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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 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
14 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
15 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option to list them.
16 \f
17 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
18
19 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
20
21 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
22 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
23
24 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
25 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
26 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
27 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
28
29 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
30 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
31 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
32 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
33
34 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
35 on the display using several methods
36
37 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
38 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
39 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
40
41 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
42 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
43
44 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
45
46 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
47 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
48
49 ** The new command `clone-buffer-indirectly' can be used to create
50 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
51 command `clone-buffer-indirectly-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
52 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
53
54 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
55 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
56 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
57
58 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
59 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
60
61 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
62 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
63 this behavior.
64
65 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
66 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
67 Emacs dump core.
68
69 ** New X resources recognized
70
71 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
72 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
73 is useful for debugging X problems.
74
75 Example:
76
77 emacs.synchronous: true
78
79 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
80 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
81 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
82 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
83 visual class names are
84
85 TrueColor
86 PseudoColor
87 DirectColor
88 StaticColor
89 GrayScale
90 StaticGray
91
92 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
93 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
94 meaning.
95
96 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
97 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
98 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
99 visual.
100
101 Example:
102
103 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
104
105 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
106 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
107 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
108 resource values are `true' or `on'.
109
110 Example:
111
112 emacs.privateColormap: true
113
114 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
115 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
116 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
117
118 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
119 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
120 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
121 be customized.
122
123 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
124
125 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
126 all frames except the selected one.
127
128 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
129 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
130
131 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
132 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X either in the echo
133 area or with tooltips.
134
135 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
136 read mail from the menu etc.
137
138 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
139 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
140
141 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
142
143 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
144 macros
145
146 Key binding Macro
147 -------------------------
148 C-c C-c C-s @strong
149 C-c C-c C-e @emph
150 C-c C-c u @url
151 C-c C-c q @quotation
152 C-c C-c m @email
153
154 ** Changes in Outline mode.
155
156 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
157 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
158 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
159
160 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
161 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
162
163 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
164 or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
165 several other special buffers.
166
167 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
168 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
169 .emacs file.
170
171 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
172 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
173
174 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
175 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
176 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
177
178 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
179 is running in batch mode. For example,
180
181 (message "%s" (read t))
182
183 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
184 to standard output.
185
186 ** Faces and frame parameters.
187
188 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
189 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
190 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
191 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
192 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
193 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
194 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
195
196 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
197 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
198 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
199 `default' face and vice versa.
200
201 ** New face `menu'.
202
203 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
204 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
205 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
206
207 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
208
209 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
210 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
211 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
212 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
213
214 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
215 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
216 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
217
218 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
219 `ScreenGamma'.
220
221 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
222
223 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
224 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
225 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
226 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
227 the text.
228
229 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
230
231 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
232 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
233 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
234 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
235 specify a font.
236
237 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
238 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
239 under Lisp changes, below.
240
241 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
242
243 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
244 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
245 it is hollow.
246
247 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
248 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
249 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
250 customizing face `fringe'.
251
252 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
253 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
254
255 ** LessTif support.
256
257 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
258 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
259
260 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
261
262 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
263 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
264 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
265 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
266 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
267 Emacs.
268
269 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
270 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
271 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
272 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
273 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
274 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
275
276 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
277 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
278 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
279 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
280 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
281 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
282
283 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
284 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
285 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
286 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
287 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
288
289 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
290
291 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
292 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
293 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
294
295 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
296
297 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
298 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
299 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
300 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
301 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
302 whitespace.
303
304 ** Busy-cursor.
305
306 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
307 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
308
309 ** Blinking cursor
310
311 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
312 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
313 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
314 the group `cursor'.
315
316 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
317
318 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
319 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
320 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
321 details.
322
323 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
324 have to do anything to activate it.
325
326 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
327
328 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
329 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
330 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
331 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
332
333 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
334
335 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
336
337 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
338
339 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
340 LessTif/Motif one.
341
342 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
343 LessTif and Motif.
344
345 ** Hscrolling in C code.
346
347 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
348 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
349 customized.
350
351 ** Tool bar support.
352
353 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
354 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
355
356 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
357
358 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
359 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
360 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
361 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
362 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
363
364 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
365
366 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
367 buffers.
368
369 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
370 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
371
372 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
373
374 - Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
375 toggles the read-only status.
376
377 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
378
379 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
380
381 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
382 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
383 non-nil.
384
385 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
386
387 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
388 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
389 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
390 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
391 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
392 attributes like overlines, strike-throught, box are ignored.
393
394 ** Sound support
395
396 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
397 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
398 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
399 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
400 to enable sound support.
401
402 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
403 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
404 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
405 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
406 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
407 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
408
409 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
410
411 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
412
413 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
414 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
415 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
416
417 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
418 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
419
420 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
421 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
422 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
423
424 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
425
426 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
427 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
428 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
429 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
430
431 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
432 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
433 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
434 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
435
436 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
437 notably at the end of lines.
438
439 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
440 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
441
442 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
443
444 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
445 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
446 after each match to get the replacement text.
447
448 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `E' that lets you
449 edit the replacement string.
450
451 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', let's
452 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
453 lisp-complete-symbol.
454
455 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
456
457 If a message is longer than one line, or mini-buffer contents are
458 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the mini-window unless it is
459 on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum mini-window size
460 by setting the following variable:
461
462 - User option: max-mini-window-height
463
464 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
465 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
466 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
467
468 Default is 0.25.
469
470 ** Changes to hideshow.el
471
472 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
473 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
474
475 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
476
477 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
478 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
479 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
480 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
481 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
482 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
483
484 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
485 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
486 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
487 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
488
489 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
490
491 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
492 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
493 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
494 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
495 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
496
497 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
498 something like this in your .emacs.
499
500 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
501 (lambda ()
502 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
503
504 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
505
506 If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
507 entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
508 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
509
510 New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
511 buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
512
513 Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
514 if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
515
516 The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
517 expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
518 cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
519 a file.
520
521 ** Changes in Font Lock
522
523 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
524 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
525 mode.
526
527 ** Comint (subshell) changes
528
529 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
530 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
531
532 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
533 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
534 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
535
536 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
537 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
538 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
539
540 ** Changes to Rmail mode
541
542 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
543 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
544 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
545 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
546 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
547 as correspondent.
548
549 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
550 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
551 regexp matching your mail adresses.
552
553 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
554 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
555 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
556 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
557 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
558
559 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
560 like `j'.
561
562 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
563 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
564 digest message.
565
566 ** Changes to TeX mode
567
568 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
569 `latex-mode'.
570
571 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
572
573 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
574 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
575 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
576 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
577 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
578 can be edited from that buffer.
579
580 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
581 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
582 `A' to use all marked entries).
583
584 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
585 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
586
587 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
588 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
589 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
590 been cited.
591
592 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
593 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
594 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
595 in column 1 are always made leaves.
596
597 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
598 has the following new features:
599
600 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
601 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
602 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
603 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
604
605 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
606 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
607 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
608 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
609 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
610 defaults to 1.
611
612 ** Tooltips.
613
614 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
615 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
616 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
617
618 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
619 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
620 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
621 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
622
623 ** Customize changes
624
625 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
626 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
627 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
628
629 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
630 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
631 default).
632
633 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
634 between custom options. Example:
635
636 (defcustom default-input-method nil
637 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
638 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
639 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
640 :group 'mule
641 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
642 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
643
644 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
645 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
646 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
647
648 ** New features in evaluation commands
649
650 The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
651 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
652 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
653 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
654 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
655
656 ** Dired changes
657
658 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
659 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
660 is, delete only empty directories.
661
662 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
663 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
664 copy directories recursively.
665
666 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
667 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
668 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
669
670 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
671 use the -f option when sending mail.
672
673 ** CC mode changes.
674
675 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
676 current user setups (although it's believed that these
677 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
678 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
679 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
680 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
681 release.
682
683 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
684 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
685 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
686 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
687 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
688 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
689 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
690 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
691
692 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
693 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
694 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
695 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
696 above.
697
698 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
699 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
700 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
701 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
702 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
703 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
704 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
705 function documentation for more info.
706
707 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
708 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
709 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
710 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
711 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
712 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
713 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
714 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
715
716 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
717
718 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
719 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
720
721 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
722 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
723 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
724 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
725 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
726 style system.
727
728 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
729 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
730 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
731 as far as possible.
732
733 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
734 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
735 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
736 chapter about this in the manual.
737
738 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
739 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
740 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
741 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
742 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
743
744 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
745 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
746 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
747
748 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
749 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
750
751 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
752 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
753 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
754 inside CC Mode.
755
756 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
757 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
758 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
759 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
760 cc-mode/).
761
762 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
763 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
764 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
765 literals.
766
767 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
768 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
769 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
770 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
771 this function.
772
773 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
774 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
775 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
776 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
777 Thanks to Eric Eide.
778
779 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
780 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
781 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
782
783 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
784
785 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
786 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
787 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
788 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
789
790 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
791 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
792 the column specified by comment-column.
793
794 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
795 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
796 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
797 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
798 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
799 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
800
801 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
802 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
803 arguments.
804
805 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
806
807 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
808 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
809 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
810 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
811 Provan).
812
813 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
814
815 ** Makefile mode changes
816
817 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
818
819 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
820 Fontlock mode is active.
821
822 ** Isearch changes
823
824 ** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
825 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
826 that started the search.
827
828 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
829 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
830
831 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
832
833 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
834 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
835 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
836 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
837 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
838 `secondary-selection'.
839
840 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
841 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
842 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
843 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
844 usual snappy response.
845
846 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
847 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
848 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
849 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
850
851 ** Changes in sort.el
852
853 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
854 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
855 new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
856 numeric base.
857
858 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
859
860 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
861 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
862 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
863
864 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
865 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
866
867 ** Shell script mode changes.
868
869 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
870 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
871 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
872
873 ** Etags changes.
874
875 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
876
877 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
878 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
879 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
880 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
881 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
882
883 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
884 declarations when given the --declarations option.
885
886 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
887 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
888
889 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
890 types.
891
892 *** In Fortran, procedure is no more tagged.
893
894 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
895
896 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
897 are now tagged.
898
899 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
900 variables are tagged.
901
902 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
903
904 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
905 for PSWrap.
906
907 ** Changes in etags.el
908
909 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
910 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
911 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
912
913 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
914 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
915
916 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
917 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
918 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
919 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
920
921 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
922
923 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
924 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
925
926 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
927
928 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
929 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
930 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
931
932 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
933 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
934
935 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
936 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
937
938 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
939 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
940 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
941
942 ** New language environments `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
943 These correspond respectively to the ISO character sets 8859-14
944 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign). There is
945 currently no specific input method support for them.
946
947 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sqeuence-nos' to
948 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
949 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
950
951 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
952
953 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
954
955 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
956 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
957 expression from that list, are not checked.
958
959 ** New modes and packages
960
961 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
962 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
963 separate Texinfo file.
964
965 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine
966 or by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
967 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS.
968 It comes with log-view-mode to view RCS and SCCS logs and log-edit-mode
969 used to enter checkin log messages.
970
971 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
972 without invoking external programs.
973
974 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
975 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
976 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
977 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
978 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
979
980 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
981 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
982
983 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
984 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
985
986 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
987 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
988 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
989 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
990 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
991 single step.
992
993 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
994 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
995 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
996 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
997
998 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
999 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1000 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1001
1002 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1003 PostScript.
1004
1005 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1006
1007 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1008
1009 ; comment (until end of line)
1010 A non-terminal
1011 "C" terminal
1012 ?C? special
1013 $A default non-terminal
1014 $"C" default terminal
1015 $?C? default special
1016 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1017 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1018 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1019 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1020 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1021 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1022 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1023 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1024 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1025 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1026 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1027 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1028 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1029 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1030 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1031
1032 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1033
1034 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1035 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1036 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1037 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1038 equal signs of assignments.
1039
1040 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1041 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1042
1043 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1044 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1045 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1046 customize the package.
1047
1048 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1049 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1050 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1051 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1052 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1053 which answers different needs.
1054
1055 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1056 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1057 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1058 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1059 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1060 to be enabled.
1061
1062 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1063 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1064
1065 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1066
1067 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1068
1069 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1070
1071 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1072 Pascal) language.
1073
1074 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1075 the text at point.
1076
1077 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1078
1079 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1080
1081 *** whitespace.el ???
1082
1083 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1084 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1085 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1086 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1087 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1088 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1089 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1090
1091 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1092
1093 Here is an example of columns:
1094
1095 horse apple bus
1096 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1097 porcupine strawberry airplane
1098
1099 Doing the following settings:
1100
1101 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1102 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1103 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1104 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1105
1106
1107 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1108
1109 M-x delimit-columns-region
1110
1111 It results:
1112
1113 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1114 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1115 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1116
1117 delim-col has the following options:
1118
1119 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1120 before all columns.
1121
1122 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1123 between each column.
1124
1125 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1126 after all columns.
1127
1128 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1129 each column.
1130
1131 delim-col has the following commands:
1132
1133 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1134 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1135
1136 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1137 were operated on recently. When enabled, a new "Open Recent" submenu
1138 is displayed in the "Files" menu.
1139
1140 The recent files list is automatically saved across Emacs sessions.
1141
1142 To enable/disable recentf use M-x recentf-mode.
1143
1144 To enable recentf at Emacs startup use
1145 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET.
1146
1147 To change the number of recent files displayed and others options use
1148 M-x customize-group RET recentf RET.
1149
1150 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1151 text.
1152
1153 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1154 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1155 specific to Message mode.
1156
1157 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1158 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1159 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1160
1161 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1162 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1163 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1164
1165 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1166 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1167
1168 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1169
1170 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1171 minibuffer with completion.
1172
1173 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1174 with the diary features.
1175
1176 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1177 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1178
1179 ** Withdrawn packages
1180
1181 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1182 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1183
1184 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1185
1186 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1187 \f
1188 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1189
1190 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1191 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1192 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1193 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1194
1195 +++
1196 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1197 that offset in the file before writing.
1198
1199 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1200 promised long ago.
1201
1202 ** The function `add-minor-mode' simplifies the definition of minor
1203 modes.
1204
1205 - Function: add-minor-mode TOGGLE NAME &optional KEYMAP AFTER TOGGLE-FUN
1206
1207 Register a new minor mode.
1208
1209 TOGGLE is a symbol which is the name of a buffer-local variable that
1210 is toggled on or off to say whether the minor mode is active or not.
1211
1212 NAME specifies what will appear in the mode line when the minor mode
1213 is active. NAME should be either a string starting with a space, or a
1214 symbol whose value is such a string.
1215
1216 Optional KEYMAP is the keymap for the minor mode that will be added
1217 to `minor-mode-map-alist'.
1218
1219 Optional AFTER specifies that TOGGLE should be added after AFTER
1220 in `minor-mode-alist'.
1221
1222 Optional TOGGLE-FUN is there for compatiblity with other Emacssen.
1223 It is currently not used.
1224
1225 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1226 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1227 from which the command was issued.
1228
1229 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1230 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1231 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1232 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1233 operate on.
1234
1235 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1236 to `window-buffer-height'.
1237
1238 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1239
1240 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1241 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1242 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1243
1244 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1245 respectively.
1246
1247 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1248 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1249
1250 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1251 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1252 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1253
1254 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1255 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1256 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1257 is currently displayed in some window.
1258
1259 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1260 argument function's results.
1261
1262 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1263 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1264
1265 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1266 header is the list of headers passed to it.
1267
1268 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1269 ignores differences in case and text representation.
1270
1271 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1272 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1273 as follows:
1274
1275 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1276 nil don't display a cursor
1277 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1278 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1279 others display a box cursor.
1280
1281 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1282 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1283 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1284 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1285
1286 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1287 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
1288 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1289 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1290
1291 Example:
1292
1293 (string-to-syntax "()")
1294 => (4 . 41)
1295
1296 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1297 other than 10.
1298
1299 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1300 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1301
1302 #b1111
1303 => 15
1304 #b-1111
1305 => -15
1306
1307 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1308
1309 #o666
1310 => 438
1311
1312 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1313
1314 #xbeef
1315 => 48815
1316
1317 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1318
1319 #2R-111
1320 => -7
1321 #25rah
1322 => 267
1323
1324 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
1325 the given property to obtain a a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1326 and isn't a string.
1327
1328 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1329 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1330 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1331 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1332
1333 +++
1334 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1335
1336 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
1337 for a regexp in a string.
1338
1339 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1340 `mouse-position-function'.
1341
1342 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1343 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1344
1345 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1346 Keywords are now always considered constants.
1347
1348 +++
1349 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1350 returns it.
1351
1352 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1353 returned by function `recent-keys'.
1354
1355 +++
1356 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1357 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1358 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1359 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1360 mode.
1361
1362 +++
1363 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1364 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1365
1366 +++
1367 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1368 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1369 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1370 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1371 been performed."
1372
1373 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1374 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1375 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1376 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
1377
1378 +++
1379 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1380 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1381 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1382
1383 +++
1384 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1385 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1386 specified table.
1387
1388 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1389
1390 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
1391 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1392 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1393 what BODY returns.
1394
1395 +++
1396 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
1397 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
1398
1399 +++
1400 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1401 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1402
1403 +++
1404 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1405 instead of being optional.
1406
1407 +++
1408 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1409 modify read-only text.
1410
1411 +++
1412 ** New functions and variables for locales.
1413
1414 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1415 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
1416 time functions like strftime. The new variables
1417 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1418 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
1419
1420 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1421 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1422 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
1423 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1424 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1425 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1426 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
1427
1428 +++
1429 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1430 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1431 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1432 start sequences.
1433
1434 +++
1435 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1436 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1437
1438 +++
1439 ** New function `propertize'
1440
1441 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1442 strings with text properties.
1443
1444 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1445
1446 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1447 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1448 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1449 specified value of that property. Example:
1450
1451 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1452
1453 +++
1454 ** push and pop macros.
1455
1456 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1457 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
1458 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1459
1460 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1461 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1462 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1463
1464 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1465
1466 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1467 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
1468
1469 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1470 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1471 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1472 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1473
1474 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1475 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1476 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1477 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1478
1479 +++
1480 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1481 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1482
1483 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1484 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1485 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1486 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
1487 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1488 space, and DEL.
1489 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1490 and DEL.
1491 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1492 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1493 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1494 [:alpha:] matches letters.
1495 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1496 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1497 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1498 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1499 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1500 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
1501 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1502 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1503 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1504 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1505 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1506
1507 +++
1508 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1509
1510 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1511
1512 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1513
1514 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1515 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1516
1517 :test TEST
1518
1519 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1520 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1521 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1522
1523 :size SIZE
1524
1525 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1526 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1527
1528 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1529
1530 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1531 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1532 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
1533 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1534 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1535
1536 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1537
1538 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1539 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1540 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1541
1542 :weakness WEAK
1543
1544 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
1545 Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
1546 their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
1547 hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1548
1549 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
1550
1551 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1552
1553 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1554
1555 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1556
1557 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1558
1559 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1560 values are shared.
1561
1562 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1563
1564 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1565
1566 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1567
1568 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1569
1570 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1571
1572 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1573
1574 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1575
1576 Returns the size of TABLE.
1577
1578 - Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1579
1580 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1581
1582 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1583
1584 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1585
1586 - Function: clrhash TABLE
1587
1588 Clear TABLE.
1589
1590 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1591
1592 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1593 not found.
1594
1595 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
1596
1597 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1598 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1599
1600 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1601
1602 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1603
1604 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1605
1606 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1607 arguments KEY and VALUE.
1608
1609 - Function: sxhash OBJ
1610
1611 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1612
1613 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1614
1615 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1616 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
1617 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
1618 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1619 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1620
1621 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1622
1623 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1624 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1625 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1626
1627 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1628 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
1629
1630 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
1631 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
1632
1633 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
1634 (sxhash (upcase a)))
1635
1636 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
1637 'case-fold-string-hash))
1638
1639 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
1640
1641 +++
1642 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
1643
1644 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
1645 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
1646 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
1647
1648 +++
1649 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
1650
1651 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
1652 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
1653
1654 +++
1655 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
1656 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
1657 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
1658 is too short to reach that column.
1659
1660 +++
1661 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
1662 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
1663 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
1664 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
1665
1666 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
1667 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
1668 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
1669
1670 +++
1671 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
1672 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
1673
1674 +++
1675 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
1676 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
1677
1678 +++
1679 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
1680 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
1681 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
1682 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
1683 temporary-file-directory instead.
1684
1685 +++
1686 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
1687 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
1688 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
1689 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
1690
1691 +++
1692 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
1693 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
1694
1695 +++
1696 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
1697
1698 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
1699 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
1700 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
1701
1702 +++
1703 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
1704
1705 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
1706 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
1707 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
1708 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
1709 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
1710 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
1711
1712 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
1713 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
1714 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
1715 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
1716
1717 +++
1718 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
1719
1720 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
1721 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
1722 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
1723 result string.
1724
1725 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
1726 string where arguments appear in the result string.
1727
1728 Example:
1729
1730 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
1731 (s2 "world"))
1732 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
1733 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
1734 (format s1 s2))
1735
1736 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
1737
1738 +++
1739 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
1740
1741 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
1742 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
1743 argument in it.
1744
1745 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
1746 (arg "world"))
1747 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
1748 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
1749 (message msg arg))
1750
1751 +++
1752 ** Sound support
1753
1754 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
1755 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
1756
1757 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
1758 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
1759 to enable sound support.
1760
1761 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
1762 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
1763 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
1764 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
1765 sound to play, before playing the sound.
1766
1767 The following sound properties are supported:
1768
1769 - `:file FILE'
1770
1771 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
1772 searched relative to `data-directory'.
1773
1774 - `:data DATA'
1775
1776 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
1777 may be present, but not both.
1778
1779 - `:volume VOLUME'
1780
1781 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
1782 0..1. This property is optional.
1783
1784 Other properties are ignored.
1785
1786 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
1787
1788 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
1789 a keyword symbol.
1790
1791 ** Changes to garbage collection
1792
1793 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
1794 of live and free strings.
1795
1796 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
1797 strings that have been consed so far.
1798
1799 \f
1800 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
1801
1802 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1803 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1804 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1805 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1806
1807 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
1808 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
1809
1810 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
1811 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
1812 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
1813 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
1814 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
1815 just display it black instead.
1816
1817 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
1818 a line like
1819
1820 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
1821
1822 in your `.emacs'.
1823
1824 ** New face implementation.
1825
1826 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
1827 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
1828
1829 +++
1830 *** New faces.
1831
1832 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
1833
1834 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
1835
1836 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
1837 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
1838
1839 3. Font height in 1/10pt
1840
1841 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
1842
1843 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
1844
1845 6. Foreground color.
1846
1847 7. Background color.
1848
1849 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
1850
1851 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
1852
1853 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
1854
1855 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
1856
1857 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
1858 color.
1859
1860 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
1861 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
1862
1863 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
1864 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
1865 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
1866 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
1867 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
1868 attributes mentioned above.
1869
1870 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
1871 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
1872 created frames.
1873
1874 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
1875 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
1876 `fully-specified'.
1877
1878 +++
1879 *** Face merging.
1880
1881 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
1882 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
1883 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
1884 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
1885 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
1886 results in a fully-specified face.
1887
1888 +++
1889 *** Face realization.
1890
1891 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
1892 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
1893 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
1894 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
1895 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
1896 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
1897
1898 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
1899 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
1900 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
1901 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
1902
1903 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
1904 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
1905 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
1906 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
1907 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
1908
1909 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
1910 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
1911 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
1912 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
1913 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
1914 Emacs.
1915
1916 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
1917 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
1918 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
1919 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
1920
1921 ++++
1922 **** Clearing face caches.
1923
1924 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
1925 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
1926 unused fonts.
1927
1928 +++
1929 *** Font selection.
1930
1931 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
1932 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
1933 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
1934
1935 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
1936 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
1937 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
1938 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
1939 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
1940
1941 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
1942 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
1943 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
1944
1945 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
1946
1947 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
1948 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
1949 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
1950 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
1951 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
1952 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
1953 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
1954
1955 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
1956 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
1957 face doesn't exist.
1958
1959 +++
1960 **** Scalable fonts
1961
1962 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
1963 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
1964 servers.
1965
1966 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
1967 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
1968 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
1969 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
1970 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
1971 that list. Example:
1972
1973 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
1974
1975 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
1976
1977 +++
1978 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
1979
1980 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
1981
1982 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
1983 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
1984 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
1985
1986 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
1987 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
1988 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
1989 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
1990 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
1991 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
1992 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
1993 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
1994 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
1995 of the face font sort order.
1996
1997 - Function: x-font-family-list
1998
1999 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2000 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2001 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2002 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2003
2004 - Variable: font-list-limit
2005
2006 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2007 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2008 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2009
2010 +++
2011 *** Setting face attributes.
2012
2013 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2014 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2015 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2016 `face-attribute'.
2017
2018 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2019 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2020
2021 The following attributes are recognized:
2022
2023 `:family'
2024
2025 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2026 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2027 and `?' are allowed.
2028
2029 `:width'
2030
2031 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2032 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2033 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2034 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2035
2036 `:height'
2037
2038 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
2039 1/10 pt.
2040
2041 `:weight'
2042
2043 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2044 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2045 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2046
2047 `:slant'
2048
2049 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2050 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2051 `reverse-oblique'.
2052
2053 `:foreground', `:background'
2054
2055 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2056
2057 `:underline'
2058
2059 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2060 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2061 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2062 don't underline.
2063
2064 `:overline'
2065
2066 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2067 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2068 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2069 overline.
2070
2071 `:strike-through'
2072
2073 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2074 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2075 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2076 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2077
2078 `:box'
2079
2080 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2081 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2082 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2083 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2084 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2085 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2086 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2087 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2088 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2089 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2090 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2091 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2092 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2093 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2094 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2095 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2096 box.
2097
2098 `:inverse-video'
2099
2100 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2101 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2102
2103 `:stipple'
2104
2105 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2106 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2107 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2108 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2109 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2110 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2111
2112 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2113 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2114
2115 `:font'
2116
2117 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2118 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2119 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2120 versions of Emacs.
2121
2122 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2123 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2124 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2125
2126 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2127 `defface'.
2128
2129 *** Face attributes and X resources
2130
2131 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2132 from X resources:
2133
2134 Face attribute X resource class
2135 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2136 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2137 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2138 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2139 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2140 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2141 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2142 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2143 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2144 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2145 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2146 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2147 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2148 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2149 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2150 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2151 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2152 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2153 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2154 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2155
2156 +++
2157 *** Text property `face'.
2158
2159 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2160 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2161 specification can be
2162
2163 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2164
2165 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2166 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2167 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2168 for face attribute names.
2169
2170 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2171 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2172 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2173
2174 +++
2175 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2176
2177 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2178 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2179 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
2180 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
2181 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
2182 used to clear the mapping table.
2183
2184 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2185
2186 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2187 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2188 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2189 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2190 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2191 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2192 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2193 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2194 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2195 modify their color-related behavior.
2196
2197 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2198 any frame type.
2199
2200 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2201
2202 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2203 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2204 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2205 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2206 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2207 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2208 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2209 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2210 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2211
2212 +++
2213 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
2214
2215 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
2216
2217 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2218 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2219 Otherwise, it returns zero.
2220
2221 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2222
2223 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2224 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2225 text-property.
2226
2227 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
2228 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
2229 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
2230 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
2231 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2232 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2233 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2234 functions.
2235
2236 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
2237 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
2238 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
2239
2240 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2241
2242 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
2243
2244 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2245 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2246 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2247 constrained position if that is is different.
2248
2249 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2250 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2251 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2252 constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
2253 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2254 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2255 fields.
2256
2257 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2258 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2259 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2260 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2261 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2262
2263 - Function: erase-field &optional POS
2264
2265 Erases the field surrounding POS.
2266 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2267 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2268
2269 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2270
2271 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2272 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2273 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2274 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
2275 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2276
2277 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2278
2279 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2280 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2281 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2282 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
2283 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2284
2285 - Function: field-string &optional POS
2286
2287 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2288 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2289 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2290
2291 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2292
2293 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2294 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2295 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2296
2297 +++
2298 ** Image support.
2299
2300 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2301 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2302 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2303 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2304
2305 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2306 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2307 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2308 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2309 area.
2310
2311 IMAGE is an image specification.
2312
2313 *** Image specifications
2314
2315 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2316 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2317 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
2318 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2319 described below are ignored.
2320
2321 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2322
2323 `:ascent ASCENT'
2324
2325 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2326 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2327 to use for its ascent.
2328
2329 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2330 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2331
2332 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered with text drawn
2333 in the same face as the image. The point the image is aligned with is
2334 the middle of the height of the face's font. That point is usually
2335 different from the font's base line.
2336
2337 `:margin MARGIN'
2338
2339 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
2340 margin around the image. Default is 0.
2341
2342 `:relief RELIEF'
2343
2344 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2345 around an image.
2346
2347 `:algorithm ALGO'
2348
2349 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2350 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2351 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2352 which is intended to display images "disabled."
2353
2354 `:heuristic-mask BG'
2355
2356 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2357 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2358 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2359 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2360 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2361 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2362 background of the image.
2363
2364 `:file FILE'
2365
2366 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2367 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2368 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2369 may be present in the image specification.
2370
2371 `:data DATA'
2372
2373 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2374 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2375 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2376 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2377
2378 *** Supported image types
2379
2380 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
2381
2382 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2383 properties supported are
2384
2385 `:foreground FG'
2386
2387 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2388 is the frame's foreground.
2389
2390 `:background FG'
2391
2392 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2393 the frame's background color.
2394
2395 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2396 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2397 instead of a `:file' property.
2398
2399 `:width WIDTH'
2400
2401 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2402
2403 `:height HEIGHT'
2404
2405 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2406
2407 `:data DATA'
2408
2409 DATA must be either
2410
2411 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2412 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2413
2414 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2415
2416 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2417 bitmap.
2418
2419 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2420 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2421 in the file.
2422
2423 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
2424
2425 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2426 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2427 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2428 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2429
2430 Additional image properties supported are:
2431
2432 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2433
2434 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2435 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2436 name.
2437
2438 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2439 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2440
2441 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2442 to display compressed images.
2443
2444 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
2445
2446 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2447 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2448 defined.
2449
2450 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2451
2452 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
2453 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2454 are:
2455
2456 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2457
2458 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2459 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2460 properties defined.
2461
2462 **** GIF, image type `gif'
2463
2464 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2465 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2466
2467 Additional image properties supported are:
2468
2469 `:index INDEX'
2470
2471 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2472 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2473
2474 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2475 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2476 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2477 every 0.1 seconds.
2478
2479 (defun show-anim (file max)
2480 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2481 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2482
2483 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2484 (when (= idx max)
2485 (setq idx 0))
2486 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
2487 (save-excursion
2488 (set-buffer buffer)
2489 (goto-char (point-min))
2490 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2491 (insert-image img "x"))
2492 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2493
2494 **** PNG, image type `png'
2495
2496 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2497 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2498 properties defined.
2499
2500 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2501
2502 Additional image properties supported are:
2503
2504 `:pt-width WIDTH'
2505
2506 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
2507 integer. This is a required property.
2508
2509 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
2510
2511 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
2512 must be a integer. This is an required property.
2513
2514 `:bounding-box BOX'
2515
2516 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2517 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2518 files. This is an required property.
2519
2520 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2521 lisp/gs.el.
2522
2523 *** Lisp interface.
2524
2525 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2526 which are supported in the current configuration.
2527
2528 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2529 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2530 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2531 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
2532 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
2533
2534 *** Simplified image API, image.el
2535
2536 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2537 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2538 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2539 define an image based on available image types. The functions
2540 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2541 buffer.
2542
2543 +++
2544 ** Display margins.
2545
2546 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2547 and images.
2548
2549 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2550 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2551 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2552 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2553 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2554 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2555 of the display margins.
2556
2557 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2558 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2559 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2560 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2561 in this file).
2562
2563 +++
2564 ** Help display
2565
2566 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2567 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2568 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2569 that have a `help-echo' property.
2570
2571 The value of the `help-echo' property must be a string. For tool-bar
2572 items, their key definition is used to determine the help to display.
2573 If their definition contains a property `:help FORM', FORM is
2574 evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the caption of the
2575 tool-bar item is used.
2576
2577 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
2578 help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
2579 help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
2580
2581 +++
2582 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
2583
2584 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
2585 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
2586
2587 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
2588 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
2589 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
2590 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
2591 used.
2592
2593 (global-set-key [A-down]
2594 #'(lambda ()
2595 (interactive)
2596 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
2597 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
2598 (global-set-key [A-up]
2599 #'(lambda ()
2600 (interactive)
2601 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
2602 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
2603
2604 +++
2605 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
2606
2607 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
2608 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
2609 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
2610 is called with one argument, POS.
2611
2612 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
2613 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
2614 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
2615 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
2616 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
2617
2618 +++
2619 ** Tool bar support.
2620
2621 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
2622 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
2623 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
2624 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
2625 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
2626 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
2627
2628 *** Tool bar item definitions
2629
2630 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2631 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
2632 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
2633
2634 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
2635 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
2636 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
2637 property (see below).
2638
2639 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
2640 binding are currently ignored.
2641
2642 The following properties are recognized:
2643
2644 `:enable FORM'.
2645
2646 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
2647 or disabled.
2648
2649 `:visible FORM'
2650
2651 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
2652
2653 `:filter FUNCTION'
2654
2655 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
2656 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
2657 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
2658
2659 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
2660
2661 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
2662 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
2663
2664 `:image IMAGES'
2665
2666 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
2667 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
2668 meaning of each of the four elements:
2669
2670 Index Use when item is
2671 ----------------------------------------
2672 0 enabled and selected
2673 1 enabled and deselected
2674 2 disabled and selected
2675 3 disabled and deselected
2676
2677 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
2678 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
2679
2680 `:help HELP-STRING'.
2681
2682 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
2683 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
2684
2685 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
2686
2687 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
2688 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
2689 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
2690
2691 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
2692 raised when the mouse moves over them.
2693
2694 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
2695 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
2696 pixels. Default is 1.
2697
2698 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
2699 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
2700
2701 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
2702
2703 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
2704 a tool bar item. If
2705
2706 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
2707 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
2708 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
2709
2710 is the original tool bar item definition, then
2711
2712 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
2713
2714 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
2715 item.
2716
2717 ** Mode line changes.
2718
2719 +++
2720 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
2721
2722 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
2723 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
2724 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
2725
2726 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
2727 a `local-map' text property.
2728
2729 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
2730 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
2731
2732 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
2733 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
2734 `local-map' property.
2735
2736 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
2737 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
2738 example.
2739
2740 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
2741 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
2742
2743 +++
2744 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
2745 variable mode-line-format to nil.
2746
2747 +++
2748 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
2749
2750 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
2751 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
2752 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
2753 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
2754 line.
2755
2756 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
2757 `header-line'.
2758
2759 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
2760 position in the header-line.
2761
2762 +++
2763 ** Text property `display'
2764
2765 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
2766 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
2767 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
2768 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
2769
2770 *** Variable width and height spaces
2771
2772 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
2773 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
2774 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
2775 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
2776 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
2777 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
2778 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
2779
2780 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
2781 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
2782 properties described below.
2783
2784 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
2785 characters having the `display' property.
2786
2787 - :width WIDTH
2788
2789 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
2790 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
2791
2792 - :relative-width FACTOR
2793
2794 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
2795 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
2796 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
2797 width of that character by FACTOR.
2798
2799 - :align-to HPOS
2800
2801 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
2802 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
2803
2804 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
2805
2806 - :height HEIGHT
2807
2808 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
2809 normal line height.
2810
2811 - :relative-height FACTOR
2812
2813 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
2814 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
2815
2816 - :ascent ASCENT
2817
2818 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
2819 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
2820 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
2821 equal to 100.
2822
2823 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
2824
2825 *** Images
2826
2827 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
2828 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
2829 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
2830 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
2831 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
2832 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
2833 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
2834 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
2835 as display specification.
2836
2837 *** Other display properties
2838
2839 - :space-width FACTOR
2840
2841 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
2842 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
2843 integer or float.
2844
2845 - :height HEIGHT
2846
2847 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
2848
2849 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
2850 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
2851 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
2852 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
2853 a font is available counts as a step.
2854
2855 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
2856 as tall as the frame's default font.
2857
2858 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
2859 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
2860
2861 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
2862 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
2863
2864 - :raise FACTOR
2865
2866 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
2867 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
2868 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
2869 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
2870 `:height' subproperty.
2871
2872 *** Conditional display properties
2873
2874 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
2875 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
2876 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
2877 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
2878 the text having the `display' property.
2879
2880 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
2881 `(:when t SPEC)'.
2882
2883 +++
2884 ** New menu separator types.
2885
2886 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
2887 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
2888 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
2889 to specify other menu separator types.
2890
2891 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
2892
2893 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
2894 separator occurs.
2895
2896 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
2897
2898 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
2899
2900 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
2901
2902 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
2903
2904 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
2905
2906 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2907
2908 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
2909
2910 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
2911
2912 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
2913
2914 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
2915 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
2916
2917 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
2918
2919 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
2920
2921 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
2922
2923 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
2924
2925 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
2926
2927 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
2928
2929 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
2930
2931 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2932
2933 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
2934
2935 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
2936
2937 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
2938
2939 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
2940
2941 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
2942
2943 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
2944
2945 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
2946 the corresponding single-line separators.
2947
2948 +++
2949 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
2950
2951 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
2952 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
2953 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
2954 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
2955 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
2956 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
2957 default foreground is black.
2958
2959 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
2960 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
2961 `ScrollBarBackground').
2962
2963 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
2964 settings for scroll bar colors.
2965
2966 +++
2967 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
2968 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
2969
2970 ---
2971 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
2972 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
2973 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
2974 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
2975 the original window start.
2976
2977 ---
2978 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
2979 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
2980 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
2981
2982 +++
2983 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
2984
2985 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
2986 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
2987 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
2988 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
2989
2990 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
2991 fixed-width and fixed-height.
2992
2993 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
2994
2995 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
2996 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
2997 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
2998 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
2999 temporarily to nil, for example
3000
3001 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3002 (enlarge-window 10))
3003
3004 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3005 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3006
3007 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3008 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3009 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3010 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3011 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3012 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3013 ^L
3014 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3015
3016 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3017 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3018 \f
3019 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3020
3021 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3022
3023 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3024 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3025 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3026
3027 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3028 is the one that is used.
3029
3030 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3031 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3032 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3033 separate from the command's regular output.
3034 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3035 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3036 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3037 the buffer name.
3038
3039 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3040 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3041 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3042 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3043
3044 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3045 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3046 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3047 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3048
3049 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3050 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3051 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3052 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3053
3054 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3055 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3056 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3057 they never ignore case.
3058
3059 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3060 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3061 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3062 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3063 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3064 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3065 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3066
3067 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3068 the same format that was used in the file before.
3069
3070 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3071 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3072
3073 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3074 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3075 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3076
3077 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3078 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3079 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3080 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3081 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3082 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3083 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3084
3085 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3086 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3087 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3088 format. You can now customize these variables.
3089
3090 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3091 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3092 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3093 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3094
3095 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3096 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3097 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3098
3099 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3100 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3101 doesn't have any effect.
3102
3103 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3104 not one per buffer.
3105
3106 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3107 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3108 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3109
3110 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3111 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3112 `auto-show-mode' command.
3113
3114 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3115 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3116 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3117 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3118 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3119
3120 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3121 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3122
3123 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3124 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3125 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3126
3127 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3128 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3129 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3130 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3131
3132 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3133
3134 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3135 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3136 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3137 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3138 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3139
3140 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3141 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3142
3143 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3144 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3145 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3146 `?' on other systems.
3147
3148 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3149 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3150 Unix.
3151
3152 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3153 current codepage when it starts.
3154
3155 ** Mail changes
3156
3157 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3158 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3159 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3160 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3161 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3162 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3163 latin-1:
3164
3165 MIME-version: 1.0
3166 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3167 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3168
3169 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3170 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3171 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3172 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3173 buffer-file-coding-system.
3174
3175 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3176 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3177 mail.
3178
3179 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3180 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3181 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3182 list of possible coding systems.
3183
3184 ** CC Mode changes
3185
3186 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3187 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3188 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3189 docstring for details.
3190
3191 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3192 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3193 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3194 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3195 lineup functions use this feature currently.
3196
3197 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3198 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3199
3200 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3201 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3202
3203 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3204 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3205 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3206 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3207 anonymous classes.
3208
3209 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3210 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3211
3212 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3213 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3214 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3215 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3216
3217 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3218 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3219 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3220 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3221 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3222
3223 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3224
3225 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3226
3227 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3228 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3229
3230 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3231
3232 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3233 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3234 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3235 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3236 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3237
3238 ** Gnus changes.
3239
3240 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3241 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3242 Gnus manual for the full story.
3243
3244 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3245 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3246 group, which is created automatically.
3247
3248 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3249 values.
3250
3251 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3252
3253 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3254 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3255
3256 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3257 `C-u C-c C-c'.
3258
3259 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3260
3261 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3262 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3263
3264 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3265
3266 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3267 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3268
3269 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3270 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3271
3272 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3273 control over simplification.
3274
3275 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3276
3277 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3278 limit.
3279
3280 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3281
3282 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3283
3284 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
3285 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3286 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3287
3288 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3289 `a' forces normal posting method.
3290
3291 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3292 -- `W d'.
3293
3294 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3295 to a non-nil value.
3296
3297 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3298 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3299
3300 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3301 has been added.
3302
3303 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3304
3305 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3306
3307 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3308 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3309
3310 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3311 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3312
3313 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3314
3315 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3316 been added.
3317
3318 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3319 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3320
3321 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3322 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3323
3324 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3325
3326 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3327
3328 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3329
3330 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3331
3332 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3333 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3334 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3335
3336 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3337 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3338 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3339 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3340 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3341
3342 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3343 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3344 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3345 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3346
3347 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3348 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3349 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3350 mismatch.
3351
3352 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3353
3354 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3355 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3356
3357 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3358 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3359 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3360 removed from the label.
3361
3362 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3363 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3364
3365 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3366 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3367
3368 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3369 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
3370 expressions.
3371
3372 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3373
3374 ** New/deleted modes and packages
3375
3376 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3377 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3378
3379 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3380 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3381 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3382
3383 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3384 changes with a special face.
3385
3386 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3387 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3388 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3389 \f
3390 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3391
3392 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3393 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3394 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3395 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3396 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3397
3398 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3399 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3400 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3401
3402 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3403 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3404 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3405 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3406 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3407 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3408 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3409 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3410 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3411
3412 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3413 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
3414 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
3415 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
3416 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
3417 program.
3418
3419 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
3420 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
3421 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
3422 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
3423 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
3424 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
3425
3426 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
3427 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
3428 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
3429 was not documented clearly before.
3430
3431 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
3432 This includes Tetris and Snake.
3433 \f
3434 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
3435
3436 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
3437 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
3438 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
3439 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
3440
3441 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
3442 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
3443 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
3444
3445 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
3446
3447 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
3448 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3449
3450 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3451 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3452 integers.
3453
3454 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3455 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3456 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3457 file names and attributes are returned.
3458
3459 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3460 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3461 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3462 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3463 returns the result.
3464
3465 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3466 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3467
3468 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
3469
3470 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3471 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3472 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3473 optionally.
3474
3475 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3476 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3477
3478 **
3479 The new function process-running-child-p
3480 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3481 terminal to its own child process.
3482
3483 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3484 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3485 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3486 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3487
3488 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3489 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3490
3491 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3492 :included is an alias for :visible.
3493
3494 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3495 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3496 to move or copy menu entries.
3497
3498 ** Multibyte editing changes
3499
3500 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3501 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3502 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3503 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3504 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3505 (setq char (sref str idx)
3506 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3507 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3508
3509 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3510 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3511 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3512
3513 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3514 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3515 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3516
3517 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3518
3519 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3520 across the boundary.
3521
3522 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3523 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3524 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3525 contains 8-bit characters.
3526 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
3527 contains invalid characters.
3528
3529 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
3530 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
3531 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
3532 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
3533 way.
3534
3535 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
3536 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
3537 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
3538 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
3539
3540 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
3541 compose Thai characters in a string.
3542
3543 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
3544 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
3545 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
3546 menus should always use the third argument.
3547
3548 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
3549 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
3550 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
3551 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
3552
3553 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
3554 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
3555 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
3556 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
3557
3558 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
3559 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
3560 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
3561 echo area contents.
3562
3563 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
3564
3565 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
3566 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
3567 requested feature cannot be loaded.
3568
3569 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
3570 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
3571 means to clear out that attribute.
3572
3573 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
3574 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
3575
3576 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
3577 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
3578 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
3579 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
3580
3581 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
3582 the gap of the current buffer.
3583
3584 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
3585 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
3586 current buffer.
3587
3588 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
3589 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
3590 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
3591 it back in after any modifications have been made.
3592 \f
3593 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
3594
3595 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
3596 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
3597 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
3598 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
3599 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
3600
3601 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
3602 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
3603 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
3604 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
3605 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
3606
3607 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
3608 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
3609 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
3610
3611 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
3612 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
3613 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
3614 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
3615 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
3616 results.
3617
3618 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
3619 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
3620 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
3621 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
3622 \f
3623 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
3624
3625 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
3626 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
3627 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
3628 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
3629
3630 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
3631 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
3632 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
3633 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
3634 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
3635 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
3636 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
3637 region.
3638
3639 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
3640 selective undo.
3641
3642 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
3643 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
3644 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
3645 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
3646 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
3647
3648 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
3649 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
3650 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
3651 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
3652
3653 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
3654 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
3655 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
3656 something that most users not do.
3657
3658 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
3659 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
3660 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
3661 applications.
3662
3663 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
3664 pasting operations.
3665
3666 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
3667 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
3668 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
3669 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
3670 `ps-printer-name'.
3671
3672 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
3673 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
3674 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
3675 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
3676 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
3677 hits a new word.
3678
3679 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
3680 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
3681 to be confused by TeX commands.
3682
3683 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
3684 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
3685 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
3686 of various alternative replacements and actions.
3687
3688 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
3689 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
3690 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
3691 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
3692 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
3693
3694 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
3695 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
3696
3697 ** Changes in input method usage.
3698
3699 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
3700 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
3701 respectively.
3702
3703 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
3704
3705 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
3706 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
3707
3708 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
3709 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
3710
3711 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
3712
3713 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
3714
3715 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
3716 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
3717
3718 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
3719 given in the following case:
3720 o When you are using a complex input method.
3721 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
3722
3723 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
3724 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
3725 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
3726 setting it to t is helpful.
3727
3728 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
3729
3730 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
3731 keys:
3732 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
3733 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
3734 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
3735 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
3736 environment.
3737
3738 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
3739 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
3740 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
3741 get
3742
3743 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
3744
3745 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
3746
3747 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
3748 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
3749
3750 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
3751 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
3752 its owner and group.
3753
3754 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
3755 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
3756
3757 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
3758 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
3759
3760 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
3761 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
3762 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
3763 by the left edge of the rectangle.
3764
3765 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
3766 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
3767 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
3768 for writing keyboard macros.
3769
3770 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
3771 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
3772 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
3773 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
3774 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
3775 info.
3776
3777 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
3778
3779 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
3780 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
3781 contents only.
3782
3783 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
3784 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
3785 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
3786 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
3787
3788 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
3789 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
3790 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
3791
3792 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
3793 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
3794 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
3795 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
3796
3797 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
3798 failure if the command produces no output.
3799
3800 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
3801 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
3802 the mouse.
3803
3804 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
3805 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
3806 function and variable names.
3807
3808 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
3809 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
3810 file-coding-system-alist.
3811
3812 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
3813 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
3814 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
3815 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
3816 according to the current fontset.
3817
3818 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
3819
3820 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
3821 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
3822 nonascii-insert-offset.
3823
3824 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
3825 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
3826 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
3827 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
3828
3829 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
3830 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
3831
3832 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
3833 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
3834
3835 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
3836 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
3837 command keys.
3838
3839 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
3840 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
3841
3842 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
3843 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
3844 all variables that have documentation.
3845
3846 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
3847 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
3848 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
3849 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
3850 it should show; the default is 20.
3851
3852 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
3853 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
3854 of your input.
3855
3856 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
3857 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
3858 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
3859 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
3860 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
3861 Newly added options are included as well.
3862
3863 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
3864 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
3865 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
3866
3867 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
3868 Customize menu.
3869
3870 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
3871 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
3872
3873 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
3874 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
3875 invoked.
3876
3877 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
3878 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
3879 The default is 1.
3880
3881 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
3882 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
3883 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
3884 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
3885 sensibly.
3886
3887 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
3888
3889 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
3890 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
3891 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
3892
3893 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
3894 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
3895 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
3896 every night.
3897
3898 ** Desktop changes
3899
3900 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
3901 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
3902
3903 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
3904 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
3905
3906 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
3907 read and post multi-lingual articles.
3908
3909 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
3910 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
3911 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
3912 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
3913 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
3914 made invisible again.
3915
3916 ** Mail reading and sending changes
3917
3918 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
3919 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
3920 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
3921 toggle.
3922
3923 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
3924 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
3925 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
3926 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
3927 rmail-default-body-file.
3928
3929 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
3930 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
3931 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
3932
3933 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
3934 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
3935 is evaluated to insert the signature.
3936
3937 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
3938 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
3939 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
3940 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
3941 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
3942 especially interested in trying feedmail.
3943
3944 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
3945 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
3946 provided by feedmail are:
3947
3948 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
3949 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
3950 there is also a queue for draft messages
3951
3952 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
3953 be prompted for confirmation
3954
3955 **** does smart filling of address headers
3956
3957 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
3958 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
3959 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
3960
3961 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
3962 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
3963 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
3964 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
3965
3966 ** Dired changes
3967
3968 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
3969 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
3970
3971 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
3972 run Dired on the directory name at point.
3973
3974 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
3975 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
3976 for a specified regexp.
3977
3978 ** VC Changes
3979
3980 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
3981 conveniently.
3982
3983 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
3984 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
3985 Dired.
3986
3987 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
3988 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
3989 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
3990 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
3991
3992 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
3993 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
3994 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
3995 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
3996 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
3997
3998 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
3999 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4000 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4001 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4002 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4003
4004 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4005 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4006 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4007 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4008
4009 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4010 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4011 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4012
4013 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4014 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4015 session to resolve them.
4016
4017 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4018 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4019 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4020 uses as well).
4021
4022 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4023 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4024 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4025 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4026 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4027 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4028 using ediff.
4029
4030 ** Changes in Font Lock
4031
4032 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4033 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4034 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4035 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4036 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4037
4038 ** Frame name display changes
4039
4040 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4041 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4042 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4043 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4044
4045 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4046 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4047 menu.
4048
4049 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4050
4051 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4052 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4053 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4054
4055 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4056
4057 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4058 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4059 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4060
4061 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4062 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4063 the following line.
4064
4065 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4066 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4067 previously sent input.
4068
4069 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4070 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4071 as the search string.
4072
4073 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4074 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4075
4076 ** C mode changes
4077
4078 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4079 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4080 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
4081 definition.
4082
4083 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4084 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4085 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4086 style is still the default however.
4087
4088 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4089
4090 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4091 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4092 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4093
4094 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4095 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4096
4097 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4098 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4099
4100 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4101 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4102
4103 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4104 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4105
4106 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4107 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4108 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4109 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4110
4111 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
4112
4113 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
4114 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4115 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4116
4117 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4118 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4119 expanding dynamically.
4120
4121 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4122 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4123
4124 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4125 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4126 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4127 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4128
4129 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4130
4131 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4132
4133 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4134 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4135 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4136 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4137 against the first word in the title.
4138
4139 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4140 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4141 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
4142 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
4143 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
4144 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
4145
4146 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4147 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4148 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4149 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4150
4151 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
4152
4153 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4154 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4155 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4156 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4157 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4158 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4159
4160 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4161 Editing group once the package is loaded.
4162
4163 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4164 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4165 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4166
4167 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4168 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4169
4170 ** Ispell changes.
4171
4172 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4173 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
4174 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4175
4176 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
4177 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4178 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4179 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
4180 include:
4181
4182 o URLs are automatically skipped
4183 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4184
4185 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4186
4187 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4188
4189 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4190 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4191 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4192 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4193
4194 *** New recursive parser.
4195
4196 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4197 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4198 recursive parser scans the individual files.
4199
4200 *** Parsing only part of a document.
4201
4202 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4203 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4204 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4205
4206 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4207
4208 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
4209
4210 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4211
4212 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4213
4214 *** Using multiple selection buffers
4215
4216 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4217 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4218
4219 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4220
4221 *** References to external documents.
4222
4223 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4224 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4225 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4226 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4227 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4228 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4229 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4230
4231 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4232
4233 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4234 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4235
4236 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4237 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4238
4239 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4240
4241 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4242 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4243
4244 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4245
4246 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4247 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4248 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4249 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4250 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4251 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4252 more.
4253
4254 *** Support for the varioref package
4255
4256 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4257
4258 *** New hooks
4259
4260 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4261 and citations are created. These hooks are
4262 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4263 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
4264
4265 *** Citations outside LaTeX
4266
4267 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4268 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4269
4270 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
4271
4272 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4273 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4274 fontified, use
4275
4276 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4277
4278 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4279 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4280 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4281 directories that contain the same file name.
4282
4283 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4284 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4285 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4286 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4287 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4288 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4289 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4290 directory.
4291
4292 ** New modes and packages
4293
4294 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4295 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4296 it, but some do not.
4297
4298 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4299 code.
4300
4301 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4302 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4303 around in a buffer.
4304
4305 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4306
4307 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4308 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4309 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4310 established system of notation similar to Chess.
4311
4312 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4313 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4314 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4315
4316 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4317 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4318 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4319 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4320 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4321 the like.
4322
4323 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4324 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4325
4326 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4327 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4328 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4329 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4330
4331 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4332
4333 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4334 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4335 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4336 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4337 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4338 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4339 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4340 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4341 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4342 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4343 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4344
4345 Platform-specific modes:
4346
4347 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4348 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4349 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4350 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4351 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4352 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4353 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4354 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4355 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4356 \f
4357 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4358
4359 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4360 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4361 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4362 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4363
4364 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4365 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4366 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4367
4368 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4369 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4370 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4371 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4372
4373 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4374 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4375 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4376 environment.
4377
4378 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4379 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4380 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4381 current input method for reading this one event.
4382
4383 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4384 now control whether to output certain characters as
4385 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4386 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4387 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4388 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4389 \f
4390 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4391
4392 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4393 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4394
4395 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4396 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4397 always increases point by 1.
4398
4399 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4400 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4401
4402 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4403
4404 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4405 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4406 default value changed. For example,
4407
4408 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4409 :type 'integer
4410 :group 'foo
4411 :version "20.3")
4412
4413 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
4414 :version "20.3")
4415
4416 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
4417 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
4418 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
4419 `:version' in the top level group.
4420
4421 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
4422
4423 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
4424 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
4425
4426 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
4427 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
4428 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
4429 to themselves.
4430
4431 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
4432 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
4433 values whatever.
4434
4435 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
4436 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
4437 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
4438
4439 ** Frame-local variables.
4440
4441 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
4442 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
4443 local bindings for that variable.
4444
4445 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
4446 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
4447 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
4448 parameter name.
4449
4450 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
4451 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
4452 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
4453 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4454
4455 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4456 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4457 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4458 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4459
4460 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4461 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4462 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4463 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4464 See the documentation in sregex.el.
4465
4466 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4467 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4468 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4469 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4470
4471 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4472 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4473
4474 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4475 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4476 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4477
4478 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4479 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4480 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4481 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4482
4483 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4484 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4485 empty input.
4486
4487 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4488 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4489 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4490 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4491 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4492
4493 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4494 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4495 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4496 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4497
4498 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4499 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4500 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4501 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4502 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4503
4504 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4505 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4506 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4507 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4508
4509 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4510 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4511 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4512
4513 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4514 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4515 was directed to display this buffer.
4516
4517 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4518 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4519 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4520 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4521 set-window-configuration.
4522
4523 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4524 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4525 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
4526 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
4527
4528 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
4529 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
4530 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
4531
4532 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
4533 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
4534 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
4535
4536 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
4537 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
4538
4539 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
4540 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
4541
4542 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
4543 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
4544 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
4545
4546 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
4547 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
4548 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
4549 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
4550
4551 ** Menu changes
4552
4553 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
4554 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
4555 better supported.
4556
4557 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
4558 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
4559 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
4560 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
4561 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
4562
4563 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
4564
4565 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
4566 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
4567 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
4568 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
4569
4570 The format is:
4571 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
4572 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
4573 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
4574 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
4575 The supported properties include
4576
4577 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4578 item is enabled.
4579 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4580 item should appear in the menu.
4581 :filter FILTER-FN
4582 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
4583 which will be REAL-BINDING.
4584 It should return a binding to use instead.
4585 :keys DESCRIPTION
4586 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
4587 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
4588 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
4589 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
4590 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
4591 keyboard binding.
4592 :key-sequence nil
4593 This means that the command normally has no
4594 keyboard equivalent.
4595 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
4596 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
4597 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
4598 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
4599 value says whether this button is currently selected.
4600
4601 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
4602 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
4603
4604 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
4605
4606 ** New event types
4607
4608 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
4609 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
4610 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
4611 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
4612
4613 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
4614
4615 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4616 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
4617 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
4618 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
4619 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
4620 forward, away from the user.
4621
4622 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4623
4624 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
4625 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
4626 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
4627 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
4628 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
4629
4630 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
4631
4632 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4633 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
4634 that were dragged and dropped.
4635
4636 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4637
4638 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
4639
4640 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
4641 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
4642 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
4643
4644 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
4645 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
4646 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
4647
4648 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
4649 in Emacs 19 and before.
4650
4651 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
4652 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
4653
4654 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
4655 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
4656 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
4657 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
4658
4659 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
4660 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
4661 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
4662 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
4663 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
4664
4665 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
4666 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
4667 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
4668 consistent with the new representation.
4669
4670 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
4671 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
4672 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
4673 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4674
4675 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
4676 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
4677 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
4678
4679 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
4680 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
4681 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4682
4683 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
4684 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
4685 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
4686
4687 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4688 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
4689
4690 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
4691 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
4692
4693 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
4694 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
4695 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
4696 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
4697
4698 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
4699 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
4700
4701 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
4702 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
4703 buffer or string being searched.
4704
4705 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
4706 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
4707 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
4708 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
4709 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
4710 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
4711 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
4712
4713 *** Structure of coding system changed.
4714
4715 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
4716 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
4717 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
4718 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
4719 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
4720 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
4721 define-coding-system-alias.
4722
4723 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
4724 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
4725 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
4726 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
4727 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
4728 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
4729 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
4730 `iso-8859-1'.
4731
4732 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
4733 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
4734 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
4735 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
4736
4737 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
4738 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
4739 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
4740 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
4741
4742 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
4743 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
4744 This function requires a user interaction.
4745
4746 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
4747 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
4748 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
4749 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
4750 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
4751 select-safe-coding-system.
4752
4753 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
4754 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
4755 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
4756 was done.
4757
4758 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
4759 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
4760 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
4761
4762 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
4763 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
4764 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
4765 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
4766
4767 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
4768 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
4769 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
4770 converted.
4771
4772 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
4773 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
4774
4775 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
4776 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
4777 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
4778 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
4779 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
4780 range of characters.
4781
4782 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
4783 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
4784
4785 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
4786 in the current buffer at position POS.
4787
4788 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
4789 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
4790 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
4791 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
4792 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
4793 binding input-method-function to nil.
4794
4795 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
4796 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
4797 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
4798 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
4799 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
4800
4801 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
4802 subsequent events of a key sequence.
4803
4804 *** You can customize any language environment by using
4805 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
4806
4807 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
4808 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
4809 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
4810 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
4811 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
4812 \f
4813 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
4814
4815 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
4816 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
4817 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
4818 tree structure.
4819
4820 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
4821 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
4822
4823 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
4824 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
4825 in your .emacs file.)
4826
4827 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
4828 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
4829
4830 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
4831 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
4832
4833 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
4834 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
4835 kills the region.
4836
4837 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
4838 delete the character before point, as usual.
4839
4840 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
4841 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
4842 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
4843
4844 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
4845 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
4846 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
4847 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
4848 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
4849 past.)
4850
4851 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
4852 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
4853 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
4854 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
4855 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
4856
4857 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
4858 and is an alias for it.
4859
4860 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
4861 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
4862
4863 ** Scrolling changes
4864
4865 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
4866 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
4867
4868 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
4869 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
4870 where it started.
4871
4872 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
4873 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
4874 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
4875 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
4876
4877 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
4878 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
4879 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
4880 recenters the window.
4881
4882 ** International character set support (MULE)
4883
4884 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
4885 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
4886 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
4887 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
4888 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
4889 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
4890
4891 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
4892 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
4893 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
4894 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
4895 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
4896
4897 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
4898 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
4899 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
4900 language, to make it possible to type them.
4901
4902 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
4903 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
4904
4905 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
4906 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
4907
4908 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
4909
4910 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
4911
4912 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
4913 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
4914 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
4915 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
4916 characters for their work until they want to change.
4917
4918 *** Input methods
4919
4920 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
4921 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
4922 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
4923 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
4924 support several input methods.
4925
4926 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
4927 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
4928 work.
4929
4930 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
4931 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
4932 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
4933 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
4934 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
4935 letter.
4936
4937 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
4938 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
4939 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
4940 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
4941 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
4942
4943 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
4944 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
4945 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
4946 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
4947
4948 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
4949 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
4950 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
4951 the first guess is wrong.
4952
4953 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
4954 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
4955
4956 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
4957 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
4958 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
4959 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
4960
4961 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
4962 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
4963 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
4964 translate automatically to and from either one.
4965
4966 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
4967
4968 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
4969 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
4970 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
4971 what you want.
4972
4973 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
4974 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
4975 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
4976 multibyte characters in that buffer.
4977
4978 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
4979 character conversion as well.
4980
4981 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
4982
4983 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
4984 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
4985 requires using many fonts.
4986
4987 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
4988 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
4989
4990 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
4991 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
4992 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
4993 you would use a font.
4994
4995 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
4996 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
4997 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
4998
4999 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5000 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5001 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5002 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5003 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5004
5005 *** Defining fontsets.
5006
5007 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5008 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5009 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5010
5011 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5012 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5013 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5014 standard fontset are created automatically.
5015
5016 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5017 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5018 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5019 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5020 name is `fontset-startup'.
5021
5022 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5023 The resource value should have this form:
5024 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5025 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5026 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5027 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5028 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5029 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5030 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5031 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5032 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5033
5034 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5035 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5036 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5037
5038 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5039 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5040 following resource,
5041 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5042 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5043 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5044 Here is the substitution rule:
5045 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5046 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5047 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5048 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5049 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5050
5051 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5052 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5053 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5054
5055 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5056 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5057 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5058 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5059 fontsets.
5060
5061 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5062 defaults for a particular choice of language.
5063
5064 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5065 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5066 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5067 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5068 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5069 system for new files that you create.
5070
5071 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5072 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5073 whole Emacs session.
5074
5075 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5076 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5077 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5078
5079 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5080 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5081 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5082 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5083 coding systems that Emacs supports.
5084
5085 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5086 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5087 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5088 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5089 is used for *the immediately following command*.
5090
5091 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5092 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5093
5094 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5095 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5096
5097 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5098 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5099
5100 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5101 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5102 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5103 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5104 of the file.
5105
5106 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5107 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5108 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5109 translated into that character code.
5110
5111 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5112 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5113
5114 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5115
5116 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5117 the coding system for keyboard input.
5118
5119 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5120 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5121 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5122
5123 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5124
5125 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5126 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5127 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5128 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5129 designed to work with terminals.
5130
5131 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5132 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5133 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5134 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5135 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5136 in the corresponding buffer.
5137
5138 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5139
5140 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5141 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5142 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5143
5144 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5145 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5146 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5147 want to use.
5148
5149 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5150 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5151
5152 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5153 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5154 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5155 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5156
5157 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5158 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5159 related information.
5160
5161 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5162 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5163 scripts.
5164
5165 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5166 information about the support for a particular language.
5167 You specify the language as an argument.
5168
5169 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5170 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5171 first dash.
5172
5173 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5174 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5175 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
5176 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5177
5178 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5179 B big5 (Chinese)
5180 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5181 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5182 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5183 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5184 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5185 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5186 K euc-korea (Korean)
5187 R koi8 (Russian)
5188 Q tibetan
5189 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5190 T lao
5191 T tis620 (Thai)
5192 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5193 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5194 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5195 v viqr (Vietnamese)
5196 z hz (Chinese)
5197
5198 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5199 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5200 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5201 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5202
5203 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5204 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5205
5206 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5207 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5208 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5209 Rmail files themselves.
5210
5211 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5212 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5213
5214 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5215 for sending mail:
5216
5217 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5218 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5219 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5220 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5221 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5222
5223 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5224 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5225 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5226 translations.
5227
5228 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5229 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5230 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5231 without any conversion.
5232
5233 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5234 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5235 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5236 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5237
5238 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5239 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5240
5241 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5242 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5243
5244 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5245 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5246
5247 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5248 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5249 in the buffer before point.
5250
5251 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5252 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5253 you are using.
5254
5255 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5256 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5257
5258 ** File locking works with NFS now.
5259
5260 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5261 in the same directory as FILENAME.
5262
5263 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5264 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5265 can become a bottleneck.
5266
5267 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5268 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5269 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5270 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5271 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5272 so useful that the change is worth while.
5273
5274 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5275 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5276 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5277 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5278
5279 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5280 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5281 show-paren-mode.
5282
5283 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5284 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5285 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5286
5287 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5288 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5289 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5290
5291 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5292 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5293 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5294
5295 ** Changes in View mode.
5296
5297 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5298 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5299
5300 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5301 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5302
5303 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5304 previous state.
5305
5306 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5307 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5308
5309 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5310 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5311 not just the selected window.
5312
5313 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5314 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5315 turns View mode on or off.
5316
5317 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5318 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5319 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5320
5321 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5322 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5323
5324 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5325 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5326 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5327 which version to compare with.
5328
5329 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
5330 blocks if a match is inside the block.
5331
5332 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5333 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5334 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5335 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5336
5337 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5338 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5339 blocks, all of them or none.
5340
5341 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5342 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5343 confirmation first.
5344
5345 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5346 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5347 However, the mode will not be changed if
5348 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5349 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5350 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5351 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5352
5353 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5354
5355 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5356 these commands do not change the major mode.
5357
5358 ** M-x occur changes.
5359
5360 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5361 it performs a case-sensitive search.
5362
5363 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5364 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5365 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5366
5367 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5368 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5369 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5370 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5371 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5372
5373 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5374 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5375 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5376 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5377
5378 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5379 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5380 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5381
5382 ** Outline mode changes.
5383
5384 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5385
5386 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5387
5388 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5389 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5390 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5391 was already active.
5392
5393 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5394 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5395 get confused by it.
5396
5397 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5398 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5399
5400 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5401
5402 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5403 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5404 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5405 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5406
5407 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5408 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5409 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5410
5411 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5412 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5413 values.
5414
5415 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
5416 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
5417 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
5418 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
5419
5420 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
5421 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
5422 can be. The default value is 30.
5423
5424 ** Changes in Mail mode.
5425
5426 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
5427 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
5428 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
5429 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
5430 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
5431 behavior.
5432
5433 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
5434 compose-mail-other-frame.
5435
5436 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
5437 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
5438 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
5439 buffer that shows the original message.
5440
5441 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
5442 with separator lines around the contents.
5443
5444 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
5445 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
5446 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
5447 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
5448
5449 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
5450
5451 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
5452 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
5453 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5454 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5455
5456 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5457 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5458 /etc/passwd.
5459
5460 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5461 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5462 /etc/passwd.
5463
5464 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5465 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5466 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5467 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5468
5469 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5470 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5471 be taken to be magic.
5472
5473 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5474 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5475 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5476
5477 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5478 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5479
5480 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5481 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5482
5483 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5484
5485 new key dired.el binding old key
5486 ------- ---------------- -------
5487 * c dired-change-marks c
5488 * m dired-mark m
5489 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5490 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5491 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5492 * u dired-unmark u
5493 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5494 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5495 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5496 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5497 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5498 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5499
5500 ** Rmail changes.
5501
5502 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5503 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5504 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5505 each time you run it.
5506
5507 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5508 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5509
5510 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5511 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5512 means to move in the opposite direction.
5513
5514 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5515 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5516
5517 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5518 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5519 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5520 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5521 for output.
5522
5523 ** Gnus changes.
5524
5525 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
5526
5527 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
5528 Gnus.
5529
5530 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
5531 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
5532
5533 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
5534 article mode line.
5535
5536 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
5537
5538 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
5539
5540 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
5541
5542 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
5543 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
5544 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
5545
5546 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
5547
5548 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
5549
5550 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
5551 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
5552
5553 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
5554 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
5555 used to pick articles.
5556
5557 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
5558 another have been added.
5559
5560 `M-x gnus-change-server'
5561
5562 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
5563 generating lines in buffers.
5564
5565 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
5566 `M-C-_'.
5567
5568 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
5569
5570 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
5571
5572 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
5573
5574 *** Scores can be decayed.
5575
5576 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
5577
5578 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
5579 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
5580
5581 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
5582 the native server.
5583
5584 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
5585
5586 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
5587 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
5588
5589 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
5590
5591 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
5592 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
5593
5594 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
5595 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
5596
5597 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
5598 a group.
5599
5600 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
5601 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
5602
5603 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
5604
5605 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
5606
5607 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
5608
5609 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
5610
5611 Use the `Y c' command.
5612
5613 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
5614
5615 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
5616
5617 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
5618
5619 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
5620 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
5621
5622 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
5623
5624 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
5625
5626 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
5627 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
5628
5629 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
5630
5631 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
5632 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
5633 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
5634 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
5635 this issue.)
5636
5637 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
5638 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
5639 particular news group. This can be done by:
5640
5641 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
5642
5643 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
5644 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
5645 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
5646 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
5647 for reading and posting).
5648
5649 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
5650 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
5651 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
5652 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
5653 there.
5654
5655 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
5656 default. Here are some of these default settings:
5657
5658 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
5659 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
5660 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
5661 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
5662 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
5663
5664 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
5665 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
5666
5667 ** CC mode changes.
5668
5669 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
5670 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
5671 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
5672 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
5673 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
5674 loaded.
5675
5676 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
5677 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
5678 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
5679 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
5680 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
5681 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
5682
5683 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
5684 of the current buffer.
5685
5686 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
5687 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
5688 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
5689
5690 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
5691 style that the Python developers like.
5692
5693 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
5694 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
5695 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
5696
5697 ** VC Changes [new]
5698
5699 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
5700 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
5701 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
5702
5703 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
5704 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
5705 developers.
5706
5707 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
5708 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
5709
5710 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
5711 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
5712 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
5713 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
5714
5715 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
5716 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
5717
5718 ** Calendar changes.
5719
5720 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
5721 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
5722 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
5723
5724 ** ps-print changes
5725
5726 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
5727
5728 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
5729
5730 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
5731 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
5732 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
5733 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
5734 It defaults to `letter'.
5735 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
5736
5737 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
5738 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
5739 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
5740
5741 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
5742 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
5743 It defaults to 1.
5744
5745 *** Horizontal layout
5746
5747 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
5748 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
5749 All are measured in points.
5750
5751 *** Vertical layout
5752
5753 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
5754 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
5755 All are measured in points.
5756
5757 *** Headers
5758
5759 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
5760 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
5761 margin above the text.
5762
5763 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
5764 framing box is printed around the header.
5765
5766 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
5767 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
5768
5769 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
5770 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
5771 `ps-header-font-size'.
5772
5773 *** Font managing
5774
5775 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
5776 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
5777 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
5778 elements to this alist.
5779
5780 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
5781 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
5782
5783 ** hideshow changes.
5784
5785 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
5786 C++, ; for lisp).
5787
5788 *** Support for java-mode added.
5789
5790 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
5791 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
5792
5793 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
5794 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
5795 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
5796
5797 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
5798 robust and a lot faster.
5799
5800 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
5801
5802 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
5803 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
5804 documentation for more details.
5805
5806 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
5807
5808 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
5809 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
5810 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
5811 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
5812 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
5813
5814 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
5815 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
5816 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
5817 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
5818
5819 ** Font Lock mode
5820
5821 *** Custom support
5822
5823 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
5824 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
5825 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
5826 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
5827 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
5828 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
5829
5830 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
5831
5832 *** Maximum decoration
5833
5834 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
5835 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
5836 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
5837 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
5838 to get the old behavior.
5839
5840 *** New support
5841
5842 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
5843
5844 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
5845 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
5846
5847 *** Configurable support
5848
5849 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
5850 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
5851 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
5852 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
5853 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
5854 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
5855 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
5856
5857 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
5858 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
5859 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
5860
5861 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
5862
5863 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
5864 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
5865 for any mode.
5866
5867 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
5868
5869 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
5870
5871 in your ~/.emacs.
5872
5873 *** New faces
5874
5875 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
5876 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
5877 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
5878 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
5879
5880 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
5881
5882 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
5883 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
5884 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
5885
5886 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
5887
5888 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
5889 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
5890 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
5891 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
5892 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
5893 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
5894 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
5895
5896 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
5897 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
5898 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
5899 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
5900 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
5901 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
5902
5903 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
5904
5905 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
5906 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
5907 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
5908 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
5909
5910 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
5911 settings.
5912
5913 ** Ada mode changes.
5914
5915 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
5916 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
5917 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
5918 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
5919 stubs.
5920
5921 *** There are two new commands:
5922 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
5923 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
5924
5925 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
5926 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
5927 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
5928
5929 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
5930 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
5931 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
5932
5933 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
5934 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
5935 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
5936 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
5937
5938 ** Scheme mode changes.
5939
5940 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
5941 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
5942 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
5943 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
5944 have any effect.
5945
5946 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
5947 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
5948 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
5949 variables as buffer-local variables.
5950
5951 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
5952 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
5953
5954 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
5955
5956 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
5957 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
5958 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
5959 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
5960
5961 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
5962 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
5963 buffer in Emacs.
5964
5965 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
5966 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
5967 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
5968 option takes precedence.
5969
5970 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
5971 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
5972 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
5973
5974 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
5975 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
5976 the current defun.
5977
5978 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
5979 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
5980
5981 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
5982 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
5983 necessary).
5984
5985 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
5986 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
5987 these register values no longer become completely useless.
5988 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
5989 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
5990 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
5991
5992 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
5993 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
5994 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
5995 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
5996
5997 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
5998 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
5999 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6000 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6001 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6002
6003 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6004 since it applies only to the current frame.
6005
6006 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6007 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6008 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6009
6010 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6011 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6012 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6013 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6014 instead of just the file you are editing.
6015
6016 ** RefTeX mode
6017
6018 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6019 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6020 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6021 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6022 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6023
6024 C-c ( reftex-label
6025 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6026 knows which kind of label is needed.
6027
6028 C-c ) reftex-reference
6029 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6030 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6031
6032 C-c [ reftex-citation
6033 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6034 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6035
6036 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6037 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6038
6039 C-c = reftex-toc
6040 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6041 can quickly jump to every section.
6042
6043 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6044 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6045 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6046 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6047 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6048
6049 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6050
6051 *** Info documentation is now available.
6052
6053 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6054 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6055
6056 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6057 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6058
6059 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6060 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6061
6062 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6063 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6064 appropriate functions.
6065
6066 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6067 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6068
6069 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6070 been cleaned.
6071
6072 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6073 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6074
6075 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6076 shall be delimited.
6077
6078 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6079 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6080 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6081
6082 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6083 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6084 prefixed with `ALT'.
6085
6086 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6087 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6088 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6089 documentation).
6090
6091 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6092 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6093 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6094
6095 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6096 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6097
6098 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6099 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6100 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6101
6102 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6103
6104 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6105
6106 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6107 from alien sources.
6108
6109 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6110 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6111 crossref entries.
6112
6113 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6114 region.
6115
6116 *** Added support for imenu.
6117
6118 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6119 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6120 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6121 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6122
6123 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6124 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6125
6126 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6127
6128 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
6129
6130 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6131 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6132 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6133 as an argument.
6134
6135 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6136 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6137
6138 ** browse-url changes
6139
6140 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6141 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6142 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6143 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6144 customization variables.
6145
6146 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6147
6148 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6149 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6150 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6151
6152 ** Changes in Ediff
6153
6154 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6155 pops up the Info file for this command.
6156
6157 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6158 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6159 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6160 directories).
6161
6162 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6163 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6164 files in the same directory.
6165
6166 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6167 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6168 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6169
6170 ** Changes in Viper
6171
6172 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
6173 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
6174 instead of vip-.
6175 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
6176 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
6177 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6178 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6179 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6180 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6181 color when Viper is in insert state.
6182 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6183 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6184 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6185
6186 ** Etags changes.
6187
6188 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6189 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6190 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6191 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6192 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6193
6194 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6195
6196 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6197 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6198
6199 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6200 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6201 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6202
6203 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6204 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6205 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6206 methods and protocols.
6207
6208 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6209 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6210 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6211 paragraph name.
6212
6213 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6214 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6215 at least M times and as many as N times.
6216
6217 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6218 in files has changed slightly.
6219
6220 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6221 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6222 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6223 with old time-stamp-format values.
6224
6225 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6226 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6227 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6228 reasons.
6229
6230 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6231 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6232 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6233 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6234 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6235 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6236
6237 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6238 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6239 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6240
6241 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6242 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6243 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6244 recommended now will continue to work then.
6245
6246 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6247 details.
6248
6249 ** There are some additional major modes:
6250
6251 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6252 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6253 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6254
6255 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6256 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6257 into Emacs.
6258
6259 ** New Lisp packages include:
6260
6261 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6262
6263 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6264 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6265
6266 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6267
6268 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6269 in shell buffers.
6270
6271 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6272 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6273 and `elint-defun'.
6274
6275 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6276 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6277 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6278 strings or comments.
6279
6280 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6281 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6282 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6283 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6284 at these points.
6285
6286 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6287 can visit them by short forms of their names.
6288
6289 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6290 Emacs Lisp function at point.
6291
6292 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6293
6294 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6295 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6296
6297 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6298
6299 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6300
6301 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6302
6303 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6304 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6305
6306 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6307 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6308 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6309 original place after inserting the copy.
6310
6311 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6312 on the buffer.
6313
6314 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6315 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6316 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6317
6318 Enable mouse-drag with:
6319 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6320 -or-
6321 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6322
6323 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6324 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6325
6326 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6327 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6328
6329 *** ogonek
6330
6331 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6332 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6333 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6334 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6335 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6336 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6337 instance) and vice versa.
6338
6339 To use this package load it using
6340 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6341 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
6342 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
6343 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6344 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6345 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6346
6347 *** Interface to ph.
6348
6349 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6350
6351 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6352 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6353 these servers.
6354
6355 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6356
6357 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6358 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6359 while the real cursor does not move.
6360
6361 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6362 for visiting your favorite web sites.
6363
6364 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6365 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6366
6367 ** movemail change
6368
6369 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6370 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6371 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6372 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6373
6374 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6375 \f
6376 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6377
6378 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6379
6380 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6381 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6382 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6383 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6384 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6385
6386 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6387 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6388 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6389 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6390 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6391 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6392 \f
6393 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6394
6395 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6396 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6397 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6398 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6399
6400 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6401 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6402
6403 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6404 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6405 "win".
6406
6407 ** Basic Lisp changes
6408
6409 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6410 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6411
6412 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6413 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
6414 or by the user.
6415
6416 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
6417
6418 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
6419
6420 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
6421 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
6422
6423 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
6424 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
6425 its argument.
6426
6427 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
6428
6429 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
6430
6431 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
6432
6433 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
6434 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
6435 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
6436 `format' function.
6437
6438 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
6439 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
6440 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
6441
6442 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
6443 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
6444 adding one of these suffixes.
6445
6446 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
6447 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
6448 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
6449
6450 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
6451 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
6452
6453 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6454
6455 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6456 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6457
6458 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6459 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6460
6461 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6462
6463 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6464 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6465
6466 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6467 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6468 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6469 works using `save-current-buffer'.
6470
6471 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6472 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6473 of the last form.
6474
6475 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6476 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6477 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6478 as the last form.
6479
6480 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6481 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6482 matches.
6483
6484 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6485
6486 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6487 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6488 Then it returns that string.
6489
6490 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6491
6492 (with-output-to-string
6493 (princ "The buffer is ")
6494 (princ (buffer-name)))
6495
6496 returns "The buffer is foo".
6497
6498 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6499 is non-nil.
6500
6501 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6502 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6503 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6504
6505 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6506 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6507
6508 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6509 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6510 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6511 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6512 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6513 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6514
6515 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6516 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6517 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6518 characters".
6519
6520 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6521 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6522 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6523 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6524 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
6525
6526 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
6527 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
6528 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
6529 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
6530
6531 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
6532 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
6533
6534 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
6535
6536 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
6537 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
6538 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
6539 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
6540 guaranteed.
6541
6542 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
6543 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
6544 character).
6545
6546 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
6547
6548 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
6549 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
6550 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
6551 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
6552 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
6553
6554 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
6555
6556 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
6557 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
6558 more than the number of characters.
6559
6560 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
6561 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
6562 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
6563 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
6564 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
6565 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
6566
6567 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
6568 and returns a string containing those characters.
6569
6570 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
6571 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
6572 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
6573 character, sref signals an error.
6574
6575 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
6576 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
6577 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6578
6579 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
6580 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
6581 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6582
6583 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
6584 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
6585 to a vector of the characters in it.
6586
6587 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
6588 of a string. You call it as follows:
6589
6590 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
6591
6592 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
6593 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
6594 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
6595 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
6596 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
6597
6598 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
6599 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6600
6601 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
6602 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6603
6604 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
6605 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
6606 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
6607 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
6608
6609 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
6610
6611 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
6612
6613 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
6614 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
6615 are not included in the resulting value.
6616
6617 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
6618 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
6619 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
6620 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
6621
6622 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
6623 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
6624 character extends across that column), then the padding character
6625 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
6626 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
6627 column START-COLUMN.
6628
6629 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
6630 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
6631 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
6632 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
6633 changed text, before the change.
6634
6635 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
6636 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
6637 one character set for each script, not for each language.
6638
6639 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
6640
6641 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
6642
6643 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
6644 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
6645
6646 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
6647 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
6648 which identify the character within that character set.
6649
6650 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
6651 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
6652 opposite of split-char.
6653
6654 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
6655 of all the characters between BEG and END.
6656
6657 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
6658 of all the characters in a string.
6659
6660 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
6661 and specifying coding systems.
6662
6663 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
6664 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
6665 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
6666 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
6667 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
6668 as what to do about code conversion.)
6669
6670 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
6671 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
6672
6673 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6674 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6675 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
6676
6677 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6678 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
6679 to match against a file name.
6680
6681 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6682 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6683 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6684 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6685 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6686 specifies the coding system for encoding.
6687
6688 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6689 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6690
6691 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
6692 the coding system to use for network sockets.
6693
6694 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6695 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
6696 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
6697 service names.
6698
6699 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6700 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
6701 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
6702 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
6703 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
6704 specifies the coding system for encoding.
6705
6706 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
6707 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
6708
6709 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6710 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6711 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
6712 start the subprocess.
6713
6714 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
6715 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
6716 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
6717 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
6718 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
6719
6720 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
6721 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
6722 subprocess.
6723
6724 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
6725 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
6726 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
6727 connection permanently or until overridden.
6728
6729 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
6730 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
6731 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
6732 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
6733 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
6734 system for one operation at a time.
6735
6736 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
6737 files, subprocesses or network connections.
6738
6739 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
6740 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
6741 The value is a cons cell,
6742 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
6743 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
6744 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
6745 input to the subprocess.
6746
6747 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
6748 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
6749
6750 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
6751 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
6752 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
6753
6754 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
6755 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
6756 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
6757 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
6758 customization.
6759
6760 Thus, instead of writing
6761
6762 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
6763 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
6764
6765 you would now write this:
6766
6767 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
6768 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
6769 :type 'boolean
6770 :group foo)
6771
6772 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
6773 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
6774 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
6775 for a description of them.
6776
6777 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
6778 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
6779
6780 (defgroup ispell nil
6781 "Spell checking using Ispell."
6782 :group 'processes)
6783
6784 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
6785 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
6786 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
6787 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
6788 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
6789
6790 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
6791 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
6792 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
6793 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
6794 first-level subgroups.
6795
6796 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
6797
6798 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
6799 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
6800
6801 ** easy-mmode
6802
6803 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
6804 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
6805 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
6806 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
6807 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
6808 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
6809
6810 ** Text property changes
6811
6812 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
6813 text property.
6814
6815 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
6816 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
6817 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
6818 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
6819 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
6820
6821 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
6822 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
6823 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
6824 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
6825
6826 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
6827 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
6828 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
6829
6830 ** Changes in invisibility features
6831
6832 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
6833 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
6834 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
6835 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
6836 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
6837 make the overlay visible.
6838
6839 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
6840 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
6841 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
6842 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
6843 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
6844 t when it should hide it.
6845
6846 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
6847
6848 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
6849 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
6850 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
6851 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
6852 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
6853 Here is an example of how to do this:
6854
6855 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
6856 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
6857 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
6858 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
6859
6860 ...
6861 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
6862
6863 ...
6864 ;; When done with the overlays:
6865 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
6866 ;; Or respectively:
6867 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
6868
6869 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
6870
6871 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
6872 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
6873 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
6874 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
6875
6876 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
6877 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
6878 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
6879
6880 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
6881 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
6882
6883 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
6884 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
6885
6886 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
6887 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
6888 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
6889
6890 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
6891 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
6892 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
6893 determine the syntax type of the character.
6894
6895 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
6896 of the current buffer.
6897
6898 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
6899 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
6900 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
6901
6902 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
6903 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
6904 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
6905 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
6906 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
6907
6908 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
6909 text property.
6910
6911 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
6912 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
6913 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
6914
6915 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
6916 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
6917 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
6918 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
6919 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
6920
6921 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
6922 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
6923 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
6924
6925 ** Changes in face features
6926
6927 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
6928 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
6929
6930 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
6931 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
6932
6933 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
6934 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
6935
6936 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
6937 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
6938
6939 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
6940 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
6941 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
6942 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
6943 overlay property).
6944
6945 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
6946 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
6947
6948 ** Changes in file-handling functions
6949
6950 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
6951 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
6952 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
6953 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
6954
6955 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
6956 begins with ~.
6957
6958 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
6959 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
6960
6961 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6962 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
6963
6964 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
6965 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
6966
6967 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
6968 character code conversion as well as other things.
6969
6970 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
6971 (formerly it did not).
6972
6973 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
6974 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
6975
6976 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
6977 instead of constant strings.
6978
6979 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
6980 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
6981 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
6982
6983 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
6984 in the same way as before.
6985
6986 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
6987 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
6988 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
6989
6990 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
6991 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
6992 else, and returns nil.
6993
6994 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
6995 directory cannot be listed.
6996
6997 ** Changes in minibuffer input
6998
6999 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7000 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7001 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7002 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7003 ways:
7004
7005 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7006 It is available through the history command M-n.
7007
7008 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7009 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7010 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7011 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7012 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7013
7014 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7015 argument in this way.
7016
7017 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7018 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7019 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7020
7021 ** Echo area features
7022
7023 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7024 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7025 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7026 after the echo area is cleared.
7027
7028 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7029 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7030
7031 ** Keyboard input features
7032
7033 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7034 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7035
7036 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7037 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7038 by keyboard macros.
7039
7040 ** Frame-related changes
7041
7042 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7043 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7044 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7045
7046 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7047 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7048 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7049
7050 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7051 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7052 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7053 in the selected frame.
7054
7055 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7056 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7057 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7058
7059 ** X Windows features
7060
7061 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7062 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7063 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7064
7065 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7066 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7067
7068 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7069 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7070 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7071
7072 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7073 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7074
7075 ** Subprocess features
7076
7077 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7078 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7079 automatically.
7080
7081 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7082 and returns the output from the command as a string.
7083
7084 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7085 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7086
7087 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7088 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7089
7090 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7091 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7092 goes after the other menu items.
7093
7094 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
7095 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
7096 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7097 are in use.
7098
7099 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7100 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7101
7102 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7103 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7104 form.
7105
7106 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7107 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7108 but its hook is still run.
7109
7110 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7111 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7112
7113 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7114 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7115 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7116
7117 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7118 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7119 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7120 warned.
7121
7122 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7123 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7124
7125 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7126 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7127 functions like display-time.
7128
7129 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7130 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7131
7132 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7133 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7134 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7135
7136 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7137 if there is an error in compilation.
7138
7139 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7140 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7141 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7142 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7143
7144 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7145 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7146 the *scratch* buffer.
7147
7148 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7149 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7150 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7151 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7152
7153 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7154 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7155 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7156
7157 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7158 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7159 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7160 and compose-mail-other-frame.
7161
7162 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7163 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7164 full name of the specified user will be returned.
7165
7166 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7167 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7168 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7169 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7170 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7171 files at all.
7172
7173 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7174 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7175 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7176 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7177
7178 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7179 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7180 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7181 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7182
7183 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7184
7185 ** imenu.el changes.
7186
7187 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
7188 item from menu created by imenu.
7189
7190 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7191 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7192 select one of those items.
7193 \f
7194 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7195 \f
7196 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7197
7198 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7199 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7200
7201 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7202 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7203 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7204 \f
7205 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7206
7207 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7208 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7209
7210 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7211 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7212 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7213 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7214 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7215 all caps.
7216
7217 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7218 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7219
7220 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7221 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7222 as in previous Emacs versions.
7223
7224 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7225 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7226 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7227 frames.
7228
7229 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7230 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7231 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7232 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7233 accident.
7234
7235 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7236 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7237 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7238 line and then executing the macro.
7239
7240 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7241
7242 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7243 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7244 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7245 characters.
7246
7247 ** Font Lock mode
7248
7249 *** Font Lock support modes
7250
7251 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7252 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7253 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7254 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7255 Font Lock mode is enabled.
7256
7257 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7258
7259 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7260
7261 in your ~/.emacs.
7262
7263 *** lazy-lock
7264
7265 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7266 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7267 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7268 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7269 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7270 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7271 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7272
7273 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7274
7275 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7276
7277 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7278
7279 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7280
7281 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7282 paren and key.
7283
7284 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7285 supported.
7286
7287 ** Gnus changes.
7288
7289 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7290 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7291 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7292 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7293
7294 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7295 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7296
7297 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
7298 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7299 obsolete.
7300
7301 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7302 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7303
7304 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7305
7306 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7307
7308 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7309
7310 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
7311 referred.
7312
7313 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7314
7315 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7316
7317 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7318
7319 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7320
7321 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
7322 buffers.
7323
7324 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7325
7326 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7327
7328 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7329
7330 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7331
7332 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7333
7334 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7335
7336 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7337
7338 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7339 is possible.
7340
7341 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7342
7343 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7344 groups of groups.
7345
7346 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7347
7348 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
7349 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
7350
7351 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7352
7353 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7354
7355 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7356
7357 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7358
7359 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7360 expiration times.
7361
7362 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7363
7364 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7365 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7366
7367 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7368 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7369 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7370
7371 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7372 articles with the `*' command.
7373
7374 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7375
7376 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
7377
7378 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7379
7380 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7381
7382 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
7383 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7384
7385 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
7386 buffer.
7387
7388 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7389
7390 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7391
7392 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7393
7394 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7395
7396 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
7397
7398 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7399
7400 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
7401
7402 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7403
7404 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
7405
7406 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7407 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7408
7409 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
7410 refetching.
7411
7412 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7413
7414 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
7415 buffer to allow easier treatment.
7416
7417 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
7418
7419 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
7420
7421 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
7422
7423 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
7424 articles.
7425
7426 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
7427
7428 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
7429
7430 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
7431 cited text to hide is now customizable.
7432
7433 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
7434
7435 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
7436
7437 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
7438
7439 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
7440
7441 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
7442
7443 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
7444 in greater detail.
7445 \f
7446 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
7447
7448 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
7449 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
7450 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
7451 exists.
7452
7453 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7454 as well as lists.
7455
7456 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7457 of a given keymap.
7458
7459 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7460 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7461 keymap or nil.
7462
7463 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7464 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7465 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7466 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7467 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7468 alias.
7469 \f
7470 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7471
7472 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7473
7474 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7475 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7476 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7477 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7478 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7479
7480 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7481 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7482 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
7483
7484 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7485
7486 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7487 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7488 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7489 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7490 chapter of the manual for details.
7491
7492 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7493 customization variables take effect.
7494
7495 ** Marking with the mouse.
7496
7497 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7498 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7499 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7500
7501 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7502
7503 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7504
7505 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7506 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7507
7508 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7509 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7510 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7511 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7512 applications, these problems are significant.
7513
7514 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7515 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7516 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7517 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7518 other DOS application as a subprocess.
7519
7520 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7521 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7522
7523 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7524 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7525 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
7526 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
7527 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
7528 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
7529
7530 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
7531
7532 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
7533 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
7534 minibuffer contains.
7535
7536 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
7537
7538 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
7539 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
7540 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
7541 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
7542
7543 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
7544 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
7545 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
7546 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
7547
7548 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
7549 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
7550
7551 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
7552 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
7553 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
7554
7555 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
7556 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
7557 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
7558 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
7559
7560 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
7561
7562 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
7563 to replace the characters it "deletes".
7564
7565 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
7566
7567 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
7568 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
7569 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
7570 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
7571 immediately after the selected one.
7572
7573 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
7574 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
7575
7576 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
7577
7578 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
7579 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
7580 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
7581 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
7582 recover-session.
7583
7584 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
7585 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
7586 will not work.
7587
7588 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
7589 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
7590 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
7591 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
7592 now that the bug is fixed.
7593
7594 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
7595
7596 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
7597 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
7598 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
7599 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
7600
7601 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
7602 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
7603 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
7604 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
7605
7606 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
7607 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
7608 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
7609
7610 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
7611 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
7612 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
7613 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
7614 remain normal.
7615
7616 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
7617 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
7618
7619 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
7620 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
7621 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
7622 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
7623
7624 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
7625 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
7626 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
7627 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
7628 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
7629 `mail-directory-stream'.)
7630
7631 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
7632 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
7633 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
7634 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
7635
7636 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
7637 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
7638 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
7639
7640 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
7641 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
7642 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
7643 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
7644 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
7645 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
7646 to a limitation in font-lock).
7647
7648 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
7649
7650 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
7651 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
7652 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
7653 this example:
7654
7655 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
7656 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
7657
7658 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7659
7660 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
7661
7662 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
7663
7664 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
7665
7666 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
7667 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
7668 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
7669 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
7670 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
7671 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
7672
7673 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
7674 does the same job.
7675
7676 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
7677 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
7678
7679 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
7680 text.
7681
7682 ** Font Lock mode
7683
7684 *** Global Font Lock mode
7685
7686 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
7687 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
7688 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
7689 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
7690 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
7691
7692 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
7693
7694 (global-font-lock-mode t)
7695
7696 in your ~/.emacs.
7697
7698 *** Local Refontification
7699
7700 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
7701 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
7702 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
7703 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
7704
7705 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
7706 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
7707 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
7708 above and below point.
7709
7710 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
7711
7712 ** Follow mode
7713
7714 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
7715 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
7716 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
7717 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
7718 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
7719 follow-mode.
7720
7721 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
7722
7723 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
7724 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
7725
7726 ** hide-show changes.
7727
7728 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
7729 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
7730 normal hooks.
7731
7732 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
7733 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
7734
7735 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
7736 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
7737 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
7738
7739 ** MSDOS Changes
7740
7741 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
7742 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
7743
7744 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
7745 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
7746
7747 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
7748
7749 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
7750 pressing both mouse buttons.
7751
7752 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
7753 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
7754 are:
7755
7756 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
7757 now works.
7758
7759 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
7760
7761 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
7762 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
7763
7764 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
7765
7766 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
7767
7768 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
7769
7770 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
7771
7772 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
7773 \f
7774 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
7775
7776 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
7777 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
7778 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
7779 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
7780 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
7781
7782 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
7783
7784 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
7785 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
7786 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
7787 be different.
7788
7789 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
7790 than `system-type'.
7791
7792 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
7793
7794 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
7795 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
7796
7797 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
7798 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
7799
7800 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
7801 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
7802 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
7803
7804 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
7805 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
7806 like this:
7807
7808 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7809
7810 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
7811 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
7812 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
7813
7814 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
7815 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
7816 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
7817
7818 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
7819 up if too much time passes.
7820
7821 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
7822
7823 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
7824 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
7825 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
7826 form in BODY.
7827
7828 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
7829 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
7830 call looks like this:
7831
7832 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
7833
7834 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
7835 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
7836 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
7837 ARGS.
7838
7839 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
7840 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
7841 command.
7842
7843 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
7844 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
7845 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
7846 each time Emacs becomes idle.
7847
7848 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
7849 idle for SECS seconds.
7850
7851 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
7852 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
7853 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
7854 instead.
7855
7856 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
7857 there is no answer within a certain time.
7858
7859 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
7860
7861 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
7862 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
7863 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
7864
7865 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
7866 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
7867 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
7868 arguments in between are ignored.
7869
7870 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
7871 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
7872
7873 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
7874 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
7875 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
7876 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
7877 version.
7878
7879 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
7880 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
7881 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
7882 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
7883 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
7884 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
7885
7886 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
7887 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
7888 systems with limited file name syntax.
7889
7890 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
7891 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
7892 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
7893 completions.el:
7894
7895 (defvar save-completions-file-name
7896 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
7897 "*The filename to save completions to.")
7898
7899 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
7900 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
7901 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
7902 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
7903 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
7904
7905 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
7906 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
7907 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
7908
7909 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
7910 marker from its buffer position.
7911
7912 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
7913 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
7914 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
7915
7916 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
7917 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
7918 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
7919 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
7920 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
7921 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
7922
7923 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
7924 errors that happen often during editing.
7925
7926 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
7927 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
7928 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
7929
7930 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
7931 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
7932
7933 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
7934 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
7935 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
7936 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
7937 and not get-buffer-window.
7938
7939 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
7940 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
7941 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
7942
7943 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
7944 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
7945 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
7946 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
7947 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
7948 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
7949 over and over for the same text.
7950
7951 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
7952
7953 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
7954 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
7955
7956 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
7957 ;; $HEADER: text $
7958
7959 in addition to the normal
7960
7961 ;; HEADER: text
7962
7963 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
7964 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
7965 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
7966 \f
7967 * For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7968
7969 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
7970 Copyright information:
7971
7972 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7973
7974 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7975 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7976 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7977 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7978
7979 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7980 of this document, or of portions of it,
7981 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7982 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7983 \f
7984 Local variables:
7985 mode: outline
7986 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
7987 end: