
2659 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
2660
2661 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
2662 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
2663 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
2664 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
2665 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
2666
2667 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
2668 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
2669 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
2670
2671 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
2672 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
2673 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
2674 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
2675 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
2676 results.
2677
2678 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
2679 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
2680 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
2681 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
2682 \f
2683 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
2684
2685 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
2686 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
2687 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
2688 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
2689
2690 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
2691 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
2692 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
2693 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
2694 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
2695 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
2696 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
2697 region.
2698
2699 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
2700 selective undo.
2701
2702 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
2703 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
2704 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
2705 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
2706 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
2707
2708 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
2709 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
2710 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
2711 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
2712
2713 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
2714 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
2715 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
2716 something that most users not do.
2717
2718 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
2719 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
2720 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
2721 applications.
2722
2723 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
2724 pasting operations.
2725
2726 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
2727 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
2728 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
2729 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
2730 `ps-printer-name'.
2731
2732 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
2733 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
2734 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
2735 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
2736 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
2737 hits a new word.
2738
2739 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
2740 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
2741 to be confused by TeX commands.
2742
2743 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
2744 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
2745 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
2746 of various alternative replacements and actions.
2747
2748 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
2749 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
2750 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
2751 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
2752 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
2753
2754 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
2755 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
2756
2757 ** Changes in input method usage.
2758
2759 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
2760 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
2761 respectively.
2762
2763 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
2764
2765 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
2766 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
2767
2768 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
2769 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
2770
2771 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
2772
2773 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
2774
2775 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
2776 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
2777
2778 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
2779 given in the following case:
2780 o When you are using a complex input method.
2781 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
2782
2783 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
2784 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
2785 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
2786 setting it to t is helpful.
2787
2788 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
2789
2790 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
2791 keys:
2792 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
2793 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
2794 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
2795 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
2796 environment.
2797
2798 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
2799 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
2800 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
2801 get
2802
2803 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
2804
2805 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
2806
2807 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
2808 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
2809
2810 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
2811 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
2812 its owner and group.
2813
2814 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
2815 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
2816
2817 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
2818 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
2819
2820 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
2821 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
2822 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
2823 by the left edge of the rectangle.
2824
2825 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
2826 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
2827 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
2828 for writing keyboard macros.
2829
2830 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
2831 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
2832 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
2833 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
2834 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
2835 info.
2836
2837 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
2838
2839 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
2840 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
2841 contents only.
2842
2843 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
2844 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
2845 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
2846 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
2847
2848 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
2849 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
2850 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
2851
2852 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
2853 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
2854 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
2855 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
2856
2857 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
2858 failure if the command produces no output.
2859
2860 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
2861 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
2862 the mouse.
2863
2864 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
2865 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
2866 function and variable names.
2867
2868 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
2869 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
2870 file-coding-system-alist.
2871
2872 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
2873 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
2874 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
2875 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
2876 according to the current fontset.
2877
2878 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
2879
2880 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
2881 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
2882 nonascii-insert-offset.
2883
2884 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
2885 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
2886 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
2887 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
2888
2889 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
2890 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
2891
2892 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
2893 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
2894
2895 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
2896 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
2897 command keys.
2898
2899 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
2900 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
2901
2902 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
2903 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
2904 all variables that have documentation.
2905
2906 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
2907 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
2908 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
2909 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
2910 it should show; the default is 20.
2911
2912 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
2913 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
2914 of your input.
2915
2916 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
2917 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
2918 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
2919 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
2920 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
2921 Newly added options are included as well.
2922
2923 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
2924 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
2925 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
2926
2927 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
2928 Customize menu.
2929
2930 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
2931 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
2932
2933 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
2934 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
2935 invoked.
2936
2937 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
2938 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
2939 The default is 1.
2940
2941 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
2942 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
2943 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
2944 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
2945 sensibly.
2946
2947 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
2948
2949 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
2950 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
2951 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
2952
2953 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
2954 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
2955 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
2956 every night.
2957
2958 ** All you need to do, to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
2959 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
2960
2961 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
2962 read and post multi-lingual articles.
2963
2964 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
2965 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
2966 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
2967 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
2968 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
2969 made invisible again.
2970
2971 ** Mail reading and sending changes
2972
2973 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
2974 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
2975 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
2976 toggle.
2977
2978 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
2979 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
2980 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
2981 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
2982 rmail-default-body-file.
2983
2984 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
2985 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
2986 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
2987
2988 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
2989 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
2990 is evaluated to insert the signature.
2991
2992 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
2993 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
2994 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
2995 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
2996 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
2997 especially interested in trying feedmail.
2998
2999 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
3000 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
3001 provided by feedmail are:
3002
3003 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
3004 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
3005 there is also a queue for draft messages
3006
3007 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
3008 be prompted for confirmation
3009
3010 **** does smart filling of address headers
3011
3012 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
3013 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
3014 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
3015
3016 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
3017 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
3018 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
3019 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
3020
3021 ** Dired changes
3022
3023 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
3024 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
3025
3026 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
3027 run Dired on the directory name at point.
3028
3029 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
3030 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
3031 for a specified regexp.
3032
3033 ** VC Changes
3034
3035 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
3036 conveniently.
3037
3038 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
3039 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
3040 Dired.
3041
3042 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
3043 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
3044 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
3045 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
3046
3047 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
3048 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
3049 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
3050 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
3051 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
3052
3053 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
3054 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
3055 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
3056 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
3057 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
3058
3059 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
3060 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
3061 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
3062 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
3063
3064 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
3065 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
3066 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
3067
3068 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
3069 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
3070 session to resolve them.
3071
3072 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
3073 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
3074 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
3075 uses as well).
3076
3077 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
3078 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
3079 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
3080 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
3081 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
3082 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
3083 using ediff.
3084
3085 ** Changes in Font Lock
3086
3087 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
3088 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
3089 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
3090 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
3091 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
3092
3093 ** Frame name display changes
3094
3095 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
3096 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
3097 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
3098 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
3099
3100 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
3101 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
3102 menu.
3103
3104 ** Comint (subshell) changes
3105
3106 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
3107 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
3108 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
3109
3110 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
3111
3112 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
3113 that is, the line after the last line you got.
3114 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
3115
3116 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
3117 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
3118 the following line.
3119
3120 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
3121 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
3122 previously sent input.
3123
3124 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
3125 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
3126 as the search string.
3127
3128 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
3129 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
3130
3131 ** C mode changes
3132
3133 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
3134 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
3135 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
3136 definition.
3137
3138 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
3139 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
3140 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
3141 style is still the default however.
3142
3143 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
3144
3145 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
3146 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
3147 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
3148
3149 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
3150 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
3151
3152 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
3153 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
3154
3155 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
3156 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
3157
3158 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
3159 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
3160
3161 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
3162 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
3163 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
3164 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
3165
3166 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
3167
3168 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
3169 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
3170 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
3171
3172 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
3173 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
3174 expanding dynamically.
3175
3176 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
3177 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
3178
3179 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
3180 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
3181 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
3182 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
3183
3184 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
3185
3186 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
3187
3188 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
3189 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
3190 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
3191 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
3192 against the first word in the title.
3193
3194 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
3195 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
3196 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
3197 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
3198 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
3199 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
3200
3201 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
3202 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
3203 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
3204 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
3205
3206 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
3207
3208 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
3209 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
3210 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
3211 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
3212 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
3213 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
3214
3215 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
3216 Editing group once the package is loaded.
3217
3218 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
3219 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
3220 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
3221
3222 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
3223 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
3224
3225 ** Ispell changes.
3226
3227 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
3228 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
3229 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
3230
3231 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
3232 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
3233 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
3234 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
3235 include:
3236
3237 o URLs are automatically skipped
3238 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
3239
3240 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
3241
3242 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3243
3244 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
3245 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
3246 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
3247 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
3248
3249 *** New recursive parser.
3250
3251 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
3252 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
3253 recursive parser scans the individual files.
3254
3255 *** Parsing only part of a document.
3256
3257 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
3258 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
3259 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
3260
3261 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
3262
3263 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
3264
3265 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
3266
3267 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
3268
3269 *** Using multiple selection buffers
3270
3271 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
3272 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
3273
3274 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
3275
3276 *** References to external documents.
3277
3278 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
3279 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
3280 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
3281 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
3282 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
3283 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
3284 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
3285
3286 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
3287
3288 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
3289 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
3290
3291 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
3292 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
3293
3294 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
3295
3296 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
3297 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
3298
3299 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
3300
3301 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
3302 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
3303 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
3304 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
3305 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
3306 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
3307 more.
3308
3309 *** Support for the varioref package
3310
3311 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
3312
3313 *** New hooks
3314
3315 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
3316 and citations are created. These hooks are
3317 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
3318 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
3319
3320 *** Citations outside LaTeX
3321
3322 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
3323 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
3324
3325 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
3326
3327 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
3328 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
3329 fontified, use
3330
3331 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
3332
3333 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
3334 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
3335 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
3336 directories that contain the same file name.
3337
3338 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
3339 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
3340 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
3341 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
3342 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
3343 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
3344 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
3345 directory.
3346
3347 ** New modes and packages
3348
3349 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
3350 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
3351 it, but some do not.
3352
3353 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
3354 code.
3355
3356 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
3357 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
3358 around in a buffer.
3359
3360 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
3361
3362 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
3363 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
3364 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
3365 established system of notation similar to Chess.
3366
3367 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
3368 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
3369 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
3370
3371 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
3372 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
3373 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
3374 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
3375 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
3376 the like.
3377
3378 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
3379 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
3380
3381 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
3382 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
3383 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
3384 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
3385
3386 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
3387
3388 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
3389 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
3390 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
3391 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
3392 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
3393 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
3394 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
3395 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
3396 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
3397 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
3398 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
3399
3400 Platform-specific modes:
3401
3402 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
3403 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
3404 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
3405 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
3406 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
3407 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
3408 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
3409 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
3410 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
3411 \f
3412 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3413
3414 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
3415 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
3416 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
3417 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
3418
3419 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
3420 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
3421 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
3422
3423 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
3424 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
3425 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
3426 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
3427
3428 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
3429 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
3430 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
3431 environment.
3432
3433 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
3434 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
3435 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
3436 current input method for reading this one event.
3437
3438 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
3439 now control whether to output certain characters as
3440 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
3441 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
3442 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
3443 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
3444 \f
3445 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3446
3447 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
3448 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
3449
3450 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
3451 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
3452 always increases point by 1.
3453
3454 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
3455 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
3456
3457 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
3458
3459 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
3460 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
3461 default value changed. For example,
3462
3463 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
3464 :type 'integer
3465 :group 'foo
3466 :version "20.3")
3467
3468 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
3469 :version "20.3")
3470
3471 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
3472 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
3473 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
3474 `:version' in the top level group.
3475
3476 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
3477
3478 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
3479 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
3480
3481 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
3482 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
3483 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
3484 to themselves.
3485
3486 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
3487 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
3488 values whatever.
3489
3490 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
3491 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
3492 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
3493
3494 ** Frame-local variables.
3495
3496 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
3497 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
3498 local bindings for that variable.
3499
3500 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
3501 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
3502 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
3503 parameter name.
3504
3505 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
3506 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
3507 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
3508 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
3509
3510 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
3511 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
3512 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
3513 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
3514
3515 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
3516 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
3517 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
3518 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
3519 See the documentation in sregex.el.
3520
3521 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
3522 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
3523 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
3524 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
3525
3526 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
3527 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
3528
3529 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
3530 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
3531 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
3532
3533 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
3534 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
3535 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
3536 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
3537
3538 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
3539 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
3540 empty input.
3541
3542 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
3543 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
3544 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
3545 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
3546 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
3547
3548 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
3549 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
3550 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
3551 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
3552
3553 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
3554 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
3555 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
3556 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
3557 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
3558
3559 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
3560 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
3561 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
3562 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
3563
3564 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
3565 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
3566 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
3567
3568 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
3569 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
3570 was directed to display this buffer.
3571
3572 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
3573 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
3574 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
3575 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
3576 set-window-configuration.
3577
3578 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
3579 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
3580 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
3581 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
3582
3583 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
3584 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
3585 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
3586
3587 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
3588 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
3589 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
3590
3591 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
3592 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
3593
3594 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
3595 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
3596
3597 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
3598 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
3599 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
3600
3601 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
3602 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
3603 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
3604 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
3605
3606 ** Menu changes
3607
3608 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
3609 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
3610 better supported.
3611
3612 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
3613 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
3614 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
3615 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
3616 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
3617
3618 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
3619
3620 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
3621 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
3622 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
3623 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
3624
3625 The format is:
3626 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
3627 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
3628 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
3629 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
3630 The supported properties include
3631
3632 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
3633 item is enabled.
3634 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
3635 item should appear in the menu.
3636 :filter FILTER-FN
3637 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
3638 which will be REAL-BINDING.
3639 It should return a binding to use instead.
3640 :keys DESCRIPTION
3641 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
3642 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
3643 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
3644 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
3645 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
3646 keyboard binding.
3647 :key-sequence nil
3648 This means that the command normally has no
3649 keyboard equivalent.
3650 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
3651 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
3652 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
3653 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
3654 value says whether this button is currently selected.
3655
3656 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
3657 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
3658
3659 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
3660
3661 ** New event types
3662
3663 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
3664 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
3665 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
3666 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
3667
3668 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
3669
3670 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
3671 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
3672 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
3673 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
3674 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
3675 forward, away from the user.
3676
3677 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
3678
3679 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
3680 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
3681 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
3682 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
3683 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
3684
3685 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
3686
3687 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
3688 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
3689 that were dragged and dropped.
3690
3691 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
3692
3693 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
3694
3695 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
3696 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
3697 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
3698
3699 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
3700 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
3701 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
3702
3703 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
3704 in Emacs 19 and before.
3705
3706 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
3707 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
3708
3709 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
3710 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
3711 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
3712 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
3713
3714 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
3715 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
3716 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
3717 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
3718 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
3719
3720 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
3721 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
3722 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
3723 consistent with the new representation.
3724
3725 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
3726 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
3727 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
3728 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
3729
3730 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
3731 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
3732 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
3733
3734 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
3735 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
3736 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
3737
3738 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
3739 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
3740 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
3741
3742 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
3743 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
3744
3745 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
3746 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
3747
3748 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
3749 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
3750 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
3751 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
3752
3753 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
3754 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
3755
3756 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
3757 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
3758 buffer or string being searched.
3759
3760 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
3761 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
3762 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
3763 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
3764 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
3765 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
3766 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
3767
3768 *** Structure of coding system changed.
3769
3770 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
3771 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
3772 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
3773 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
3774 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
3775 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
3776 define-coding-system-alias.
3777
3778 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
3779 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
3780 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
3781 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
3782 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
3783 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
3784 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
3785 `iso-8859-1'.
3786
3787 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
3788 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
3789 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
3790 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
3791
3792 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
3793 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
3794 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
3795 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
3796
3797 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
3798 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
3799 This function requires a user interaction.
3800
3801 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
3802 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
3803 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
3804 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
3805 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
3806 select-safe-coding-system.
3807
3808 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
3809 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
3810 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
3811 was done.
3812
3813 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
3814 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
3815 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
3816
3817 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
3818 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
3819 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
3820 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
3821
3822 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
3823 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
3824 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
3825 converted.
3826
3827 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
3828 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
3829
3830 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
3831 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
3832 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
3833 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
3834 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
3835 range of characters.
3836
3837 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
3838 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
3839
3840 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
3841 in the current buffer at position POS.
3842
3843 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
3844 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
3845 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
3846 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
3847 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
3848 binding input-method-function to nil.
3849
3850 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
3851 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
3852 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
3853 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
3854 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
3855
3856 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
3857 subsequent events of a key sequence.
3858
3859 *** You can customize any language environment by using
3860 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
3861
3862 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
3863 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
3864 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
3865 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
3866 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
3867 \f
3868 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
3869
3870 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
3871 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
3872 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
3873 tree structure.
3874
3875 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
3876 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
3877
3878 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
3879 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
3880 in your .emacs file.)
3881
3882 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
3883 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
3884
3885 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
3886 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
3887
3888 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
3889 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
3890 kills the region.
3891
3892 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
3893 delete the character before point, as usual.
3894
3895 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
3896 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
3897 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
3898
3899 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
3900 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
3901 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
3902 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
3903 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
3904 past.)
3905
3906 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
3907 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
3908 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
3909 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
3910 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
3911
3912 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
3913 and is an alias for it.
3914
3915 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
3916 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
3917
3918 ** Scrolling changes
3919
3920 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
3921 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
3922
3923 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
3924 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
3925 where it started.
3926
3927 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
3928 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
3929 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
3930 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
3931
3932 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
3933 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
3934 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
3935 recenters the window.
3936
3937 ** International character set support (MULE)
3938
3939 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
3940 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
3941 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
3942 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
3943 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
3944 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
3945
3946 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
3947 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
3948 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
3949 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
3950 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
3951
3952 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
3953 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
3954 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
3955 language, to make it possible to type them.
3956
3957 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
3958 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
3959
3960 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
3961 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
3962
3963 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
3964
3965 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
3966
3967 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
3968 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
3969 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
3970 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
3971 characters for their work until they want to change.
3972
3973 *** Input methods
3974
3975 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
3976 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
3977 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
3978 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
3979 support several input methods.
3980
3981 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
3982 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
3983 work.
3984
3985 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
3986 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
3987 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
3988 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
3989 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
3990 letter.
3991
3992 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
3993 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
3994 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
3995 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
3996 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
3997
3998 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
3999 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
4000 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
4001 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
4002
4003 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
4004 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
4005 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
4006 the first guess is wrong.
4007
4008 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
4009 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
4010
4011 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
4012 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
4013 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
4014 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
4015
4016 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
4017 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
4018 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
4019 translate automatically to and from either one.
4020
4021 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
4022
4023 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
4024 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
4025 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
4026 what you want.
4027
4028 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
4029 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
4030 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
4031 multibyte characters in that buffer.
4032
4033 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
4034 character conversion as well.
4035
4036 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
4037
4038 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
4039 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
4040 requires using many fonts.
4041
4042 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
4043 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
4044
4045 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
4046 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
4047 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
4048 you would use a font.
4049
4050 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
4051 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
4052 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
4053
4054 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
4055 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
4056 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
4057 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
4058 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
4059
4060 *** Defining fontsets.
4061
4062 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
4063 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
4064 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
4065
4066 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
4067 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
4068 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
4069 standard fontset are created automatically.
4070
4071 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
4072 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
4073 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
4074 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
4075 name is `fontset-startup'.
4076
4077 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
4078 The resource value should have this form:
4079 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
4080 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
4081 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
4082 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
4083 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
4084 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
4085 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
4086 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
4087 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
4088
4089 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
4090 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
4091 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
4092
4093 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
4094 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
4095 following resource,
4096 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
4097 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
4098 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
4099 Here is the substitution rule:
4100 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
4101 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
4102 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
4103 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
4104 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
4105
4106 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
4107 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
4108 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
4109
4110 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
4111 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
4112 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
4113 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
4114 fontsets.
4115
4116 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
4117 defaults for a particular choice of language.
4118
4119 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
4120 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
4121 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
4122 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
4123 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
4124 system for new files that you create.
4125
4126 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
4127 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
4128 whole Emacs session.
4129
4130 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
4131 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
4132 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
4133
4134 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
4135 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
4136 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
4137 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
4138 coding systems that Emacs supports.
4139
4140 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
4141 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
4142 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
4143 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
4144 is used for *the immediately following command*.
4145
4146 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
4147 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
4148
4149 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
4150 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
4151
4152 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
4153 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
4154
4155 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
4156 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
4157 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
4158 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
4159 of the file.
4160
4161 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
4162 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
4163 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
4164 translated into that character code.
4165
4166 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
4167 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
4168
4169 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
4170
4171 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
4172 the coding system for keyboard input.
4173
4174 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
4175 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
4176 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
4177
4178 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
4179
4180 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
4181 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
4182 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
4183 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
4184 designed to work with terminals.
4185
4186 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
4187 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
4188 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
4189 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
4190 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
4191 in the corresponding buffer.
4192
4193 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
4194
4195 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
4196 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
4197 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
4198
4199 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
4200 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
4201 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
4202 want to use.
4203
4204 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
4205 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
4206
4207 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
4208 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
4209 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
4210 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
4211
4212 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
4213 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
4214 related information.
4215
4216 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
4217 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
4218 scripts.
4219
4220 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
4221 information about the support for a particular language.
4222 You specify the language as an argument.
4223
4224 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
4225 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
4226 first dash.
4227
4228 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
4229 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
4230 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
4231 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
4232
4233 A alternativnyj (Russian)
4234 B big5 (Chinese)
4235 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
4236 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
4237 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
4238 E euc-japan (Japanese)
4239 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4240 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
4241 K euc-korea (Korean)
4242 R koi8 (Russian)
4243 Q tibetan
4244 S shift_jis (Japanese)
4245 T lao
4246 T tis620 (Thai)
4247 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
4248 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4249 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
4250 v viqr (Vietnamese)
4251 z hz (Chinese)
4252
4253 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
4254 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
4255 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
4256 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
4257
4258 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
4259 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
4260
4261 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
4262 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
4263 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
4264 Rmail files themselves.
4265
4266 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
4267 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
4268
4269 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
4270 for sending mail:
4271
4272 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
4273 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
4274 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
4275 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
4276 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
4277
4278 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
4279 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
4280 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
4281 translations.
4282
4283 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
4284 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
4285 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
4286 without any conversion.
4287
4288 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
4289 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
4290 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
4291 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
4292
4293 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
4294 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
4295
4296 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
4297 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
4298
4299 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
4300 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
4301
4302 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
4303 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
4304 in the buffer before point.
4305
4306 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
4307 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
4308 you are using.
4309
4310 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
4311 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
4312
4313 ** File locking works with NFS now.
4314
4315 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
4316 in the same directory as FILENAME.
4317
4318 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
4319 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
4320 can become a bottleneck.
4321
4322 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
4323 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
4324 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
4325 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
4326 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
4327 so useful that the change is worth while.
4328
4329 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
4330 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
4331 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
4332 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
4333
4334 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
4335 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
4336 show-paren-mode.
4337
4338 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
4339 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
4340 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
4341
4342 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
4343 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
4344 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
4345
4346 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
4347 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
4348 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
4349
4350 ** Changes in View mode.
4351
4352 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
4353 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
4354
4355 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
4356 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
4357
4358 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
4359 previous state.
4360
4361 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
4362 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
4363
4364 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
4365 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
4366 not just the selected window.
4367
4368 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
4369 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
4370 turns View mode on or off.
4371
4372 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
4373 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
4374 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
4375
4376 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
4377 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
4378
4379 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
4380 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
4381 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
4382 which version to compare with.
4383
4384 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
4385 blocks if a match is inside the block.
4386
4387 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
4388 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
4389 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
4390 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
4391
4392 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
4393 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
4394 blocks, all of them or none.
4395
4396 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
4397 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
4398 confirmation first.
4399
4400 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
4401 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
4402 However, the mode will not be changed if
4403 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
4404 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
4405 not suitable for ordinary files, or
4406 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
4407
4408 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
4409
4410 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
4411 these commands do not change the major mode.
4412
4413 ** M-x occur changes.
4414
4415 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
4416 it performs a case-sensitive search.
4417
4418 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
4419 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
4420 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
4421
4422 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
4423 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
4424 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
4425 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
4426 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
4427
4428 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
4429 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
4430 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
4431 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
4432
4433 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
4434 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
4435 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
4436
4437 ** Outline mode changes.
4438
4439 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
4440
4441 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
4442
4443 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
4444 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
4445 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
4446 was already active.
4447
4448 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
4449 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
4450 get confused by it.
4451
4452 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
4453 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
4454
4455 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
4456
4457 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
4458 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
4459 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
4460 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
4461
4462 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
4463 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
4464 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
4465
4466 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
4467 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
4468 values.
4469
4470 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
4471 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
4472 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
4473 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
4474
4475 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
4476 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
4477 can be. The default value is 30.
4478
4479 ** Changes in Mail mode.
4480
4481 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
4482 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
4483 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
4484 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
4485 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
4486 behavior.
4487
4488 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
4489 compose-mail-other-frame.
4490
4491 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
4492 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
4493 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
4494 buffer that shows the original message.
4495
4496 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
4497 with separator lines around the contents.
4498
4499 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
4500 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
4501 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
4502 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
4503
4504 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
4505
4506 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
4507 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
4508 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
4509 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
4510
4511 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
4512 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
4513 /etc/passwd.
4514
4515 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
4516 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
4517 /etc/passwd.
4518
4519 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
4520 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
4521 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
4522 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
4523
4524 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
4525 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
4526 be taken to be magic.
4527
4528 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
4529 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
4530 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
4531
4532 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
4533 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
4534
4535 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
4536 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
4537
4538 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
4539
4540 new key dired.el binding old key
4541 ------- ---------------- -------
4542 * c dired-change-marks c
4543 * m dired-mark m
4544 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
4545 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
4546 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
4547 * u dired-unmark u
4548 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
4549 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
4550 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
4551 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
4552 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
4553 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
4554
4555 ** Rmail changes.
4556
4557 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
4558 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
4559 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
4560 each time you run it.
4561
4562 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
4563 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
4564
4565 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
4566 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
4567 means to move in the opposite direction.
4568
4569 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
4570 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
4571
4572 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
4573 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
4574 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
4575 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
4576 for output.
4577
4578 ** Gnus changes.
4579
4580 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
4581
4582 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
4583 Gnus.
4584
4585 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
4586 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
4587
4588 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
4589 article mode line.
4590
4591 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
4592
4593 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
4594
4595 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
4596
4597 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
4598 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
4599 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
4600
4601 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
4602
4603 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
4604
4605 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
4606 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
4607
4608 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
4609 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
4610 used to pick articles.
4611
4612 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
4613 another have been added.
4614
4615 `M-x gnus-change-server'
4616
4617 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
4618 generating lines in buffers.
4619
4620 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
4621 `M-C-_'.
4622
4623 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
4624
4625 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
4626
4627 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
4628
4629 *** Scores can be decayed.
4630
4631 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
4632
4633 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
4634 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
4635
4636 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
4637 the native server.
4638
4639 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
4640
4641 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
4642 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
4643
4644 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
4645
4646 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
4647 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
4648
4649 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
4650 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
4651
4652 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
4653 a group.
4654
4655 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
4656 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
4657
4658 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
4659
4660 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
4661
4662 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
4663
4664 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
4665
4666 Use the `Y c' command.
4667
4668 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
4669
4670 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
4671
4672 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
4673
4674 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
4675 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
4676
4677 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
4678
4679 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
4680
4681 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
4682 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
4683
4684 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
4685
4686 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
4687 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
4688 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
4689 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
4690 this issue.)
4691
4692 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
4693 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
4694 particular news group. This can be done by:
4695
4696 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
4697
4698 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
4699 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
4700 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
4701 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
4702 for reading and posting).
4703
4704 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
4705 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
4706 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
4707 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
4708 there.
4709
4710 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
4711 default. Here are some of these default settings:
4712
4713 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
4714 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
4715 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
4716 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
4717 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
4718
4719 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
4720 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
4721
4722 ** CC mode changes.
4723
4724 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
4725 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
4726 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
4727 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
4728 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
4729 loaded.
4730
4731 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
4732 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
4733 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
4734 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
4735 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
4736 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
4737
4738 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
4739 of the current buffer.
4740
4741 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
4742 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
4743 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
4744
4745 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
4746 style that the Python developers like.
4747
4748 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
4749 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
4750 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
4751
4752 ** VC Changes [new]
4753
4754 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
4755 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
4756 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
4757
4758 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
4759 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
4760 developers.
4761
4762 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
4763 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
4764
4765 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
4766 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
4767 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
4768 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
4769
4770 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
4771 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
4772
4773 ** Calendar changes.
4774
4775 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
4776 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
4777 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
4778
4779 ** ps-print changes
4780
4781 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
4782
4783 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
4784
4785 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
4786 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
4787 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
4788 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
4789 It defaults to `letter'.
4790 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
4791
4792 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
4793 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
4794 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
4795
4796 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
4797 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
4798 It defaults to 1.
4799
4800 *** Horizontal layout
4801
4802 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
4803 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
4804 All are measured in points.
4805
4806 *** Vertical layout
4807
4808 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
4809 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
4810 All are measured in points.
4811
4812 *** Headers
4813
4814 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
4815 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
4816 margin above the text.
4817
4818 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
4819 framing box is printed around the header.
4820
4821 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
4822 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
4823
4824 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
4825 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
4826 `ps-header-font-size'.
4827
4828 *** Font managing
4829
4830 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
4831 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
4832 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
4833 elements to this alist.
4834
4835 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
4836 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
4837
4838 ** hideshow changes.
4839
4840 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
4841 C++, ; for lisp).
4842
4843 *** Support for java-mode added.
4844
4845 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
4846 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
4847
4848 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
4849 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
4850 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
4851
4852 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
4853 robust and a lot faster.
4854
4855 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
4856
4857 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
4858 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
4859 documentation for more details.
4860
4861 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
4862
4863 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
4864 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
4865 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
4866 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
4867 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
4868
4869 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
4870 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
4871 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
4872 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
4873
4874 ** Font Lock mode
4875
4876 *** Custom support
4877
4878 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
4879 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
4880 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
4881 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
4882 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
4883 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
4884
4885 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
4886
4887 *** Maximum decoration
4888
4889 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
4890 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
4891 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
4892 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
4893 to get the old behavior.
4894
4895 *** New support
4896
4897 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
4898
4899 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
4900 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
4901
4902 *** Configurable support
4903
4904 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
4905 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
4906 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
4907 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
4908 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
4909 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
4910 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
4911
4912 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
4913 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
4914 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
4915
4916 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
4917
4918 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
4919 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
4920 for any mode.
4921
4922 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
4923
4924 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
4925
4926 in your ~/.emacs.
4927
4928 *** New faces
4929
4930 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
4931 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
4932 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
4933 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
4934
4935 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
4936
4937 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
4938 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
4939 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
4940
4941 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
4942
4943 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
4944 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
4945 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
4946 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
4947 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
4948 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
4949 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
4950
4951 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
4952 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
4953 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
4954 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
4955 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
4956 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
4957
4958 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
4959
4960 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
4961 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
4962 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
4963 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
4964
4965 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
4966 settings.
4967
4968 ** Ada mode changes.
4969
4970 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
4971 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
4972 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
4973 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
4974 stubs.
4975
4976 *** There are two new commands:
4977 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
4978 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
4979
4980 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
4981 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
4982 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
4983
4984 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
4985 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
4986 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
4987
4988 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
4989 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
4990 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
4991 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
4992
4993 ** Scheme mode changes.
4994
4995 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
4996 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
4997 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
4998 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
4999 have any effect.
5000
5001 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
5002 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
5003 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
5004 variables as buffer-local variables.
5005
5006 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
5007 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
5008
5009 ** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
5010 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
5011 buffer in Emacs.
5012
5013 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
5014 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
5015 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
5016
5017 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
5018 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
5019 the current defun.
5020
5021 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
5022 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
5023
5024 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
5025 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
5026 necessary).
5027
5028 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
5029 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
5030 these register values no longer become completely useless.
5031 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
5032 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
5033 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
5034
5035 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
5036 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
5037 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
5038 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
5039
5040 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
5041 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
5042 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
5043 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
5044 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
5045
5046 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
5047 since it applies only to the current frame.
5048
5049 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
5050 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
5051 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
5052
5053 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
5054 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
5055 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
5056 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
5057 instead of just the file you are editing.
5058
5059 ** RefTeX mode
5060
5061 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
5062 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
5063 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
5064 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
5065 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
5066
5067 C-c ( reftex-label
5068 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
5069 knows which kind of label is needed.
5070
5071 C-c ) reftex-reference
5072 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
5073 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
5074
5075 C-c [ reftex-citation
5076 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
5077 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
5078
5079 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
5080 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
5081
5082 C-c = reftex-toc
5083 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
5084 can quickly jump to every section.
5085
5086 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
5087 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
5088 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
5089 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
5090 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
5091
5092 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
5093
5094 *** Info documentation is now available.
5095
5096 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
5097 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
5098
5099 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
5100 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
5101
5102 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
5103 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
5104
5105 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
5106 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
5107 appropriate functions.
5108
5109 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
5110 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
5111
5112 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
5113 been cleaned.
5114
5115 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
5116 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
5117
5118 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
5119 shall be delimited.
5120
5121 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
5122 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
5123 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
5124
5125 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
5126 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
5127 prefixed with `ALT'.
5128
5129 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
5130 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
5131 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
5132 documentation).
5133
5134 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
5135 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
5136 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
5137
5138 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
5139 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
5140
5141 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
5142 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
5143 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
5144
5145 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
5146
5147 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
5148
5149 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
5150 from alien sources.
5151
5152 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
5153 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
5154 crossref entries.
5155
5156 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
5157 region.
5158
5159 *** Added support for imenu.
5160
5161 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
5162 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
5163 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
5164 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
5165
5166 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
5167 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
5168
5169 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
5170
5171 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
5172 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
5173 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
5174 as an argument.
5175
5176 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
5177 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
5178
5179 ** browse-url changes
5180
5181 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
5182 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
5183 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
5184 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
5185 customization variables.
5186
5187 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
5188
5189 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
5190 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
5191 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
5192
5193 ** Changes in Ediff
5194
5195 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
5196 pops up the Info file for this command.
5197
5198 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
5199 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
5200 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
5201 directories).
5202
5203 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
5204 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
5205 files in the same directory.
5206
5207 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
5208 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
5209 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
5210
5211 ** Changes in Viper
5212
5213 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
5214 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
5215 instead of vip-.
5216 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
5217 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
5218 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
5219 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
5220 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
5221 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
5222 color when Viper is in insert state.
5223 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
5224 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
5225 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
5226
5227 ** Etags changes.
5228
5229 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
5230 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
5231 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
5232 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
5233 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
5234
5235 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
5236
5237 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
5238 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
5239
5240 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
5241 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
5242 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
5243
5244 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
5245 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
5246 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
5247 methods and protocols.
5248
5249 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
5250 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
5251 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
5252 paragraph name.
5253
5254 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
5255 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
5256 at least M times and as many as N times.
5257
5258 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
5259 in files has changed slightly.
5260
5261 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
5262 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
5263 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
5264 with old time-stamp-format values.
5265
5266 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
5267 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
5268 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
5269 reasons.
5270
5271 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
5272 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
5273 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
5274 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
5275 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
5276 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
5277
5278 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
5279 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
5280 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
5281
5282 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
5283 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
5284 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
5285 recommended now will continue to work then.
5286
5287 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
5288 details.
5289
5290 ** There are some additional major modes:
5291
5292 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
5293 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
5294 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
5295
5296 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
5297 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
5298 into Emacs.
5299
5300 ** New Lisp packages include:
5301
5302 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
5303
5304 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
5305 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
5306
5307 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
5308
5309 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
5310 in shell buffers.
5311
5312 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
5313 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
5314 and `elint-defun'.
5315
5316 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
5317 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
5318 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
5319 strings or comments.
5320
5321 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
5322 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
5323 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
5324 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
5325 at these points.
5326
5327 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
5328 can visit them by short forms of their names.
5329
5330 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
5331 Emacs Lisp function at point.
5332
5333 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
5334
5335 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
5336 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
5337
5338 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
5339
5340 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
5341
5342 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
5343
5344 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
5345 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
5346
5347 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
5348 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
5349 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
5350 original place after inserting the copy.
5351
5352 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
5353 on the buffer.
5354
5355 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
5356 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
5357 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
5358
5359 Enable mouse-drag with:
5360 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
5361 -or-
5362 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
5363
5364 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
5365 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
5366
5367 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
5368 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
5369
5370 *** ogonek
5371
5372 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
5373 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
5374 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
5375 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
5376 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
5377 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
5378 instance) and vice versa.
5379
5380 To use this package load it using
5381 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
5382 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
5383 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
5384 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
5385 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
5386 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
5387
5388 *** Interface to ph.
5389
5390 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
5391
5392 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
5393 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
5394 these servers.
5395
5396 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
5397
5398 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
5399 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
5400 while the real cursor does not move.
5401
5402 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
5403 for visiting your favorite web sites.
5404
5405 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
5406 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
5407
5408 ** movemail change
5409
5410 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
5411 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
5412 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
5413 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
5414
5415 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
5416 \f
5417 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
5418
5419 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
5420
5421 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
5422 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
5423 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
5424 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
5425 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
5426
5427 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
5428 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
5429 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
5430 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
5431 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
5432 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
5433 \f
5434 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
5435
5436 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
5437 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
5438 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
5439 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
5440
5441 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
5442 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
5443
5444 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
5445 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
5446 "win".
5447
5448 ** Basic Lisp changes
5449
5450 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
5451 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
5452
5453 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
5454 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
5455 or by the user.
5456
5457 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
5458
5459 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
5460
5461 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
5462 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
5463
5464 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
5465 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
5466 its argument.
5467
5468 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
5469
5470 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
5471
5472 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
5473
5474 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
5475 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
5476 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
5477 `format' function.
5478
5479 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
5480 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
5481 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
5482
5483 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
5484 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
5485 adding one of these suffixes.
5486
5487 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
5488 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
5489 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
5490
5491 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
5492 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
5493
5494 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
5495
5496 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
5497 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
5498
5499 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
5500 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
5501
5502 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
5503
5504 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
5505 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
5506
5507 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
5508 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
5509 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
5510 works using `save-current-buffer'.
5511
5512 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
5513 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
5514 of the last form.
5515
5516 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
5517 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
5518 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
5519 as the last form.
5520
5521 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
5522 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
5523 matches.
5524
5525 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
5526
5527 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
5528 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
5529 Then it returns that string.
5530
5531 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
5532
5533 (with-output-to-string
5534 (princ "The buffer is ")
5535 (princ (buffer-name)))
5536
5537 returns "The buffer is foo".
5538
5539 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
5540 is non-nil.
5541
5542 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
5543 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
5544 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
5545
5546 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
5547 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
5548
5549 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
5550 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
5551 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
5552 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
5553 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
5554 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
5555
5556 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
5557 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
5558 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
5559 characters".
5560
5561 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
5562 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
5563 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
5564 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
5565 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
5566
5567 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
5568 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
5569 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
5570 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
5571
5572 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
5573 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
5574
5575 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
5576
5577 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
5578 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
5579 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
5580 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
5581 guaranteed.
5582
5583 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
5584 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
5585 character).
5586
5587 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
5588
5589 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
5590 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
5591 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
5592 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
5593 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
5594
5595 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
5596
5597 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
5598 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
5599 more than the number of characters.
5600
5601 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
5602 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
5603 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
5604 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
5605 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
5606 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
5607
5608 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
5609 and returns a string containing those characters.
5610
5611 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
5612 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
5613 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
5614 character, sref signals an error.
5615
5616 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
5617 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
5618 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
5619
5620 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
5621 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
5622 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
5623
5624 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
5625 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
5626 to a vector of the characters in it.
5627
5628 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
5629 of a string. You call it as follows:
5630
5631 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
5632
5633 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
5634 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
5635 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
5636 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
5637 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
5638
5639 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
5640 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
5641
5642 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
5643 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
5644
5645 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
5646 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
5647 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
5648 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
5649
5650 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
5651
5652 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
5653
5654 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
5655 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
5656 are not included in the resulting value.
5657
5658 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
5659 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
5660 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
5661 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
5662
5663 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
5664 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
5665 character extends across that column), then the padding character
5666 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
5667 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
5668 column START-COLUMN.
5669
5670 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
5671 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
5672 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
5673 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
5674 changed text, before the change.
5675
5676 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
5677 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
5678 one character set for each script, not for each language.
5679
5680 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
5681
5682 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
5683
5684 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
5685 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
5686
5687 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
5688 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
5689 which identify the character within that character set.
5690
5691 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
5692 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
5693 opposite of split-char.
5694
5695 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
5696 of all the characters between BEG and END.
5697
5698 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
5699 of all the characters in a string.
5700
5701 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
5702 and specifying coding systems.
5703
5704 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
5705 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
5706 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
5707 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
5708 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
5709 as what to do about code conversion.)
5710
5711 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
5712 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
5713
5714 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
5715 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
5716 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
5717
5718 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
5719 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
5720 to match against a file name.
5721
5722 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
5723 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
5724 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
5725 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
5726 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
5727 specifies the coding system for encoding.
5728
5729 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
5730 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
5731
5732 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
5733 the coding system to use for network sockets.
5734
5735 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
5736 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
5737 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
5738 service names.
5739
5740 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
5741 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
5742 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
5743 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
5744 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
5745 specifies the coding system for encoding.
5746
5747 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
5748 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
5749
5750 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
5751 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
5752 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
5753 start the subprocess.
5754
5755 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
5756 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
5757 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
5758 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
5759 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
5760
5761 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
5762 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
5763 subprocess.
5764
5765 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
5766 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
5767 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
5768 connection permanently or until overridden.
5769
5770 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
5771 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
5772 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
5773 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
5774 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
5775 system for one operation at a time.
5776
5777 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
5778 files, subprocesses or network connections.
5779
5780 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
5781 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
5782 The value is a cons cell,
5783 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
5784 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
5785 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
5786 input to the subprocess.
5787
5788 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
5789 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
5790
5791 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
5792 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
5793 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
5794
5795 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
5796 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
5797 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
5798 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
5799 customization.
5800
5801 Thus, instead of writing
5802
5803 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
5804 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
5805
5806 you would now write this:
5807
5808 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
5809 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
5810 :type 'boolean
5811 :group foo)
5812
5813 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
5814 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
5815 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
5816 for a description of them.
5817
5818 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
5819 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
5820
5821 (defgroup ispell nil
5822 "Spell checking using Ispell."
5823 :group 'processes)
5824
5825 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
5826 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
5827 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
5828 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
5829 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
5830
5831 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
5832 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
5833 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
5834 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
5835 first-level subgroups.
5836
5837 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
5838
5839 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
5840 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
5841
5842 ** easy-mmode
5843
5844 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
5845 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
5846 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
5847 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
5848 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
5849 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
5850
5851 ** Text property changes
5852
5853 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
5854 text property.
5855
5856 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
5857 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
5858 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
5859 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
5860 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
5861
5862 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
5863 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
5864 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
5865 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
5866
5867 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
5868 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
5869 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
5870
5871 ** Changes in invisibility features
5872
5873 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
5874 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
5875 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
5876 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
5877 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
5878 make the overlay visible.
5879
5880 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
5881 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
5882 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
5883 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
5884 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
5885 t when it should hide it.
5886
5887 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
5888
5889 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
5890 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
5891 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
5892 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
5893 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
5894 Here is an example of how to do this:
5895
5896 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
5897 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
5898 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
5899 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
5900
5901 ...
5902 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
5903
5904 ...
5905 ;; When done with the overlays:
5906 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
5907 ;; Or respectively:
5908 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
5909
5910 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
5911
5912 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
5913 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
5914 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
5915 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
5916
5917 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
5918 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
5919 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
5920
5921 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
5922 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
5923
5924 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
5925 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
5926
5927 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
5928 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
5929 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
5930
5931 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
5932 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
5933 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
5934 determine the syntax type of the character.
5935
5936 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
5937 of the current buffer.
5938
5939 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
5940 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
5941 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
5942
5943 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
5944 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
5945 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
5946 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
5947 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
5948
5949 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
5950 text property.
5951
5952 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
5953 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
5954 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
5955
5956 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
5957 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
5958 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
5959 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
5960 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
5961
5962 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
5963 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
5964 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
5965
5966 ** Changes in face features
5967
5968 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
5969 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
5970
5971 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
5972 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
5973
5974 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
5975 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
5976
5977 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
5978 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
5979
5980 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
5981 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
5982 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
5983 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
5984 overlay property).
5985
5986 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
5987 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
5988
5989 ** Changes in file-handling functions
5990
5991 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
5992 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
5993 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
5994 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
5995
5996 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
5997 begins with ~.
5998
5999 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
6000 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
6001
6002 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6003 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
6004
6005 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
6006 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
6007
6008 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
6009 character code conversion as well as other things.
6010
6011 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
6012 (formerly it did not).
6013
6014 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
6015 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
6016
6017 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
6018 instead of constant strings.
6019
6020 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
6021 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
6022 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
6023
6024 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
6025 in the same way as before.
6026
6027 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
6028 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
6029 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
6030
6031 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
6032 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
6033 else, and returns nil.
6034
6035 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
6036 directory cannot be listed.
6037
6038 ** Changes in minibuffer input
6039
6040 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
6041 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
6042 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
6043 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
6044 ways:
6045
6046 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
6047 It is available through the history command M-n.
6048
6049 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
6050 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
6051 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
6052 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
6053 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
6054
6055 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
6056 argument in this way.
6057
6058 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
6059 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
6060 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
6061
6062 ** Echo area features
6063
6064 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
6065 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
6066 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
6067 after the echo area is cleared.
6068
6069 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
6070 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
6071
6072 ** Keyboard input features
6073
6074 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
6075 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
6076
6077 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
6078 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
6079 by keyboard macros.
6080
6081 ** Frame-related changes
6082
6083 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
6084 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
6085 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
6086
6087 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
6088 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
6089 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
6090
6091 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6092 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
6093 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
6094 in the selected frame.
6095
6096 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
6097 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
6098 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
6099
6100 ** X Windows features
6101
6102 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
6103 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
6104 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
6105
6106 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
6107 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
6108
6109 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
6110 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
6111 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
6112
6113 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
6114 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
6115
6116 ** Subprocess features
6117
6118 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
6119 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
6120 automatically.
6121
6122 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
6123 and returns the output from the command as a string.
6124
6125 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
6126 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
6127
6128 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
6129 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
6130
6131 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
6132 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
6133 goes after the other menu items.
6134
6135 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
6136 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
6137 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
6138 are in use.
6139
6140 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
6141 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
6142
6143 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
6144 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
6145 form.
6146
6147 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
6148 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
6149 but its hook is still run.
6150
6151 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
6152 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
6153
6154 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
6155 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
6156 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
6157
6158 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
6159 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
6160 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
6161 warned.
6162
6163 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
6164 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
6165
6166 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
6167 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
6168 functions like display-time.
6169
6170 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
6171 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
6172
6173 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
6174 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
6175 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
6176
6177 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
6178 if there is an error in compilation.
6179
6180 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
6181 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
6182 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
6183 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
6184
6185 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
6186 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
6187 the *scratch* buffer.
6188
6189 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
6190 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
6191 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
6192 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
6193
6194 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
6195 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
6196 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
6197
6198 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
6199 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
6200 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
6201 and compose-mail-other-frame.
6202
6203 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
6204 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
6205 full name of the specified user will be returned.
6206
6207 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
6208 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
6209 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
6210 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
6211 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
6212 files at all.
6213
6214 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
6215 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
6216 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
6217 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
6218
6219 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
6220 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
6221 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
6222 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
6223
6224 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
6225
6226 ** imenu.el changes.
6227
6228 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
6229 item from menu created by imenu.
6230
6231 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
6232 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
6233 select one of those items.
6234 \f
6235 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
6236 \f
6237 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
6238
6239 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
6240 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
6241
6242 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
6243 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
6244 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
6245 \f
6246 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
6247
6248 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
6249 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
6250
6251 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6252 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
6253 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
6254 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
6255 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
6256 all caps.
6257
6258 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
6259 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
6260
6261 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
6262 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
6263 as in previous Emacs versions.
6264
6265 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
6266 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
6267 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
6268 frames.
6269
6270 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
6271 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
6272 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
6273 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
6274 accident.
6275
6276 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
6277 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
6278 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
6279 line and then executing the macro.
6280
6281 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
6282
6283 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
6284 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
6285 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
6286 characters.
6287
6288 ** Font Lock mode
6289
6290 *** Font Lock support modes
6291
6292 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
6293 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
6294 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
6295 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
6296 Font Lock mode is enabled.
6297
6298 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
6299
6300 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
6301
6302 in your ~/.emacs.
6303
6304 *** lazy-lock
6305
6306 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
6307 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
6308 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
6309 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
6310 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
6311 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
6312 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
6313
6314 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
6315
6316 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
6317
6318 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
6319
6320 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6321
6322 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
6323 paren and key.
6324
6325 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
6326 supported.
6327
6328 ** Gnus changes.
6329
6330 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
6331 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
6332 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
6333 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
6334
6335 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
6336 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
6337
6338 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
6339 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
6340 obsolete.
6341
6342 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
6343 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
6344
6345 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
6346
6347 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
6348
6349 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
6350
6351 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
6352 referred.
6353
6354 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
6355
6356 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
6357
6358 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
6359
6360 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
6361
6362 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
6363 buffers.
6364
6365 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
6366
6367 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
6368
6369 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
6370
6371 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
6372
6373 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
6374
6375 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
6376
6377 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
6378
6379 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
6380 is possible.
6381
6382 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
6383
6384 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
6385 groups of groups.
6386
6387 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
6388
6389 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
6390 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
6391
6392 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
6393
6394 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
6395
6396 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
6397
6398 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
6399
6400 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
6401 expiration times.
6402
6403 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
6404
6405 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
6406 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
6407
6408 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
6409 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
6410 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
6411
6412 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
6413 articles with the `*' command.
6414
6415 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
6416
6417 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
6418
6419 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
6420
6421 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
6422
6423 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
6424 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
6425
6426 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
6427 buffer.
6428
6429 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
6430
6431 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
6432
6433 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
6434
6435 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
6436
6437 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
6438
6439 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
6440
6441 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
6442
6443 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
6444
6445 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
6446
6447 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6448 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6449
6450 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
6451 refetching.
6452
6453 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
6454
6455 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
6456 buffer to allow easier treatment.
6457
6458 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
6459
6460 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
6461
6462 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
6463
6464 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
6465 articles.
6466
6467 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
6468
6469 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
6470
6471 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
6472 cited text to hide is now customizable.
6473
6474 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
6475
6476 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
6477
6478 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
6479
6480 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
6481
6482 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
6483
6484 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
6485 in greater detail.
6486 \f
6487 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
6488
6489 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
6490 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
6491 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
6492 exists.
6493
6494 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
6495 as well as lists.
6496
6497 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
6498 of a given keymap.
6499
6500 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
6501 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
6502 keymap or nil.
6503
6504 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
6505 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
6506 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
6507 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
6508 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
6509 alias.
6510 \f
6511 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
6512
6513 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
6514
6515 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
6516 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
6517 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
6518 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
6519 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
6520
6521 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
6522 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
6523 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
6524
6525 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
6526
6527 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
6528 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
6529 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
6530 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
6531 chapter of the manual for details.
6532
6533 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
6534 customization variables take effect.
6535
6536 ** Marking with the mouse.
6537
6538 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
6539 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
6540 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
6541
6542 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
6543
6544 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
6545
6546 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
6547 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
6548
6549 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
6550 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
6551 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
6552 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
6553 applications, these problems are significant.
6554
6555 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
6556 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
6557 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
6558 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
6559 other DOS application as a subprocess.
6560
6561 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
6562 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
6563
6564 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
6565 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
6566 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
6567 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
6568 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
6569 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
6570
6571 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
6572
6573 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
6574 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
6575 minibuffer contains.
6576
6577 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
6578
6579 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
6580 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
6581 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
6582 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
6583
6584 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
6585 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
6586 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
6587 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
6588
6589 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
6590 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
6591
6592 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
6593 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
6594 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
6595
6596 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
6597 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
6598 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
6599 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
6600
6601 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
6602
6603 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
6604 to replace the characters it "deletes".
6605
6606 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
6607
6608 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
6609 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
6610 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
6611 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
6612 immediately after the selected one.
6613
6614 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
6615 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
6616
6617 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
6618
6619 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
6620 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
6621 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
6622 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
6623 recover-session.
6624
6625 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
6626 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
6627 will not work.
6628
6629 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
6630 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
6631 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
6632 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
6633 now that the bug is fixed.
6634
6635 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
6636
6637 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
6638 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
6639 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
6640 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
6641
6642 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
6643 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
6644 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
6645 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
6646
6647 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
6648 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
6649 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
6650
6651 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
6652 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
6653 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
6654 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
6655 remain normal.
6656
6657 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
6658 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
6659
6660 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
6661 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
6662 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
6663 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
6664
6665 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
6666 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
6667 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
6668 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
6669 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
6670 `mail-directory-stream'.)
6671
6672 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
6673 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
6674 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
6675 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
6676
6677 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
6678 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
6679 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
6680
6681 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
6682 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
6683 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
6684 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
6685 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
6686 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
6687 to a limitation in font-lock).
6688
6689 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
6690
6691 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
6692 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
6693 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
6694 this example:
6695
6696 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
6697 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
6698
6699 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6700
6701 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
6702
6703 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
6704
6705 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
6706
6707 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
6708 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
6709 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
6710 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
6711 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
6712 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
6713
6714 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
6715 does the same job.
6716
6717 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
6718 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
6719
6720 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
6721 text.
6722
6723 ** Font Lock mode
6724
6725 *** Global Font Lock mode
6726
6727 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
6728 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
6729 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
6730 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
6731 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
6732
6733 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
6734
6735 (global-font-lock-mode t)
6736
6737 in your ~/.emacs.
6738
6739 *** Local Refontification
6740
6741 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
6742 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
6743 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
6744 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
6745
6746 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
6747 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
6748 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
6749 above and below point.
6750
6751 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
6752
6753 ** Follow mode
6754
6755 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
6756 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
6757 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
6758 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
6759 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
6760 follow-mode.
6761
6762 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
6763
6764 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
6765 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
6766
6767 ** hide-show changes.
6768
6769 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
6770 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
6771 normal hooks.
6772
6773 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
6774 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
6775
6776 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
6777 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
6778 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
6779
6780 ** MSDOS Changes
6781
6782 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
6783 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
6784
6785 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
6786 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
6787
6788 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
6789
6790 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
6791 pressing both mouse buttons.
6792
6793 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
6794 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
6795 are:
6796
6797 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
6798 now works.
6799
6800 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
6801
6802 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
6803 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
6804
6805 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
6806
6807 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
6808
6809 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
6810
6811 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
6812
6813 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
6814 \f
6815 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
6816
6817 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
6818 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
6819 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
6820 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
6821 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
6822
6823 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
6824
6825 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
6826 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
6827 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
6828 be different.
6829
6830 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
6831 than `system-type'.
6832
6833 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
6834
6835 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
6836 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
6837
6838 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
6839 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
6840
6841 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
6842 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
6843 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
6844
6845 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
6846 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
6847 like this:
6848
6849 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
6850
6851 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
6852 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
6853 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
6854
6855 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
6856 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
6857 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
6858
6859 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
6860 up if too much time passes.
6861
6862 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
6863
6864 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
6865 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
6866 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
6867 form in BODY.
6868
6869 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
6870 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
6871 call looks like this:
6872
6873 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
6874
6875 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
6876 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
6877 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
6878 ARGS.
6879
6880 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
6881 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
6882 command.
6883
6884 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
6885 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
6886 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
6887 each time Emacs becomes idle.
6888
6889 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
6890 idle for SECS seconds.
6891
6892 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
6893 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
6894 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
6895 instead.
6896
6897 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
6898 there is no answer within a certain time.
6899
6900 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
6901
6902 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
6903 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
6904 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
6905
6906 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
6907 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
6908 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
6909 arguments in between are ignored.
6910
6911 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
6912 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
6913
6914 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
6915 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
6916 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
6917 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
6918 version.
6919
6920 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
6921 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
6922 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
6923 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
6924 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
6925 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
6926
6927 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
6928 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
6929 systems with limited file name syntax.
6930
6931 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
6932 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
6933 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
6934 completions.el:
6935
6936 (defvar save-completions-file-name
6937 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
6938 "*The filename to save completions to.")
6939
6940 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
6941 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
6942 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
6943 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
6944 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
6945
6946 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
6947 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
6948 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
6949
6950 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
6951 marker from its buffer position.
6952
6953 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
6954 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
6955 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
6956
6957 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
6958 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
6959 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
6960 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
6961 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
6962 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
6963
6964 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
6965 errors that happen often during editing.
6966
6967 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
6968 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
6969 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
6970
6971 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
6972 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
6973
6974 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
6975 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
6976 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
6977 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
6978 and not get-buffer-window.
6979
6980 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
6981 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
6982 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
6983
6984 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
6985 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
6986 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
6987 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
6988 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
6989 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
6990 over and over for the same text.
6991
6992 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
6993
6994 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
6995 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
6996
6997 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
6998 ;; $HEADER: text $
6999
7000 in addition to the normal
7001
7002 ;; HEADER: text
7003
7004 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
7005 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
7006 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
7007 \f
7008 * For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7009
7010 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
7011 Copyright information:
7012
7013 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7014
7015 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7016 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7017 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7018 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7019
7020 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7021 of this document, or of portions of it,
7022 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7023 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7024 \f
7025 Local variables:
7026 mode: outline
7027 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
7028 end: