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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17
18 Temporary note:
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
26
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
29
30 ---
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
33
34 ---
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
39
40 ---
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
44 --without-gconf.
45
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
49
50 ---
51 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available
52 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
53 automatically select it.
54
55 \f
56 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
57
58 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
59 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
60 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
61
62 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
63 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
64
65 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used.
66
67 \f
68 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
69
70 ** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
71 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
72
73 ** emacsclient changes
74
75 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
76 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
77 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
78
79 +++
80 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
81
82 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
83 error, its exit status is 1.
84
85 ** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
86
87 ** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
88 `completing-read-function'
89
90 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
91
92 +++
93 ** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
94
95 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
96 initial documentation.
97
98 To turn this on in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
99 `bidi-display-reordering' to a non-nil value. The default is nil.
100
101 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
102 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
103 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
104 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
105 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
106 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
107
108 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
109 value of paragraph base direction at point.
110
111 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
112 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
113 Algorithm.
114
115 Note that some advanced display features, such as overlay strings and
116 `display' text properties, do not yet work correctly when
117 bidirectional text is reordered for display.
118
119 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
120 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
121
122 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
123 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
124 is taken from the desktop settings.
125
126 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
127 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
128 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
129 for this.
130
131 ** ImageMagick support.
132 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
133 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
134 libraries if they are present at build time. To disable this, use
135 the configure option `--without-imagemagick'.
136
137 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
138 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
139 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
140 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
141
142 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
143
144 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
145 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
146
147 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
148 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
149
150 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
151 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
152 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
153
154 +++
155 ** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts
156 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
157 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
158 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
159 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
160 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
161 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
162
163 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
164 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
165
166 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
167
168 ** On Nextstep/OSX, the menu bar can be hidden by customizing
169 ns-auto-hide-menu-bar.
170
171 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
172 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
173
174 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
175 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
176 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
177 context in their return values.
178
179 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
180 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
181
182 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
183 for remote machines which support SELinux.
184
185 +++
186 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
187 higher-resolution time stamps.
188
189 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
190 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
191
192 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
193 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
194 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
195
196 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
197 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
198 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
199 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
200
201 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
202 scroll a line instead of full screen.
203
204 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
205 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
206
207 +++
208 ** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
209 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
210 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
211 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
212 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
213
214 ---
215 ** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
216 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
217 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
218 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
219 margin.
220
221 ** Trash changes
222
223 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
224 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
225
226 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
227 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
228
229 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
230 for `list-colors-display'.
231
232 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
233 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
234 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
235
236 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
237 selected for installation.
238
239 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
240
241 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
242 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
243 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
244 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
245
246 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
247 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
248 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
249
250 ** Custom Themes
251
252 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
253
254 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
255 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
256 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
257 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
258
259 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
260 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
261 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
262 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
263
264 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
265 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
266
267 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
268 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
269
270 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
271
272 \f
273 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
274
275 ** Search changes
276
277 +++
278 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
279 isearch-yank-line.
280
281 +++
282 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
283
284 +++
285 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
286
287 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
288
289 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
290
291 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
292 also deletes newlines around point.
293
294 ** Deletion changes
295
296 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
297 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
298 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
299 kill instead.
300
301 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to C-d and [delete].
302 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
303 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
304
305 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
306 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
307 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
308 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
309
310 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
311
312 ** Selection changes.
313
314 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
315 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
316 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
317 use the primary selection.
318
319 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
320 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
321
322 *** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
323 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
324 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
325 the kill-ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
326 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
327
328 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
329 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
330 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
331 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
332 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
333
334 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
335 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
336 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
337
338 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
339 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
340 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
341 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
342
343 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
344 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
345
346 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
347 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
348 between applications.
349
350 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
351
352 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
353 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
354 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
355 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
356 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
357
358 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
359
360 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
361 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
362 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
363
364 ** The command shell prompts for the shell path name, when the default
365 directory is a remote file name and neither environment variable
366 $ESHELL nor variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
367
368 \f
369 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
370
371 ** The compile.el mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
372 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
373
374 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
375
376 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
377 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
378 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
379
380 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
381 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
382
383 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
384
385 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
386
387 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
388
389 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse 7z archives.
390
391 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
392 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
393
394 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers, in certain modes
395 (eg dired, vc-dir, log-edit). For example, adding
396 "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your .dir-locals.el file,
397 will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should
398 call `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
399
400 +++
401 ** You can prevent directory local variables from applying to subdirectories.
402 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
403 settings to indicate said section should not be applied to subdirectories.
404
405 ** ERC changes
406
407 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
408 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
409 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
410 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
411 after connecting.
412
413 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
414 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
415 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
416 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
417
418 ** Eshell changes
419
420 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
421 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
422 exists, that is used instead.
423
424 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
425 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
426
427 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
428 You can get a comparable behavior with:
429 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
430 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
431
432 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
433
434 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
435
436 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
437
438 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
439
440 ---
441 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
442 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
443
444 ---
445 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
446 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
447 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
448
449 ---
450 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
451 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
452
453 ** Customize
454
455 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
456 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
457 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
458
459 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
460 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
461
462 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
463
464 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
465 choose a color via list-colors-display.
466
467 ** Dired-x
468
469 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
470 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
471
472 +++
473 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
474 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
475
476 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
477
478 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
479
480 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
481 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
482 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
483 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
484 to a non-zero value.
485
486 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
487 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
488 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
489 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
490 creating the session.
491
492 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
493 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
494 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
495 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
496 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
497
498 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
499 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
500 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
501 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
502 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
503 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
504 `sql-send-*' functions.
505
506 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
507 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
508 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
509 connection is established.
510
511 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
512 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
513 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
514 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
515 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
516 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
517 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
518 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
519 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
520 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
521 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
522 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
523
524 (user :default DEF)
525 (database :default DEF
526 :file FILEPAT
527 :completion COMPLETE)
528 (server :default DEF
529 :file FILEPAT
530 :completion COMPLETE)
531
532 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
533 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
534 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
535
536 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
537 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
538 possible values or a function returning such a list).
539
540 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
541 An alist for recording different username, database and server
542 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
543 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
544
545 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
546
547 (setq sql-connection-alist
548 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
549 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
550 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
551 (sql-user "mmaug")
552 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
553
554 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
555
556 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
557 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
558 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
559 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
560
561 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
562 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
563 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
564 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
565 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
566
567 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
568 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
569 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
570 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
571 have been defined.
572
573 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
574 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
575 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
576 session and save them as a new connection.
577
578 *** List database objects and details.
579 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
580 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
581 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
582
583 **** List all objects.
584 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
585 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
586 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceding the command by
587 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
588 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
589 separate window in view-mode.
590
591 **** List Table details.
592 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
593 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
594 the list of columns in the relation. Preceding the command with the
595 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
596 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
597
598 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
599 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
600 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
601
602 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
603 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
604 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
605 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
606 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
607
608 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
609 This prevents the command interpreter for MySQL and Postgres from
610 listing object name completions when being sent text via
611 `sql-send-*' functions.
612
613 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
614
615 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
616
617 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
618 superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
619 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
620 ** gdb-mi
621
622 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
623 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
624 threads simultaneously.
625
626 ** D-Bus
627
628 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
629 system or session bus.
630
631 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
632 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
633 names anymore.
634
635 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
636 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
637
638 ** Tramp
639
640 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
641
642 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
643 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
644
645 ** VC and related modes
646
647 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
648 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
649 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
650 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
651
652 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
653
654 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
655
656 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
657 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
658 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
659 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
660
661 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
662
663 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
664 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
665 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
666 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
667
668 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
669
670 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
671 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
672
673 ** Miscellaneous
674
675 ---
676 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
677
678 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
679
680 *** The new command `info-display-manual' will display an Info manual
681 specified by its name. If that manual is already visited in some Info
682 buffer within the current session, the command will display that
683 buffer. Otherwise, it will load the manual and display it. This is
684 handy if you have many manuals in many Info buffers, and don't
685 remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual you want to
686 consult.
687
688 \f
689 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
690
691 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
692 and electric-layout-mode.
693
694 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
695
696 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
697 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
698 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
699 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
700 secrets.
701
702 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
703 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
704
705 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
706 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
707
708 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
709
710 \f
711 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
712
713 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
714 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
715 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
716 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
717
718 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
719 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
720 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
721 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
722
723 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
724 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
725 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
726 of the header line.
727
728 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
729
730 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
731
732 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
733 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
734 programmer-visible consequences.
735
736 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
737 ON unconditionally.
738
739 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
740 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
741 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
742 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
743 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
744 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
745
746 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
747 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
748 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
749 has now been removed.
750
751 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
752
753 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
754 have been removed:
755 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
756 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
757 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
758 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
759 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
760 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
761 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
762 make-local-hook
763
764 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
765 have been removed:
766 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
767 font-lock-defaults-alist
768
769 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
770 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
771
772 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
773
774 \f
775 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
776
777 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
778 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
779 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
780 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
781 must also be supplied.
782
783 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
784 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
785 variables. It is typically set via file-local variables, in which case it
786 applies to all the code in that file.
787
788 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
789 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
790
791 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
792 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
793
794 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
795
796 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
797 declared as dynamically bound.
798
799 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
800 Instead, the offending function is removed.
801
802 ** New low-level function run-hook-wrapped.
803
804 ** byte-compile-disable-print-circle is obsolete.
805 ** deferred-action-list and deferred-action-function are obsolete.
806 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
807 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
808 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
809 jumping all the way to the top-level.
810
811 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
812 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
813
814 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
815 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
816 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
817 obsolete alias.
818
819 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
820 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
821 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
822 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
823 Together with this new variable come a new hook
824 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
825 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
826 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
827 syntactic rules.
828
829 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
830
831 +++
832 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
833 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
834 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
835 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
836
837 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
838 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
839 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
840 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
841
842 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
843
844 ** New completion style `substring'.
845
846 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
847 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
848 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
849 input.
850
851 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
852 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
853 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
854
855 ** Image API
856
857 *** When the image type is one of listed in `image-animated-types'
858 and the number of sub-images in the image is more than one, then the
859 new function `create-animated-image' creates an animated image where
860 sub-images are displayed successively with the duration defined by
861 `image-animate-max-time' and the delay between sub-images defined
862 by the Graphic Control Extension of the image.
863
864 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
865
866 ** XML and HTML parsing
867
868 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
869 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
870 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
871 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
872 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
873
874 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
875
876 ** FIXME GnuTLS
877
878 ** Isearch
879
880 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
881
882 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
883 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
884 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
885 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
886 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
887 displayed with a "spinning bar".
888
889 \f
890 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
891
892 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
893 runtime checks.
894
895 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
896 included in binary distribution.
897
898 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
899
900 \f
901 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
902 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
903
904 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
905 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
906 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
907 (at your option) any later version.
908
909 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
910 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
911 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
912 GNU General Public License for more details.
913
914 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
915 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
916
917 \f
918 Local variables:
919 mode: outline
920 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
921 end: