1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-09-17
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
11 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
13 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
15 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
16 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
18 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
19 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
22 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
23 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
25 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
26 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
28 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
29 support 64-bit executables. See etc/MACHINES for instructions.
32 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
36 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
37 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
38 internationalization and mail-fetching.
40 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
41 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
43 If you used procmail like in
45 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
46 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
47 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
48 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
50 this now has changed to
53 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
56 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
57 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
59 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
60 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
62 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
63 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
65 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
66 called to position point.
68 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
69 summary buffers and NOV files.
71 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
72 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
74 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
75 subtly different manner.
77 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
78 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
79 ever-changing layouts.
81 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
83 *** There is image support.
85 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
86 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
87 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
88 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
89 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
92 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
93 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
94 file that is already visited under a different name.
96 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
97 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
99 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
100 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
103 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
104 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
105 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
106 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
107 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
108 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
111 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
112 and displayes information about that.
114 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
115 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
117 ** Polish and German translations of Emacs' reference card have been
118 added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex' and `de-refcard.tex'.
119 Postscript files are included.
121 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
124 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
125 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
127 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
128 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
129 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
130 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
131 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
132 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
135 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
136 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
137 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
138 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
140 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
141 a version-dependent component.
143 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
144 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
145 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
146 character is still bound as before.
148 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
151 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
152 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
155 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
156 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
157 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
158 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
159 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
160 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
161 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
164 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
165 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
166 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
167 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
168 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
169 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
170 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
171 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
172 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
174 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
175 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
178 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
179 point in a pop-up window.
182 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
183 displays all characters in that character set.
185 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
186 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
189 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
190 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
191 defined on newcomment.el.
194 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
196 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
197 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
200 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
201 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
202 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
203 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
206 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
207 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
208 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
209 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
212 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
213 on the display using several methods
216 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
217 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
218 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
221 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
222 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
224 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
226 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
227 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
230 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
231 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
232 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
233 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
236 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
237 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
238 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
240 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
241 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
244 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
245 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
248 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
249 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
253 ** New X resources recognized
255 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
256 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
257 is useful for debugging X problems.
261 emacs.synchronous: true
263 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
264 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
265 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
266 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
267 visual class names are
276 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
277 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
280 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
281 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
282 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
287 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
289 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
290 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
291 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
292 resource values are `true' or `on'.
296 emacs.privateColormap: true
298 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
299 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
300 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
302 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
303 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
304 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
308 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
311 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
312 all frames except the selected one.
314 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
315 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
317 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
318 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
319 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
320 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
323 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
324 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
326 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
327 read mail from the menu etc.
330 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
331 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
333 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
335 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
339 -------------------------
346 ** Changes in Outline mode.
348 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
349 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
350 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
352 ** Changes to Emacs Server
355 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
356 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
357 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
358 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
359 buffers to kill, as before.
361 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
362 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
365 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
367 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
368 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
369 use. Default is 1000.
372 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
373 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
376 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
377 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
378 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
382 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
383 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
386 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
387 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
389 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
390 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
391 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
393 ** Faces and frame parameters.
395 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
396 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
397 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
398 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
399 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
400 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
401 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
403 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
404 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
405 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
406 `default' face and vice versa.
411 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
412 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
413 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
416 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
418 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
419 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
420 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
421 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
423 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
424 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
425 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
427 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
430 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
432 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
433 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
434 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
435 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
438 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
440 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
441 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
442 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
443 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
446 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
447 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
448 under Lisp changes, below.
450 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
453 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
454 of its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid;
455 otherwise, it is hollow.
457 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
458 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
459 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
460 customizing face `fringe'.
462 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
463 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
467 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see <http://www.lesstif.org>).
468 You will need a version 0.88.1 or later.
470 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
472 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
473 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
474 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
475 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
476 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
479 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
480 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
481 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
482 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
483 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
484 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
486 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
487 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
488 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
489 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
490 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
491 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
493 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
494 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
495 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
496 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
497 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
499 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
501 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
502 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
503 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
506 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
508 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
509 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
510 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
511 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
512 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
518 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
519 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
524 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
525 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
526 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
529 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
531 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
532 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
533 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
536 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
537 have to do anything to activate it.
539 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
541 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
542 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
543 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
544 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
546 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
549 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
551 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
553 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
556 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
560 ** Hscrolling in C code.
562 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
563 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
568 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
569 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
570 Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is displayed.
571 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
572 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
575 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
577 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
578 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
579 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
580 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
581 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
583 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
585 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
588 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
589 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
591 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
593 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
594 `*') toggles the status.
596 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
598 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
600 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
601 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
604 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
606 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
607 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
608 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
609 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
610 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
611 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
616 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
617 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
618 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
621 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
622 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
623 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
624 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
625 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
626 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
628 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
631 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
633 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
634 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
635 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
638 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
639 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
641 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
642 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
643 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
646 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
648 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
649 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
650 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
651 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
653 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
654 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
655 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
656 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
658 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
659 notably at the end of lines.
661 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
662 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
665 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
667 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
668 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
669 after each match to get the replacement text.
672 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
673 you edit the replacement string.
675 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', lets
676 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
677 lisp-complete-symbol.
680 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
682 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
683 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
684 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
685 window size by setting the following variable:
687 - User option: max-mini-window-height
689 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
690 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
691 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
695 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
697 ** Changes to hideshow.el
699 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
700 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
702 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
704 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
705 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
706 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
707 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
708 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
709 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
711 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
712 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
713 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
714 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
716 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
718 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
719 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
720 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
721 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
722 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
724 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
725 something like this in your .emacs.
727 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
729 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
731 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
734 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
735 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
736 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
739 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
743 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
747 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
748 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
751 *** Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
752 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
753 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be cutomized.
754 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
756 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock
759 ** Changes in Font Lock
761 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
762 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
765 ** Comint (subshell) changes
767 By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp' to
768 distiguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which parts of
769 the text were output by the process, and which entered by the user, and
770 attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use this information.
771 Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line, respect field
772 boundaries in a fairly natural manner.
773 To disable this feature, and use the old behavior, set the variable
774 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' to a non-nil value.
776 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
777 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
779 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
780 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
781 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
783 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
784 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
785 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
787 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and scheme-interaction-mode
788 now highlight user input and program prompts, and support choosing
789 previous input with mouse-2. To control these feature, see the
790 user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
792 ** Changes to Rmail mode
794 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
795 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
796 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
797 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
798 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
801 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
802 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
803 regexp matching your mail addresses.
805 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
806 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
807 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
808 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
809 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
811 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
814 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
815 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
818 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
819 in which folder to put messages automatically.
821 ** Changes to TeX mode
823 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
826 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
828 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
829 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
830 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
831 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
832 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
833 can be edited from that buffer.
835 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
836 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
837 `A' to use all marked entries).
839 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
840 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
842 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
843 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
844 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
847 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
848 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
849 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
850 in column 1 are always made leaves.
852 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
853 has the following new features:
855 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
856 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
857 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
858 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
860 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
861 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
862 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
863 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
864 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
867 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
873 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
874 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
875 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
877 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
878 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
879 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
880 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
885 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
886 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
887 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
889 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
890 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
893 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
894 between custom options. Example:
896 (defcustom default-input-method nil
897 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
898 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
899 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
901 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
902 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
904 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
905 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
906 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
908 ** New features in evaluation commands
910 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
911 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
912 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
913 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
914 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
916 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
917 code when called with a prefix argument.
922 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
923 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
924 spell-checks the current buffer.
927 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
930 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
931 correction is made and re-checked.
933 *** An Italian and a Portuguese dictionary definition has been added.
935 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
938 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
941 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
946 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
947 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
948 is, delete only empty directories.
950 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
951 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
952 copy directories recursively.
954 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
955 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
956 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
958 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
959 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
962 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
963 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
964 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
965 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
966 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
968 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
971 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
972 use the -f option when sending mail.
976 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
977 current user setups (although it's believed that these
978 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
979 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
980 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
981 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
984 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
985 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
986 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
987 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
988 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
991 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
992 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
993 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
994 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
995 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
996 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
998 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
999 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
1000 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
1001 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
1002 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
1003 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
1004 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
1005 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
1007 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
1008 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
1009 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
1010 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
1013 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
1014 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
1015 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
1016 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
1017 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
1018 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
1019 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
1020 function documentation for more info.
1022 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
1023 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
1024 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
1025 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
1026 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
1027 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
1028 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
1029 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
1031 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
1033 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
1034 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
1036 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
1037 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
1038 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
1039 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
1040 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
1043 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
1044 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
1045 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
1048 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
1049 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
1050 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
1051 chapter about this in the manual.
1053 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
1054 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
1055 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
1056 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
1057 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
1059 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
1060 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
1061 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
1063 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
1064 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
1066 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
1067 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
1068 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
1071 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
1072 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
1073 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
1074 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
1077 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
1078 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
1079 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
1082 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
1083 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
1084 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
1085 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
1088 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
1089 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1090 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1091 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1092 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1094 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1095 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1096 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1098 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1100 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1101 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1102 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1103 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1105 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1106 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1107 the column specified by comment-column.
1109 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1110 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1111 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1112 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1113 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1114 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1116 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1117 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1120 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1122 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1123 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1124 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1125 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1128 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1130 ** Makefile mode changes
1132 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1134 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
1135 Fontlock mode is active.
1139 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1140 so that searches can be resumed.
1142 *** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
1143 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1144 that started the search.
1146 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1147 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1150 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1152 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1153 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1154 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1155 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1156 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1157 `secondary-selection'.
1159 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1160 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1161 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1162 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1163 usual snappy response.
1165 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1166 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1167 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1168 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1171 ** Changes in sort.el
1173 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
1174 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
1175 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
1178 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
1181 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
1182 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1183 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1185 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1186 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1188 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1189 output ^M at the end of lines.
1191 ** Shell script mode changes.
1193 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1194 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
1195 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1199 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1201 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
1202 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1203 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1204 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1205 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
1207 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1208 declarations when given the --declarations option.
1210 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
1211 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
1213 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1216 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
1218 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1220 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1223 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1224 variables are tagged.
1226 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1228 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1232 ** Changes in etags.el
1234 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1235 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1236 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1238 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1239 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1241 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1242 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1243 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1244 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1246 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1248 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1249 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1251 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1253 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1254 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1255 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1257 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1258 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1260 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1261 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1264 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1265 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1266 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1269 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1270 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1271 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1272 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet; there are basic 8859-14 and
1273 8859-15 fonts at <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> and recent X
1274 releases have 8859-15. There are new Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix
1275 (only) and Polish slash input methods in Leim.
1278 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1279 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1280 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1282 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1285 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1288 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
1289 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1290 expression from that list, are not checked.
1292 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1293 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1294 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1295 the buffer, just like for the local files.
1297 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
1300 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
1301 displays local abbrevs, only.
1305 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
1306 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
1307 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
1308 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
1309 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
1310 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of atoms that identify
1311 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
1312 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
1313 file is registered in that backend.
1315 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
1316 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
1317 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
1318 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
1319 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
1320 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
1322 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
1323 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
1324 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
1325 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
1326 where it doesn't make sense.)
1328 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
1329 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
1330 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
1334 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
1335 checks are always done now.
1337 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
1342 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
1343 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
1344 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
1345 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
1346 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
1347 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
1348 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
1350 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
1351 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
1352 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
1353 commit, you can either use C-u C-x v m to perform an update on the
1354 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
1355 entire directory tree.
1357 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
1358 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
1359 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
1360 "watched" by other developers.)
1362 *** Lisp Changes in VC
1364 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
1365 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
1366 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
1367 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
1368 a version system named FOO, you write a library named vc-foo.el, which
1369 provides a number of functions vc-foo-... (see commentary at the end
1370 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
1371 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the atom
1372 `FOO' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
1374 ** New modes and packages
1377 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1378 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1379 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1380 on certain projects.
1383 *** The new package hi-lock.el, text matching interactively entered
1384 regexp's can be highlighted. For example,
1386 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
1388 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1389 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1390 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1391 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1392 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1393 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1394 corresponding file is read.
1397 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
1400 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1401 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1403 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1404 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1405 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1408 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1409 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1410 separate Texinfo file.
1413 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
1414 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1415 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
1416 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
1417 enter checkin log messages.
1420 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1421 without invoking external programs.
1423 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1424 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1425 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1426 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1427 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1429 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1430 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1433 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1434 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1436 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1437 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1438 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1439 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1440 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1443 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1444 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1445 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1446 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1449 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1450 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1451 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1453 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1456 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1458 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1460 ; comment (until end of line)
1464 $A default non-terminal
1465 $"C" default terminal
1466 $?C? default special
1467 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1468 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1469 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1470 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1471 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1472 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1473 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1474 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1475 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1476 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1477 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1478 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1479 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1480 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1481 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1483 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1485 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1486 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1487 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1488 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1489 equal signs of assignments.
1492 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1493 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1496 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1497 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1498 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1499 customize the package.
1501 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1503 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1504 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1505 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1506 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1507 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1508 which answers different needs.
1511 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1512 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1513 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1514 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1515 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1519 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1520 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1523 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1526 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1528 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1530 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1534 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1537 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1540 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1542 *** whitespace.el ???
1544 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1545 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1546 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1547 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1548 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1549 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1550 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1552 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1554 Here is an example of columns:
1557 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1558 porcupine strawberry airplane
1560 Doing the following settings:
1562 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1563 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1564 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1565 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1568 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1570 M-x delimit-columns-region
1574 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1575 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1576 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1578 delim-col has the following options:
1580 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1583 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1584 between each column.
1586 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1589 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1592 delim-col has the following commands:
1594 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1595 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1598 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1599 were operated on recently.
1601 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1603 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1604 recentf at Emacs startup.
1606 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1607 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1608 file list can be displayed:
1610 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1611 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1612 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1614 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1615 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1617 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1621 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1622 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1623 specific to Message mode.
1626 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1627 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1628 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1631 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1632 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1633 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1635 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1636 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1639 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1641 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1642 minibuffer with completion.
1644 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1645 with the diary features.
1647 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1648 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1650 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1653 ** Withdrawn packages
1655 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1656 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1658 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1660 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1663 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1664 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1666 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
1667 with the more general `:mask' property.
1669 ** Image specifications accept more `:algorithm's.
1671 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
1675 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
1676 is running in batch mode. For example,
1678 (message "%s" (read t))
1680 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
1684 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
1685 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
1687 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
1688 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
1692 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
1695 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
1697 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
1698 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
1700 - Function: remq ELT LIST
1702 Return a copy of LIST with all occurences of ELT removed. The
1703 comparison is done with `eq'.
1705 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
1707 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
1711 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1712 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1713 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1715 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1716 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1718 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1719 function was declared obsolete.
1721 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
1722 retained as an alias).
1724 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1725 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1726 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1728 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1730 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1732 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1733 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1735 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1737 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1739 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1741 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1742 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1743 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1744 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1747 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1748 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1749 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1750 minibuffer even if it is active.
1752 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1753 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1754 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1755 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1756 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1757 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1759 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1760 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1761 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1762 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1763 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1764 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1765 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1767 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
1768 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
1769 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
1771 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1772 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1773 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1774 Default value is nil.
1776 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
1779 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
1780 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1781 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1783 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1786 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1787 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1788 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1789 than replacing the local map.
1791 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1792 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1794 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1797 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1800 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
1802 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1804 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1805 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1806 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1807 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1809 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
1810 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
1811 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
1812 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
1814 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1815 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1816 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1817 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1819 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1820 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1821 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1823 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1824 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1825 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1826 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1827 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1828 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1829 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1832 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1834 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1835 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1836 character set as previously.
1838 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1839 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1840 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1842 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1843 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1844 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1845 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1847 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1848 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1850 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1851 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1854 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1855 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1857 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1858 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1859 buffers and strings.
1861 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1862 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1863 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1864 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1865 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1866 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1867 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1870 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1871 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1872 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1874 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1875 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1876 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1877 may differ between buffer and string text.
1879 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1880 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1882 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1883 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1884 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1885 `composition' from STRING.
1887 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1888 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1890 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1893 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1894 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1895 character set is not used.
1897 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1898 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1899 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1902 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1903 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1904 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1907 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1908 that offset in the file before writing.
1910 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1911 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
1913 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1914 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1915 from which the command was issued.
1917 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1918 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1919 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1920 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1923 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1924 to `window-buffer-height'.
1926 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1928 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1929 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1930 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1932 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1935 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1936 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1938 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1939 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1940 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1942 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1943 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1944 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1945 is currently displayed in some window.
1947 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1948 argument function's results.
1950 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1951 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1953 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1954 header is the list of headers passed to it.
1956 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1957 ignores differences in case and text representation.
1959 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1960 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1963 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1964 nil don't display a cursor
1965 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1966 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1967 others display a box cursor.
1969 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1970 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1971 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1972 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1974 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1975 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
1976 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1977 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1981 (string-to-syntax "()")
1984 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1987 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1988 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1995 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
2000 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
2005 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
2012 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
2013 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
2016 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
2017 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
2018 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
2019 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
2022 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
2024 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
2025 for a regexp in a string.
2027 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
2028 `mouse-position-function'.
2030 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
2031 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
2033 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
2034 Keywords are now always considered constants.
2037 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
2040 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
2041 returned by function `recent-keys'.
2044 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
2045 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
2046 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
2047 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
2051 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
2052 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
2055 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
2056 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
2057 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
2058 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
2061 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
2062 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
2063 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
2064 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
2067 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
2068 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
2069 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
2072 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
2073 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
2076 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
2078 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
2079 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
2080 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
2084 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
2085 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
2088 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
2089 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
2092 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
2093 instead of being optional.
2096 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
2097 modify read-only text.
2100 ** New functions and variables for locales.
2102 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
2103 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
2104 time functions like strftime. The new variables
2105 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
2106 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
2108 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
2109 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
2110 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
2111 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
2112 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
2113 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
2114 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
2117 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
2118 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
2119 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
2123 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
2124 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
2127 ** New function `propertize'
2129 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
2130 strings with text properties.
2132 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
2134 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
2135 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
2136 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
2137 specified value of that property. Example:
2139 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
2142 ** push and pop macros.
2144 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
2145 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
2146 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
2148 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
2149 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
2150 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
2152 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
2154 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
2155 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
2157 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
2158 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
2159 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
2160 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2162 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
2163 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
2164 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
2165 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2168 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
2169 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
2171 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
2172 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
2173 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
2174 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
2175 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
2177 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
2179 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
2180 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2181 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2182 [:alpha:] matches letters.
2183 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2184 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2185 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
2186 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
2187 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
2188 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
2189 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2190 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
2191 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
2192 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
2193 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
2196 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
2198 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
2200 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
2202 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
2203 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
2207 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
2208 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
2209 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
2213 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
2214 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
2216 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
2218 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
2219 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
2220 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
2221 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
2222 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
2224 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
2226 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
2227 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
2228 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
2232 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
2233 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
2234 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
2235 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
2236 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
2238 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
2240 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
2242 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
2244 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
2246 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
2248 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
2251 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
2253 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
2255 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2257 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
2259 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
2261 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
2263 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2265 Returns the size of TABLE.
2267 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
2269 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
2271 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
2273 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
2275 - Function: clrhash TABLE
2279 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
2281 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
2284 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
2286 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
2287 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
2289 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
2291 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
2293 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
2295 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
2296 arguments KEY and VALUE.
2298 - Function: sxhash OBJ
2300 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
2302 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
2304 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
2305 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
2306 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
2307 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
2308 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
2310 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
2312 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
2313 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
2314 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
2316 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
2317 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2319 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2320 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2322 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2323 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2325 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
2326 'case-fold-string-hash))
2328 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2331 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
2333 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
2334 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
2335 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
2338 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
2340 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
2341 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
2344 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
2345 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
2346 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
2347 is too short to reach that column.
2350 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
2351 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
2352 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
2353 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
2355 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
2356 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
2357 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
2360 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
2361 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
2364 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
2365 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
2368 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
2369 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
2370 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
2371 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
2372 temporary-file-directory instead.
2375 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
2376 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
2377 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
2378 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
2381 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
2382 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
2385 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
2387 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
2388 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
2389 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
2392 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
2394 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
2395 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
2396 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
2397 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
2398 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
2399 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
2401 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
2402 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
2403 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
2404 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2407 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2409 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2410 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2411 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2414 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2415 string where arguments appear in the result string.
2419 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2421 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2422 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
2425 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2428 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2430 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2431 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2434 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2436 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2437 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2443 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2444 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2446 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2447 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2448 to enable sound support.
2450 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2451 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2452 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2453 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2454 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2456 The following sound properties are supported:
2460 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2461 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2465 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2466 may be present, but not both.
2470 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2471 0..1. This property is optional.
2473 Other properties are ignored.
2475 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2477 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2480 ** Changes to garbage collection
2482 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2483 of live and free strings.
2485 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2486 strings that have been consed so far.
2489 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2492 *** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
2495 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2497 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2500 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2502 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2504 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2505 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2506 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2507 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2508 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2510 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
2513 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
2515 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
2516 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
2517 or omitted means use the selected frame.
2520 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2521 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2524 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2528 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
2532 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2534 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2535 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2536 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2537 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2539 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2540 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2542 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2543 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2544 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2545 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2546 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2547 just display it black instead.
2549 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2552 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2556 ** New face implementation.
2558 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2559 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2564 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2566 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2568 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2569 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2571 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2573 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2575 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2577 6. Foreground color.
2579 7. Background color.
2581 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2583 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2585 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2587 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2589 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2592 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2593 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2595 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2596 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2597 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2598 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2599 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2600 attributes mentioned above.
2602 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2603 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2606 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2607 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2613 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2614 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2615 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2616 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2617 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2618 results in a fully-specified face.
2621 *** Face realization.
2623 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2624 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2625 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2626 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2627 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2628 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2630 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2631 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2632 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2633 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2635 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2636 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2637 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2638 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2639 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2641 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2642 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2643 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2644 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2645 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2648 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2649 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2650 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2651 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2654 **** Clearing face caches.
2656 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2657 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2663 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2664 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2665 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2667 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2668 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2669 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2670 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2671 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2673 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2674 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2675 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2677 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2679 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2680 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2681 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2682 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2683 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2684 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2685 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2687 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2688 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2694 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2695 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2698 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2699 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2700 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2701 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2702 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2705 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2707 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2710 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2712 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2714 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2715 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2716 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2718 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2719 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2720 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2721 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2722 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2723 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2724 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2725 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2726 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2727 of the face font sort order.
2729 - Function: x-font-family-list
2731 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2732 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2733 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2734 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2736 - Variable: font-list-limit
2738 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2739 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2740 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2743 *** Setting face attributes.
2745 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2746 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2747 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2750 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2751 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2753 The following attributes are recognized:
2757 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2758 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2759 and `?' are allowed.
2763 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2764 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2765 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2766 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2770 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
2771 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
2772 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
2773 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
2777 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2778 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2779 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2783 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2784 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2787 `:foreground', `:background'
2789 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2793 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2794 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2795 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2800 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2801 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2802 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2807 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2808 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2809 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2810 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2814 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2815 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2816 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2817 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2818 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2819 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2820 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2821 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2822 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2823 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2824 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2825 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2826 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2827 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2828 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2829 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2834 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2835 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2839 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2840 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2841 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2842 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2843 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2844 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2846 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2847 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2851 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2852 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2853 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2856 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2857 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2858 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2860 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2865 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
2866 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
2867 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
2869 *** Face attributes and X resources
2871 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2874 Face attribute X resource class
2875 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2876 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2877 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2878 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2879 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2880 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2881 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2882 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2883 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2884 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2885 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2886 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2887 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2888 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2889 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2890 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2891 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2892 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2893 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2894 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2897 *** Text property `face'.
2899 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2900 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2901 specification can be
2903 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2905 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2906 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2907 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2908 for face attribute names.
2910 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2911 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2912 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2915 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2917 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2918 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2919 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
2920 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
2921 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
2922 used to clear the mapping table.
2924 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2926 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2927 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2928 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2929 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2930 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2931 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2932 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2933 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2934 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2935 modify their color-related behavior.
2937 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2940 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2942 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2943 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2944 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2945 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2946 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2947 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2948 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2949 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2950 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2953 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
2955 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
2957 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2958 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2959 Otherwise, it returns zero.
2961 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2963 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2964 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2965 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
2967 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
2968 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
2969 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
2970 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
2971 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2972 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2973 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2976 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
2977 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
2978 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
2980 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2982 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
2984 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2986 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2987 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2988 constrained position if that is is different.
2990 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2991 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2992 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2993 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
2994 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2995 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2996 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
2997 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
2998 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
3000 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
3001 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
3002 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
3003 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
3004 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
3006 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
3007 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
3009 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
3011 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
3013 Delete the field surrounding POS.
3014 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3015 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3017 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3019 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
3020 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3021 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3022 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
3023 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
3025 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3027 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
3028 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3029 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3030 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
3031 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
3033 - Function: field-string &optional POS
3035 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
3036 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3037 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3039 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
3041 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
3042 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3043 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3048 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
3049 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
3050 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
3051 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
3053 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
3054 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
3055 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
3056 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
3059 IMAGE is an image specification.
3061 *** Image specifications
3063 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
3064 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
3065 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
3066 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
3067 described below are ignored.
3069 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
3073 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
3074 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
3075 to use for its ascent.
3077 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
3078 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
3080 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
3081 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
3082 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
3083 overlays that apply to the image.
3087 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
3088 margin around the image. Default is 0.
3092 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
3097 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
3099 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
3100 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
3102 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
3103 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
3104 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
3105 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
3106 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
3107 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
3108 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
3109 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
3112 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
3114 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
3116 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
3117 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
3118 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
3119 of the factors' absolute values.
3121 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
3127 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
3133 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
3138 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
3139 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
3140 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
3141 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
3142 image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from the corners is
3143 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
3144 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
3147 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
3148 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
3153 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
3154 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
3155 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
3156 may be present in the image specification.
3160 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
3161 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
3162 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
3163 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
3165 *** Supported image types
3167 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
3169 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
3170 properties supported are
3174 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
3175 is the frame's foreground.
3179 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
3180 the frame's background color.
3182 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
3183 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
3184 instead of a `:file' property.
3188 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
3192 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
3198 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
3199 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
3201 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
3203 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
3206 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
3207 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
3210 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
3212 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
3213 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
3214 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
3215 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
3217 Additional image properties supported are:
3219 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
3221 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
3222 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
3225 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
3226 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
3228 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
3229 to display compressed images.
3231 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
3233 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
3234 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
3237 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
3239 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3240 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
3243 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
3245 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
3246 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3249 **** GIF, image type `gif'
3251 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
3252 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
3254 Additional image properties supported are:
3258 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
3259 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
3261 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
3262 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
3263 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
3266 (defun show-anim (file max)
3267 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
3268 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
3270 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
3273 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
3276 (goto-char (point-min))
3277 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
3278 (insert-image img "x"))
3279 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
3281 **** PNG, image type `png'
3283 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
3284 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3287 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
3289 Additional image properties supported are:
3293 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
3294 integer. This is a required property.
3298 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
3299 must be a integer. This is an required property.
3303 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
3304 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
3305 files. This is an required property.
3307 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
3312 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
3313 which are supported in the current configuration.
3315 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
3316 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
3317 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
3318 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
3319 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
3321 *** Simplified image API, image.el
3323 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
3324 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
3325 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
3326 define an image based on available image types. The functions
3327 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
3333 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
3336 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
3337 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
3338 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
3339 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
3340 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3341 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3342 of the display margins.
3344 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
3345 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
3346 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
3347 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
3353 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
3354 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
3355 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
3356 that have a `help-echo' property.
3358 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
3359 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
3360 the window in which the help was found.
3362 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
3363 `help-echo' text property was found.
3365 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
3366 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
3368 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
3369 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
3372 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
3373 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
3375 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
3376 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
3377 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
3378 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
3379 used as help string.
3381 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
3382 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
3383 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
3386 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
3388 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
3389 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
3391 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
3392 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
3393 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
3394 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
3397 (global-set-key [A-down]
3400 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3401 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
3402 (global-set-key [A-up]
3405 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3406 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
3409 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
3411 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
3412 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
3413 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
3414 is called with one argument, POS.
3416 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
3417 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
3418 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
3419 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
3420 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
3423 ** Tool bar support.
3425 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
3426 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
3427 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
3428 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
3429 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
3430 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
3432 *** Tool bar item definitions
3434 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3435 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
3436 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
3438 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
3439 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
3440 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
3441 property (see below).
3443 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
3444 binding are currently ignored.
3446 The following properties are recognized:
3450 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
3455 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
3459 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
3460 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
3461 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
3463 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
3465 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
3466 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
3470 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3471 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3472 meaning of each of the four elements:
3474 Index Use when item is
3475 ----------------------------------------
3476 0 enabled and selected
3477 1 enabled and deselected
3478 2 disabled and selected
3479 3 disabled and deselected
3481 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3482 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3484 `:help HELP-STRING'.
3486 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3487 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3489 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
3490 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
3491 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
3494 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
3496 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3497 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3498 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3500 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3501 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3503 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3504 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3505 pixels. Default is 1.
3507 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3508 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3510 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3512 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3515 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3516 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3517 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3519 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3521 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3523 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3526 ** Mode line changes.
3529 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3531 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3532 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3533 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3535 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3536 a `local-map' text property.
3538 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3539 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3541 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3542 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3543 `local-map' property.
3545 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3546 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3549 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3550 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3553 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3554 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3557 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3559 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3560 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3561 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3562 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3565 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3568 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3569 position in the header-line.
3572 ** Text property `display'
3574 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3575 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3576 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3577 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3579 *** Variable width and height spaces
3581 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3582 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3583 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3584 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3585 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3586 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3587 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3589 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3590 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3591 properties described below.
3593 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3594 characters having the `display' property.
3598 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3599 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3601 - :relative-width FACTOR
3603 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3604 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3605 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3606 width of that character by FACTOR.
3610 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3611 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3613 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3617 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3620 - :relative-height FACTOR
3622 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3623 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3627 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3628 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3629 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3632 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3636 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3637 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3638 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3639 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3640 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3641 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3642 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3643 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3644 as display specification.
3646 *** Other display properties
3648 - :space-width FACTOR
3650 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3651 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3656 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3658 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3659 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3660 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3661 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3662 a font is available counts as a step.
3664 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3665 as tall as the frame's default font.
3667 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3668 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3670 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3671 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3675 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3676 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3677 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3678 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3679 `:height' subproperty.
3681 *** Conditional display properties
3683 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3684 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3685 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3686 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3687 the text having the `display' property.
3689 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3693 ** New menu separator types.
3695 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3696 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3697 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3698 to specify other menu separator types.
3700 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3702 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3705 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3707 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3709 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3711 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3713 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3715 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3717 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3719 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3721 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3723 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3724 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3726 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3728 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3730 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3732 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3734 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3736 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3738 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3740 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3742 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3744 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3746 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3748 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3750 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3752 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3754 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3755 the corresponding single-line separators.
3758 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3760 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3761 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3762 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3763 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3764 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3765 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3766 default foreground is black.
3768 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3769 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3770 `ScrollBarBackground').
3772 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3773 settings for scroll bar colors.
3776 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3777 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3780 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3781 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3782 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3783 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3784 the original window start.
3787 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3788 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3789 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3792 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3794 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3795 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3796 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3797 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3799 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3800 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3802 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3804 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3805 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3806 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3807 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3808 temporarily to nil, for example
3810 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3811 (enlarge-window 10))
3813 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3814 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3816 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3817 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3818 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3819 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3820 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3821 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3825 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3827 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3830 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3832 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3834 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3835 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3836 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3837 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3838 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3840 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3844 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3846 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3849 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3851 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3852 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3854 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3856 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3858 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3859 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3860 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3862 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3863 is the one that is used.
3865 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3866 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3867 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3868 separate from the command's regular output.
3869 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3870 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3871 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3874 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3875 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3876 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3877 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3879 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3880 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3881 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3882 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3884 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3885 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3886 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3887 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3889 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3890 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3891 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3892 they never ignore case.
3894 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3895 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3896 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3897 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3898 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3899 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3900 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3902 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3903 the same format that was used in the file before.
3905 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3906 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3908 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3909 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3910 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3912 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3913 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3914 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3915 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3916 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3917 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3918 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3920 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3921 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3922 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3923 format. You can now customize these variables.
3925 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3926 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3927 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3928 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3930 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3931 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3932 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3934 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3935 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3936 doesn't have any effect.
3938 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3941 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3942 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3943 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3945 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3946 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3947 `auto-show-mode' command.
3949 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3950 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3951 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3952 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3953 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3955 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3956 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3958 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3959 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3960 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3962 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3963 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3964 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3965 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3967 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3969 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3970 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3971 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3972 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3973 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3975 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3976 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3978 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3979 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3980 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3981 `?' on other systems.
3983 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3984 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3987 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3988 current codepage when it starts.
3992 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3993 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3994 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3995 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3996 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3997 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
4001 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
4002 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
4004 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
4005 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
4006 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
4007 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
4008 buffer-file-coding-system.
4010 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
4011 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
4014 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
4015 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
4016 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
4017 list of possible coding systems.
4021 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
4022 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
4023 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
4024 docstring for details.
4026 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
4027 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
4028 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
4029 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
4030 lineup functions use this feature currently.
4032 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
4033 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
4035 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
4036 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
4038 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
4039 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
4040 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
4041 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
4044 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
4045 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
4047 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
4048 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
4049 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
4050 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
4052 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
4053 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
4054 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
4055 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
4056 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
4058 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
4060 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
4062 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
4063 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
4065 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
4067 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
4068 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
4069 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
4070 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
4071 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
4075 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
4076 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
4077 Gnus manual for the full story.
4079 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
4080 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
4081 group, which is created automatically.
4083 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
4086 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
4088 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
4089 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
4091 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
4094 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
4096 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
4097 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
4099 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
4101 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
4102 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
4104 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
4105 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
4107 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
4108 control over simplification.
4110 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
4112 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
4115 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
4117 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
4119 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
4120 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
4121 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
4123 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
4124 `a' forces normal posting method.
4126 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
4129 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
4132 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
4133 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
4135 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
4138 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
4140 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
4142 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
4143 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
4145 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
4146 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
4148 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
4150 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
4153 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
4154 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
4156 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
4157 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
4159 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
4161 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
4163 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
4165 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
4167 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
4168 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
4169 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
4171 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
4172 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
4173 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
4174 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
4175 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
4177 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
4178 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
4179 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
4180 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
4182 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
4183 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
4184 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
4187 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4189 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
4190 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
4192 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
4193 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
4194 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
4195 removed from the label.
4197 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
4198 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
4200 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
4201 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
4203 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
4204 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
4207 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
4209 ** New/deleted modes and packages
4211 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
4212 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
4214 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
4215 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
4216 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
4218 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
4219 changes with a special face.
4221 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
4222 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
4223 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
4225 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
4227 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
4228 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
4229 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
4230 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
4231 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
4233 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
4234 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
4235 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
4237 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
4238 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
4239 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
4240 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
4241 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
4242 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
4243 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
4244 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
4245 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
4247 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
4248 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
4249 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
4250 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
4251 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
4254 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
4255 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
4256 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
4257 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
4258 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
4259 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
4261 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
4262 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
4263 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
4264 was not documented clearly before.
4266 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
4267 This includes Tetris and Snake.
4269 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
4271 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
4272 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
4273 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
4274 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
4276 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
4277 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
4278 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
4280 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
4282 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
4283 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
4285 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
4286 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
4289 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
4290 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
4291 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
4292 file names and attributes are returned.
4294 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
4295 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
4296 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
4297 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
4300 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
4301 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
4303 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
4305 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
4306 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
4307 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
4310 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
4311 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
4314 The new function process-running-child-p
4315 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
4316 terminal to its own child process.
4318 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
4319 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
4320 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
4321 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
4323 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
4324 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
4326 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
4327 :included is an alias for :visible.
4329 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
4330 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
4331 to move or copy menu entries.
4333 ** Multibyte editing changes
4335 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
4336 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
4337 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
4338 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
4339 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
4340 (setq char (sref str idx)
4341 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
4342 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
4344 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
4345 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
4346 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
4348 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
4349 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
4350 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
4352 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
4354 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
4355 across the boundary.
4357 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
4358 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
4359 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
4360 contains 8-bit characters.
4361 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
4362 contains invalid characters.
4364 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
4365 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
4366 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
4367 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
4370 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
4371 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
4372 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
4373 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
4375 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
4376 compose Thai characters in a string.
4378 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
4379 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
4380 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
4381 menus should always use the third argument.
4383 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
4384 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
4385 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
4386 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
4388 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
4389 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
4390 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
4391 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
4393 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
4394 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
4395 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
4398 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
4400 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
4401 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
4402 requested feature cannot be loaded.
4404 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
4405 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
4406 means to clear out that attribute.
4408 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
4409 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
4411 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
4412 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
4413 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
4414 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
4416 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
4417 the gap of the current buffer.
4419 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
4420 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
4423 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
4424 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
4425 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
4426 it back in after any modifications have been made.
4428 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
4430 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
4431 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
4432 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
4433 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
4434 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
4436 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
4437 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
4438 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
4439 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
4440 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
4442 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
4443 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
4444 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
4446 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
4447 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
4448 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
4449 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
4450 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
4453 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
4454 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
4455 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
4456 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
4458 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
4460 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
4461 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
4462 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
4463 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
4465 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
4466 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
4467 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
4468 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
4469 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
4470 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
4471 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
4474 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
4477 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
4478 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
4479 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
4480 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
4481 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
4483 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
4484 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
4485 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
4486 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
4488 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
4489 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
4490 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
4491 something that most users not do.
4493 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
4494 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
4495 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
4498 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4501 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4502 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4503 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4504 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4507 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4508 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4509 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4510 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4511 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4514 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4515 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4516 to be confused by TeX commands.
4518 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4519 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4520 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4521 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4523 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4524 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4525 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4526 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4527 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4529 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4530 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4532 ** Changes in input method usage.
4534 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4535 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4538 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4540 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4541 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4543 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4544 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4546 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4548 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4550 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4551 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4553 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4554 given in the following case:
4555 o When you are using a complex input method.
4556 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4558 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4559 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4560 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4561 setting it to t is helpful.
4563 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4565 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4567 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4568 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4569 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4570 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4573 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4574 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4575 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4578 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4580 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4582 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4583 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4585 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4586 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4587 its owner and group.
4589 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4590 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4592 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4593 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4595 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4596 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4597 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4598 by the left edge of the rectangle.
4600 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4601 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4602 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4603 for writing keyboard macros.
4605 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4606 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4607 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4608 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4609 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4612 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4614 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4615 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4618 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4619 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4620 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4621 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4623 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4624 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4625 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4627 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4628 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4629 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4630 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4632 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4633 failure if the command produces no output.
4635 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4636 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4639 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4640 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4641 function and variable names.
4643 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4644 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4645 file-coding-system-alist.
4647 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4648 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4649 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4650 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4651 according to the current fontset.
4653 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4655 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4656 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4657 nonascii-insert-offset.
4659 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4660 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4661 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4662 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4664 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4665 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4667 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4668 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4670 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4671 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4674 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4675 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4677 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4678 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4679 all variables that have documentation.
4681 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4682 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4683 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4684 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4685 it should show; the default is 20.
4687 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4688 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4691 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4692 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4693 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4694 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4695 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4696 Newly added options are included as well.
4698 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4699 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4700 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4702 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4705 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4706 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4708 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4709 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4712 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4713 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4716 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4717 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4718 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4719 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4722 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4724 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4725 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4726 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4728 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4729 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4730 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4735 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4736 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4738 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4739 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4741 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4742 read and post multi-lingual articles.
4744 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4745 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4746 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4747 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4748 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4749 made invisible again.
4751 ** Mail reading and sending changes
4753 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4754 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4755 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4758 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4759 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4760 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4761 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4762 rmail-default-body-file.
4764 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4765 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4766 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4768 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4769 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4770 is evaluated to insert the signature.
4772 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4773 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4774 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4775 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4776 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4777 especially interested in trying feedmail.
4779 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4780 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4781 provided by feedmail are:
4783 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4784 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4785 there is also a queue for draft messages
4787 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4788 be prompted for confirmation
4790 **** does smart filling of address headers
4792 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4793 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4794 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4796 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4797 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4798 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4799 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4803 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4804 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4806 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4807 run Dired on the directory name at point.
4809 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4810 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4811 for a specified regexp.
4815 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4818 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4819 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4822 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4823 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4824 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4825 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4827 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4828 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4829 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4830 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4831 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4833 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4834 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4835 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4836 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4837 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4839 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4840 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4841 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4842 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4844 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4845 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4846 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4848 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4849 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4850 session to resolve them.
4852 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4853 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4854 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4857 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4858 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4859 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4860 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4861 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4862 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4865 ** Changes in Font Lock
4867 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4868 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4869 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4870 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4871 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4873 ** Frame name display changes
4875 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4876 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4877 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4878 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4880 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4881 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4884 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4886 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4887 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4888 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4890 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4892 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4893 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4894 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4896 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4897 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4900 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4901 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4902 previously sent input.
4904 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4905 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4906 as the search string.
4908 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4909 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4913 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4914 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4915 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
4918 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4919 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4920 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4921 style is still the default however.
4923 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4925 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4926 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4927 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4929 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4930 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4932 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4933 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4935 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4936 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4938 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4939 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4941 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4942 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4943 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4944 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4946 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
4948 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
4949 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4950 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4952 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4953 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4954 expanding dynamically.
4956 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4957 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4959 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4960 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4961 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4962 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4964 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4966 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4968 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4969 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4970 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4971 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4972 against the first word in the title.
4974 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4975 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4976 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
4977 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
4978 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
4979 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
4981 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4982 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4983 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4984 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4986 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
4988 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4989 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4990 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4991 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4992 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4993 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4995 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4996 Editing group once the package is loaded.
4998 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4999 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
5000 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
5002 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
5003 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
5007 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
5008 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
5009 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
5011 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
5012 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
5013 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
5014 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
5017 o URLs are automatically skipped
5018 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
5020 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
5022 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5024 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
5025 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
5026 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
5027 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
5029 *** New recursive parser.
5031 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
5032 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
5033 recursive parser scans the individual files.
5035 *** Parsing only part of a document.
5037 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
5038 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
5039 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
5041 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
5043 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
5045 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
5047 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
5049 *** Using multiple selection buffers
5051 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
5052 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
5054 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
5056 *** References to external documents.
5058 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
5059 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
5060 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
5061 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
5062 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
5063 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
5064 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
5066 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
5068 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
5069 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
5071 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
5072 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
5074 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
5076 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
5077 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
5079 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
5081 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
5082 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
5083 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
5084 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
5085 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
5086 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
5089 *** Support for the varioref package
5091 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
5095 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
5096 and citations are created. These hooks are
5097 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
5098 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
5100 *** Citations outside LaTeX
5102 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
5103 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
5105 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
5107 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
5108 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
5111 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
5113 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
5114 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
5115 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
5116 directories that contain the same file name.
5118 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
5119 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
5120 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
5121 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
5122 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
5123 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
5124 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
5127 ** New modes and packages
5129 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
5130 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
5131 it, but some do not.
5133 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
5136 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
5137 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
5140 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
5142 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
5143 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
5144 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
5145 established system of notation similar to Chess.
5147 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
5148 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
5149 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
5151 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
5152 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
5153 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
5154 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
5155 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
5158 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
5159 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
5161 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
5162 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
5163 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
5164 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
5166 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
5168 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
5169 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
5170 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
5171 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
5172 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
5173 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
5174 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
5175 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
5176 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
5177 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
5178 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
5180 Platform-specific modes:
5182 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
5183 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
5184 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
5185 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
5186 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
5187 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
5188 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
5189 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
5190 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
5192 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5194 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
5195 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
5196 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
5197 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
5199 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
5200 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
5201 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
5203 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
5204 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
5205 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
5206 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
5208 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
5209 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
5210 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
5213 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
5214 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
5215 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
5216 current input method for reading this one event.
5218 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
5219 now control whether to output certain characters as
5220 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
5221 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
5222 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
5223 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
5225 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5227 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
5228 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
5230 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
5231 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
5232 always increases point by 1.
5234 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
5235 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
5237 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
5239 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
5240 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
5241 default value changed. For example,
5243 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
5248 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
5251 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
5252 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
5253 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
5254 `:version' in the top level group.
5256 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
5258 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
5259 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
5261 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
5262 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
5263 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
5266 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
5267 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
5270 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
5271 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
5272 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
5274 ** Frame-local variables.
5276 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
5277 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
5278 local bindings for that variable.
5280 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
5281 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
5282 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
5285 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
5286 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
5287 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
5288 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
5290 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
5291 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
5292 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
5293 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
5295 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
5296 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
5297 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
5298 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
5299 See the documentation in sregex.el.
5301 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
5302 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
5303 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
5304 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
5306 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
5307 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
5309 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
5310 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
5311 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
5313 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
5314 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
5315 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
5316 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
5318 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
5319 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
5322 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
5323 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
5324 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
5325 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
5326 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
5328 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
5329 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
5330 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
5331 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
5333 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
5334 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
5335 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
5336 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
5337 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
5339 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
5340 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
5341 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
5342 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
5344 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
5345 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
5346 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
5348 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
5349 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
5350 was directed to display this buffer.
5352 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
5353 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
5354 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
5355 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
5356 set-window-configuration.
5358 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
5359 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
5360 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
5361 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
5363 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
5364 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
5365 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
5367 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
5368 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
5369 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
5371 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
5372 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
5374 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
5375 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
5377 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
5378 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
5379 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
5381 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
5382 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
5383 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
5384 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
5388 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
5389 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
5392 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
5393 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
5394 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
5395 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
5396 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
5398 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
5400 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
5401 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
5402 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
5403 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
5406 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
5407 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
5408 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
5409 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
5410 The supported properties include
5412 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5414 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5415 item should appear in the menu.
5417 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
5418 which will be REAL-BINDING.
5419 It should return a binding to use instead.
5421 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
5422 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
5423 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
5424 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
5425 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
5428 This means that the command normally has no
5429 keyboard equivalent.
5430 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
5431 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
5432 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
5433 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
5434 value says whether this button is currently selected.
5436 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
5437 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
5439 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
5443 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
5444 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
5445 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
5446 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
5448 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
5450 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5451 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
5452 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
5453 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
5454 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
5455 forward, away from the user.
5457 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5459 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
5460 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
5461 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
5462 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
5463 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
5465 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
5467 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5468 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
5469 that were dragged and dropped.
5471 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5473 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
5475 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
5476 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
5477 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
5479 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
5480 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
5481 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
5483 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
5484 in Emacs 19 and before.
5486 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
5487 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
5489 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
5490 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
5491 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
5492 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
5494 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
5495 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
5496 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
5497 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
5498 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
5500 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5501 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5502 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5503 consistent with the new representation.
5505 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5506 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5507 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5508 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5510 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5511 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5512 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5514 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5515 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5516 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5518 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5519 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5520 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5522 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5523 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5525 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5526 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5528 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5529 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5530 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5531 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5533 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5534 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5536 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5537 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5538 buffer or string being searched.
5540 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5541 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5542 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5543 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5544 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5545 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5546 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5548 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5550 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5551 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5552 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5553 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5554 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5555 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5556 define-coding-system-alias.
5558 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5559 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5560 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5561 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5562 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5563 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5564 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5567 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5568 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5569 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5570 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5572 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5573 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5574 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5575 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5577 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5578 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5579 This function requires a user interaction.
5581 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5582 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5583 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5584 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5585 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5586 select-safe-coding-system.
5588 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5589 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5590 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5593 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5594 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5595 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5597 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5598 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5599 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5600 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5602 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5603 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5604 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5607 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5608 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5610 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5611 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5612 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5613 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5614 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5615 range of characters.
5617 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5618 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5620 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5621 in the current buffer at position POS.
5623 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5624 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5625 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5626 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5627 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5628 binding input-method-function to nil.
5630 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5631 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5632 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5633 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5634 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5636 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5637 subsequent events of a key sequence.
5639 *** You can customize any language environment by using
5640 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5642 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5643 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5644 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5645 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5646 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5648 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
5650 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5651 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5652 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5655 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5656 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5658 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5659 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5660 in your .emacs file.)
5662 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5663 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5665 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5666 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5668 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5669 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5672 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5673 delete the character before point, as usual.
5675 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5676 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5677 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5679 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5680 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5681 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5682 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5683 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5686 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5687 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5688 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5689 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5690 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5692 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5693 and is an alias for it.
5695 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5696 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5698 ** Scrolling changes
5700 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5701 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5703 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5704 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5707 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5708 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5709 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5710 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5712 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5713 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5714 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5715 recenters the window.
5717 ** International character set support (MULE)
5719 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5720 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5721 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5722 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5723 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5724 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5726 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5727 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5728 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5729 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5730 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5732 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5733 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5734 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5735 language, to make it possible to type them.
5737 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5738 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5740 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5741 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5743 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5745 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5747 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5748 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5749 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5750 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5751 characters for their work until they want to change.
5755 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5756 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5757 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5758 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5759 support several input methods.
5761 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5762 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5765 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5766 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5767 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5768 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5769 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5772 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5773 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5774 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5775 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5776 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5778 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5779 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5780 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5781 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5783 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5784 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5785 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5786 the first guess is wrong.
5788 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5789 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5791 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5792 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5793 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5794 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5796 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5797 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5798 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5799 translate automatically to and from either one.
5801 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5803 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5804 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5805 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5808 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5809 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5810 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5811 multibyte characters in that buffer.
5813 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5814 character conversion as well.
5816 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5818 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5819 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5820 requires using many fonts.
5822 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5823 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5825 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5826 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5827 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5828 you would use a font.
5830 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5831 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5832 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5834 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5835 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5836 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5837 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5838 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5840 *** Defining fontsets.
5842 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5843 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5844 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5846 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5847 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5848 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5849 standard fontset are created automatically.
5851 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5852 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5853 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5854 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5855 name is `fontset-startup'.
5857 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5858 The resource value should have this form:
5859 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5860 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5861 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5862 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5863 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5864 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5865 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5866 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5867 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5869 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5870 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5871 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5873 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5874 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5876 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5877 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5878 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5879 Here is the substitution rule:
5880 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5881 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5882 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5883 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5884 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5886 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5887 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5888 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5890 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5891 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5892 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5893 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5896 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5897 defaults for a particular choice of language.
5899 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5900 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5901 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5902 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5903 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5904 system for new files that you create.
5906 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5907 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5908 whole Emacs session.
5910 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5911 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5912 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5914 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5915 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5916 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5917 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5918 coding systems that Emacs supports.
5920 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5921 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5922 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5923 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5924 is used for *the immediately following command*.
5926 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5927 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5929 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5930 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5932 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5933 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5935 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5936 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5937 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5938 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5941 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5942 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5943 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5944 translated into that character code.
5946 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5947 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5949 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5951 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5952 the coding system for keyboard input.
5954 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5955 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5956 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5958 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5960 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5961 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5962 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5963 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5964 designed to work with terminals.
5966 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5967 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5968 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5969 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5970 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5971 in the corresponding buffer.
5973 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5975 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5976 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5977 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5979 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5980 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5981 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5984 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5985 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5987 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5988 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5989 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5990 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5992 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5993 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5994 related information.
5996 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5997 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
6000 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
6001 information about the support for a particular language.
6002 You specify the language as an argument.
6004 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
6005 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
6008 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
6009 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
6010 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
6011 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
6013 A alternativnyj (Russian)
6015 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
6016 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
6017 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
6018 E euc-japan (Japanese)
6019 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
6020 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
6021 K euc-korea (Korean)
6024 S shift_jis (Japanese)
6027 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
6028 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
6029 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
6033 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
6034 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
6035 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
6036 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
6038 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
6039 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
6041 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
6042 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
6043 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
6044 Rmail files themselves.
6046 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
6047 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
6049 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
6052 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
6053 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
6054 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
6055 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
6056 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
6058 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
6059 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
6060 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
6063 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
6064 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
6065 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
6066 without any conversion.
6068 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
6069 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
6070 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
6071 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
6073 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
6074 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
6076 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
6077 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
6079 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
6080 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
6082 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
6083 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
6084 in the buffer before point.
6086 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
6087 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
6090 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
6091 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
6093 ** File locking works with NFS now.
6095 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
6096 in the same directory as FILENAME.
6098 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
6099 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
6100 can become a bottleneck.
6102 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
6103 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
6104 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
6105 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
6106 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
6107 so useful that the change is worth while.
6109 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
6110 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
6111 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
6112 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
6114 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
6115 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
6118 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
6119 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
6120 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
6122 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
6123 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
6124 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
6126 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
6127 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
6128 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
6130 ** Changes in View mode.
6132 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
6133 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
6135 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
6136 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
6138 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
6141 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
6142 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
6144 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
6145 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
6146 not just the selected window.
6148 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
6149 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
6150 turns View mode on or off.
6152 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
6153 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
6154 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
6156 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
6157 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
6159 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
6160 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
6161 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
6162 which version to compare with.
6164 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
6165 blocks if a match is inside the block.
6167 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
6168 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
6169 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
6170 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
6172 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
6173 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
6174 blocks, all of them or none.
6176 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
6177 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
6180 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
6181 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
6182 However, the mode will not be changed if
6183 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
6184 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
6185 not suitable for ordinary files, or
6186 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
6188 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
6190 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
6191 these commands do not change the major mode.
6193 ** M-x occur changes.
6195 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
6196 it performs a case-sensitive search.
6198 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
6199 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
6200 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
6202 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
6203 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
6204 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
6205 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
6206 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
6208 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
6209 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
6210 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
6211 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
6213 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6214 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
6215 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
6217 ** Outline mode changes.
6219 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
6221 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
6223 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
6224 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
6225 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
6228 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
6229 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
6232 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
6233 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
6235 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
6237 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6238 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
6239 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
6240 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
6242 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
6243 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
6244 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
6246 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
6247 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
6250 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
6251 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
6252 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
6253 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
6255 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
6256 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
6257 can be. The default value is 30.
6259 ** Changes in Mail mode.
6261 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
6262 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
6263 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
6264 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
6265 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
6268 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
6269 compose-mail-other-frame.
6271 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
6272 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
6273 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
6274 buffer that shows the original message.
6276 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
6277 with separator lines around the contents.
6279 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
6280 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
6281 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
6282 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
6284 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
6286 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
6287 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
6288 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
6289 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
6291 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
6292 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
6295 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
6296 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
6299 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
6300 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
6301 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
6302 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
6304 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
6305 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
6306 be taken to be magic.
6308 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
6309 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
6310 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
6312 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
6313 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
6315 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
6316 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
6318 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
6320 new key dired.el binding old key
6321 ------- ---------------- -------
6322 * c dired-change-marks c
6324 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
6325 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
6326 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
6328 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
6329 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
6330 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
6331 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
6332 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
6333 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
6337 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
6338 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
6339 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
6340 each time you run it.
6342 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
6343 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
6345 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
6346 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
6347 means to move in the opposite direction.
6349 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
6350 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
6352 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
6353 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
6354 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
6355 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
6360 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
6362 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
6365 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
6366 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
6368 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
6371 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
6373 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
6375 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
6377 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
6378 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
6379 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
6381 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
6383 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
6385 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
6386 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
6388 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
6389 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
6390 used to pick articles.
6392 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
6393 another have been added.
6395 `M-x gnus-change-server'
6397 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
6398 generating lines in buffers.
6400 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
6403 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
6405 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
6407 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
6409 *** Scores can be decayed.
6411 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
6413 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
6414 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
6416 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
6419 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
6421 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
6422 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
6424 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
6426 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
6427 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
6429 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
6430 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
6432 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
6435 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
6436 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
6438 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
6440 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
6442 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
6444 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
6446 Use the `Y c' command.
6448 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
6450 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
6452 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
6454 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
6455 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
6457 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
6459 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
6461 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
6462 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
6464 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
6466 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
6467 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
6468 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
6469 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
6472 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
6473 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
6474 particular news group. This can be done by:
6476 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
6478 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
6479 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
6480 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
6481 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
6482 for reading and posting).
6484 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
6485 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
6486 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
6487 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
6490 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
6491 default. Here are some of these default settings:
6493 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
6494 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
6495 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
6496 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
6497 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
6499 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
6500 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6504 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6505 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6506 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6507 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6508 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6511 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6512 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6513 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6514 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6515 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6516 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6518 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6519 of the current buffer.
6521 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6522 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6523 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6525 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6526 style that the Python developers like.
6528 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6529 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6530 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6534 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6535 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6536 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6538 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6539 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6542 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6543 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6545 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6546 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6547 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6548 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6550 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6551 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6553 ** Calendar changes.
6555 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6556 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6557 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6561 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6563 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6565 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6566 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6567 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6568 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6569 It defaults to `letter'.
6570 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6572 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6573 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6574 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6576 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6577 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6580 *** Horizontal layout
6582 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6583 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6584 All are measured in points.
6588 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6589 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6590 All are measured in points.
6594 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6595 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6596 margin above the text.
6598 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6599 framing box is printed around the header.
6601 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6602 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6604 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6605 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6606 `ps-header-font-size'.
6610 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6611 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6612 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6613 elements to this alist.
6615 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6616 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6618 ** hideshow changes.
6620 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6623 *** Support for java-mode added.
6625 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6626 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6628 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6629 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6630 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6632 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6633 robust and a lot faster.
6635 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6637 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6638 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6639 documentation for more details.
6641 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
6643 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6644 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6645 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6646 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6647 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6649 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6650 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6651 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6652 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6658 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6659 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6660 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6661 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6662 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6663 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6665 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6667 *** Maximum decoration
6669 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6670 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6671 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6672 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6673 to get the old behavior.
6677 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6679 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6680 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6682 *** Configurable support
6684 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6685 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6686 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6687 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6688 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6689 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6690 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6692 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6693 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6694 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6696 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6698 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6699 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6702 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6704 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6710 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6711 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6712 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6713 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6715 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6717 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6718 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6719 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6721 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6723 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6724 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6725 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6726 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6727 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6728 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6729 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6731 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6732 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6733 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6734 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6735 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6736 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6738 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6740 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6741 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6742 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6743 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6745 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6748 ** Ada mode changes.
6750 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6751 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6752 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6753 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6756 *** There are two new commands:
6757 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6758 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6760 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6761 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6762 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6764 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6765 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6766 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6768 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6769 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6770 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6771 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6773 ** Scheme mode changes.
6775 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6776 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6777 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6778 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6781 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6782 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6783 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6784 variables as buffer-local variables.
6786 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6789 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
6791 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6792 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6793 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6794 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6796 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6797 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6800 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6801 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6802 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6803 option takes precedence.
6805 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6806 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6807 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6809 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6810 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6813 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6814 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6816 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6817 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6820 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6821 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6822 these register values no longer become completely useless.
6823 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6824 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6825 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6827 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6828 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6829 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6830 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6832 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6833 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6834 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6835 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6836 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6838 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6839 since it applies only to the current frame.
6841 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6842 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6843 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6845 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6846 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6847 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6848 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6849 instead of just the file you are editing.
6853 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6854 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6855 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6856 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6857 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6860 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6861 knows which kind of label is needed.
6863 C-c ) reftex-reference
6864 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6865 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6867 C-c [ reftex-citation
6868 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6869 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6871 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6872 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6875 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6876 can quickly jump to every section.
6878 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6879 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6880 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6881 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6882 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6884 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6886 *** Info documentation is now available.
6888 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6889 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6891 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6892 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6894 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6895 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6897 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6898 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6899 appropriate functions.
6901 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6902 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6904 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6907 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6908 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6910 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6913 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6914 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6915 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6917 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6918 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6919 prefixed with `ALT'.
6921 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6922 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6923 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6926 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6927 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6928 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6930 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6931 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6933 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6934 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6935 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6937 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6939 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6941 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6944 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6945 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6948 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6951 *** Added support for imenu.
6953 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6954 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6955 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6956 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6958 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6959 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6961 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6963 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
6965 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6966 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6967 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6970 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6971 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6973 ** browse-url changes
6975 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6976 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6977 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6978 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6979 customization variables.
6981 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6983 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6984 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6985 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6989 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6990 pops up the Info file for this command.
6992 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6993 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6994 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6997 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6998 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6999 files in the same directory.
7001 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
7002 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
7003 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
7007 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
7008 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
7010 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
7011 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
7012 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
7013 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
7014 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
7015 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
7016 color when Viper is in insert state.
7017 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
7018 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
7019 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
7023 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
7024 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
7025 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
7026 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
7027 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
7029 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
7031 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
7032 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
7034 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
7035 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
7036 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
7038 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
7039 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
7040 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
7041 methods and protocols.
7043 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
7044 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
7045 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
7048 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
7049 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
7050 at least M times and as many as N times.
7052 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
7053 in files has changed slightly.
7055 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
7056 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
7057 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
7058 with old time-stamp-format values.
7060 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
7061 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
7062 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
7065 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
7066 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
7067 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
7068 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
7069 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
7070 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
7072 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
7073 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
7074 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
7076 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
7077 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
7078 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
7079 recommended now will continue to work then.
7081 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
7084 ** There are some additional major modes:
7086 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
7087 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
7088 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
7090 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
7091 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
7094 ** New Lisp packages include:
7096 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
7098 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
7099 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
7101 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
7103 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
7106 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
7107 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
7110 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
7111 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
7112 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
7113 strings or comments.
7115 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
7116 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
7117 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
7118 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
7121 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
7122 can visit them by short forms of their names.
7124 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
7125 Emacs Lisp function at point.
7127 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
7129 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
7130 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
7132 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
7134 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
7136 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
7138 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
7139 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
7141 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
7142 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
7143 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
7144 original place after inserting the copy.
7146 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
7149 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
7150 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
7151 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
7153 Enable mouse-drag with:
7154 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
7156 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
7158 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
7159 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
7161 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
7162 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
7166 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
7167 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
7168 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
7169 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
7170 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
7171 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
7172 instance) and vice versa.
7174 To use this package load it using
7175 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
7176 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
7177 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
7178 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
7179 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
7180 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
7182 *** Interface to ph.
7184 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
7186 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
7187 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
7190 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
7192 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
7193 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
7194 while the real cursor does not move.
7196 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
7197 for visiting your favorite web sites.
7199 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
7200 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
7204 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
7205 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
7206 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
7207 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
7209 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
7211 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
7213 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
7215 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
7216 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
7217 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
7218 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
7219 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
7221 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
7222 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
7223 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
7224 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
7225 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
7226 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
7228 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
7230 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
7231 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
7232 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
7233 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
7235 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
7236 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
7238 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
7239 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
7242 ** Basic Lisp changes
7244 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
7245 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
7247 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
7248 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
7251 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
7253 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
7255 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
7256 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
7258 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
7259 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
7262 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
7264 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
7266 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
7268 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
7269 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
7270 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
7273 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
7274 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
7275 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
7277 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
7278 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
7279 adding one of these suffixes.
7281 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
7282 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
7283 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
7285 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
7286 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
7288 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
7290 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
7291 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
7293 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
7294 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
7296 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
7298 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
7299 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
7301 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
7302 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
7303 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
7304 works using `save-current-buffer'.
7306 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
7307 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
7310 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
7311 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
7312 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
7315 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
7316 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
7319 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
7321 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
7322 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
7323 Then it returns that string.
7325 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
7327 (with-output-to-string
7328 (princ "The buffer is ")
7329 (princ (buffer-name)))
7331 returns "The buffer is foo".
7333 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
7336 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
7337 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
7338 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
7340 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
7341 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
7343 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
7344 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
7345 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
7346 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
7347 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
7348 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
7350 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
7351 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
7352 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
7355 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
7356 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
7357 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
7358 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
7359 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
7361 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
7362 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
7363 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
7364 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
7366 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
7367 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
7369 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
7371 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
7372 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
7373 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
7374 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
7377 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
7378 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
7381 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
7383 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
7384 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
7385 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
7386 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
7387 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
7389 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
7391 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
7392 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
7393 more than the number of characters.
7395 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
7396 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
7397 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
7398 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
7399 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
7400 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
7402 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
7403 and returns a string containing those characters.
7405 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
7406 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
7407 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
7408 character, sref signals an error.
7410 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
7411 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
7412 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7414 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
7415 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
7416 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7418 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
7419 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
7420 to a vector of the characters in it.
7422 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
7423 of a string. You call it as follows:
7425 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
7427 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
7428 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
7429 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
7430 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
7431 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
7433 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
7434 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7436 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
7437 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7439 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
7440 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
7441 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
7442 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
7444 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
7446 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
7448 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
7449 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
7450 are not included in the resulting value.
7452 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
7453 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
7454 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
7455 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
7457 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
7458 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
7459 character extends across that column), then the padding character
7460 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
7461 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
7462 column START-COLUMN.
7464 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
7465 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
7466 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
7467 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
7468 changed text, before the change.
7470 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
7471 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
7472 one character set for each script, not for each language.
7474 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
7476 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
7478 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
7479 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
7481 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
7482 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
7483 which identify the character within that character set.
7485 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
7486 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
7487 opposite of split-char.
7489 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
7490 of all the characters between BEG and END.
7492 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
7493 of all the characters in a string.
7495 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
7496 and specifying coding systems.
7498 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
7499 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
7500 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7501 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7502 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7503 as what to do about code conversion.)
7505 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7506 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7508 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7509 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7510 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7512 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7513 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7514 to match against a file name.
7516 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7517 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7518 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7519 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7520 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7521 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7523 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7524 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7526 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7527 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7529 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7530 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7531 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7534 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7535 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7536 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7537 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7538 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7539 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7541 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7542 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7544 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7545 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7546 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7547 start the subprocess.
7549 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7550 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7551 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7552 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7553 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7555 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7556 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7559 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7560 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7561 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7562 connection permanently or until overridden.
7564 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7565 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7566 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7567 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7568 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7569 system for one operation at a time.
7571 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7572 files, subprocesses or network connections.
7574 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7575 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7576 The value is a cons cell,
7577 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7578 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7579 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7580 input to the subprocess.
7582 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7583 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7585 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7586 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7587 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7589 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7590 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7591 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7592 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7595 Thus, instead of writing
7597 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7598 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7600 you would now write this:
7602 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7603 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7607 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7608 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7609 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7610 for a description of them.
7612 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7613 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7615 (defgroup ispell nil
7616 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7619 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7620 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7621 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7622 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7623 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7625 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7626 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7627 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7628 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7629 first-level subgroups.
7631 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7633 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7634 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7638 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7639 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7640 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7641 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7642 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7643 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7645 ** Text property changes
7647 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7650 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7651 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7652 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7653 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7654 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7656 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7657 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7658 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7659 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7661 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7662 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7663 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7665 ** Changes in invisibility features
7667 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7668 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7669 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7670 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7671 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7672 make the overlay visible.
7674 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7675 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7676 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7677 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7678 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7679 t when it should hide it.
7681 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7683 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7684 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7685 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7686 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7687 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7688 Here is an example of how to do this:
7690 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7691 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7692 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7693 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7696 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7699 ;; When done with the overlays:
7700 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7702 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7704 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
7706 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7707 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7708 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7709 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7711 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7712 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7713 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7715 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7716 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7718 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7719 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7721 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7722 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7723 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7725 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7726 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7727 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7728 determine the syntax type of the character.
7730 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7731 of the current buffer.
7733 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7734 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7735 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7737 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7738 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7739 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7740 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7741 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7743 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7746 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7747 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7748 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7750 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7751 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7752 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7753 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7754 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7756 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7757 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7758 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7760 ** Changes in face features
7762 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7763 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7765 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7766 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7768 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7769 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7771 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7772 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7774 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7775 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7776 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7777 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7780 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7781 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7783 ** Changes in file-handling functions
7785 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7786 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7787 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7788 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7790 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7793 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7794 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7796 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7797 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7799 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7800 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7802 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7803 character code conversion as well as other things.
7805 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7806 (formerly it did not).
7808 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7809 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7811 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7812 instead of constant strings.
7814 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7815 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7816 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7818 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7819 in the same way as before.
7821 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7822 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7823 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7825 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7826 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7827 else, and returns nil.
7829 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7830 directory cannot be listed.
7832 ** Changes in minibuffer input
7834 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7835 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7836 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7837 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7840 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7841 It is available through the history command M-n.
7843 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7844 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7845 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7846 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7847 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7849 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7850 argument in this way.
7852 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7853 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7854 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7856 ** Echo area features
7858 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7859 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7860 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7861 after the echo area is cleared.
7863 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7864 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7866 ** Keyboard input features
7868 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7869 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7871 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7872 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7875 ** Frame-related changes
7877 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7878 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7879 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7881 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7882 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7883 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7885 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7886 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7887 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7888 in the selected frame.
7890 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7891 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7892 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7894 ** X Windows features
7896 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7897 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7898 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7900 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7901 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7903 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7904 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7905 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7907 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7908 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7910 ** Subprocess features
7912 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7913 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7916 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7917 and returns the output from the command as a string.
7919 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7920 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7922 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7923 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7925 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7926 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7927 goes after the other menu items.
7929 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
7930 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
7931 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7934 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7935 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7937 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7938 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7941 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7942 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7943 but its hook is still run.
7945 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7946 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7948 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7949 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7950 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7952 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7953 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7954 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7957 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7958 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7960 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7961 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7962 functions like display-time.
7964 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7965 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7967 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7968 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7969 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7971 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7972 if there is an error in compilation.
7974 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7975 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7976 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7977 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7979 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7980 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7981 the *scratch* buffer.
7983 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7984 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7985 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7986 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7988 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7989 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7990 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7992 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7993 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7994 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7995 and compose-mail-other-frame.
7997 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7998 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7999 full name of the specified user will be returned.
8001 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
8002 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
8003 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
8004 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
8005 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
8008 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
8009 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
8010 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
8011 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
8013 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
8014 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
8015 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
8016 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
8018 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
8020 ** imenu.el changes.
8022 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
8023 item from menu created by imenu.
8025 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
8026 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
8027 select one of those items.
8029 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
8031 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
8033 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
8034 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
8036 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
8037 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
8038 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
8040 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
8042 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
8043 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
8045 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
8046 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
8047 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
8048 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
8049 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
8052 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
8053 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
8055 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
8056 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
8057 as in previous Emacs versions.
8059 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
8060 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
8061 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
8064 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
8065 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
8066 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
8067 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
8070 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
8071 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
8072 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
8073 line and then executing the macro.
8075 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
8077 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
8078 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
8079 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
8084 *** Font Lock support modes
8086 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
8087 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
8088 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
8089 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
8090 Font Lock mode is enabled.
8092 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
8094 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
8100 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
8101 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
8102 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
8103 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
8104 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
8105 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
8106 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
8108 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
8110 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
8112 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
8114 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8116 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
8119 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
8124 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
8125 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
8126 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
8127 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
8129 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
8130 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
8132 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
8133 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
8136 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
8137 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
8139 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
8141 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
8143 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
8145 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
8148 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
8150 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
8152 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
8154 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
8156 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
8159 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
8161 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
8163 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
8165 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
8167 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
8169 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
8171 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
8173 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
8176 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
8178 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
8181 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
8183 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
8184 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
8186 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
8188 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
8190 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
8192 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
8194 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
8197 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
8199 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
8200 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
8202 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
8203 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
8204 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
8206 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
8207 articles with the `*' command.
8209 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
8211 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
8213 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
8215 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
8217 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
8218 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
8220 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
8223 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
8225 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
8227 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
8229 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
8231 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
8233 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
8235 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
8237 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
8239 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
8241 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
8242 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
8244 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
8247 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
8249 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
8250 buffer to allow easier treatment.
8252 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
8254 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
8256 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
8258 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
8261 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
8263 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
8265 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
8266 cited text to hide is now customizable.
8268 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
8270 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
8272 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
8274 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
8276 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
8278 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
8281 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
8283 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
8284 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
8285 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
8288 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
8291 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
8294 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
8295 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
8298 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
8299 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
8300 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
8301 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
8302 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
8305 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
8307 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
8309 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
8310 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
8311 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
8312 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
8313 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
8315 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
8316 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
8317 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
8319 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
8321 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
8322 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
8323 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
8324 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
8325 chapter of the manual for details.
8327 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
8328 customization variables take effect.
8330 ** Marking with the mouse.
8332 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
8333 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
8334 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
8336 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
8338 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
8340 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
8341 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
8343 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
8344 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
8345 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
8346 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
8347 applications, these problems are significant.
8349 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
8350 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
8351 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
8352 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
8353 other DOS application as a subprocess.
8355 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
8356 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
8358 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
8359 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
8360 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
8361 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
8362 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
8363 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
8365 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
8367 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
8368 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
8369 minibuffer contains.
8371 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
8373 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
8374 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
8375 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
8376 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
8378 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
8379 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
8380 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
8381 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
8383 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
8384 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
8386 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
8387 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
8388 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
8390 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
8391 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
8392 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
8393 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
8395 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
8397 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
8398 to replace the characters it "deletes".
8400 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
8402 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
8403 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
8404 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
8405 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
8406 immediately after the selected one.
8408 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
8409 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
8411 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
8413 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
8414 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
8415 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
8416 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
8419 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
8420 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
8423 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
8424 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
8425 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
8426 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
8427 now that the bug is fixed.
8429 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
8431 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
8432 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
8433 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
8434 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
8436 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
8437 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
8438 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
8439 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
8441 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
8442 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
8443 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
8445 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
8446 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
8447 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
8448 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
8451 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
8452 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
8454 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
8455 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
8456 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
8457 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
8459 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
8460 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
8461 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
8462 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
8463 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
8464 `mail-directory-stream'.)
8466 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
8467 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
8468 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
8469 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
8471 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
8472 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
8473 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
8475 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
8476 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
8477 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
8478 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
8479 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
8480 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
8481 to a limitation in font-lock).
8483 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
8485 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
8486 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
8487 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
8490 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
8491 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
8493 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8495 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
8497 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
8499 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8501 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8502 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8503 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8504 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8505 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8506 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8508 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8511 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8512 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8514 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8519 *** Global Font Lock mode
8521 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8522 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8523 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8524 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8525 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8527 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8529 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8533 *** Local Refontification
8535 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8536 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8537 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8538 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8540 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8541 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8542 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8543 above and below point.
8545 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8549 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8550 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8551 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8552 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8553 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8556 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8558 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8559 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8561 ** hide-show changes.
8563 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8564 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8567 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8568 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8570 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8571 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8572 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8576 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8577 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8579 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8580 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8582 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8584 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8585 pressing both mouse buttons.
8587 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8588 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8591 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8594 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8596 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8597 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8599 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8601 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8603 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
8605 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8607 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8609 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8611 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8612 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8613 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8614 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8615 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8617 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8619 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8620 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8621 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8624 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8627 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8629 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8630 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8632 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8633 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8635 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8636 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8637 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8639 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8640 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8643 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8645 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8646 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8647 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8649 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8650 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8651 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8653 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8654 up if too much time passes.
8656 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8658 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8659 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8660 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8663 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8664 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8665 call looks like this:
8667 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8669 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8670 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8671 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8674 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8675 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8678 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8679 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8680 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8681 each time Emacs becomes idle.
8683 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8684 idle for SECS seconds.
8686 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8687 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8688 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8691 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8692 there is no answer within a certain time.
8694 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8696 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8697 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8698 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8700 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8701 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8702 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8703 arguments in between are ignored.
8705 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8706 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8708 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8709 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8710 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8711 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8714 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8715 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8716 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8717 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8718 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8719 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8721 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8722 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8723 systems with limited file name syntax.
8725 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8726 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8727 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8730 (defvar save-completions-file-name
8731 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8732 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8734 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8735 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8736 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8737 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8738 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8740 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8741 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8742 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8744 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8745 marker from its buffer position.
8747 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8748 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8749 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8751 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8752 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8753 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8754 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8755 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8756 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8758 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8759 errors that happen often during editing.
8761 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8762 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8763 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8765 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8766 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8768 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8769 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8770 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8771 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8772 and not get-buffer-window.
8774 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8775 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8776 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8778 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8779 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8780 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8781 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8782 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8783 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8784 over and over for the same text.
8786 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8788 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8789 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8791 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
8794 in addition to the normal
8798 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8799 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8800 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8804 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
8806 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8807 Copyright information:
8809 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8811 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8812 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8813 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8814 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8816 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8817 of this document, or of portions of it,
8818 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8819 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8823 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"