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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
10
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17
18 Temporary note:
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.2
26
27 ** New configure options for Emacs developers
28 These are not new features; only the configure flags are new.
29
30 *** --enable-profiling builds Emacs with profiling enabled.
31 This might not work on all platforms.
32
33 *** --enable-checking[=OPTIONS] builds emacs with extra runtime checks.
34
35 ---
36 ** `make install' now consistently ignores umask, creating a
37 world-readable install.
38
39 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.2
40
41 ** Command-line option -Q (--quick) now also disables loading X resources.
42 Note however that this does not affect Lucid or Motif widgets, if you
43 are using those toolkits. On Windows, this option causes Emacs to
44 ignore Registry settings, though environment variables set on the
45 Registry are still honored.
46
47 *** The new variable `inhibit-x-resources' shows whether X resources
48 were loaded.
49
50 * Changes in Emacs 23.2
51
52 ** The maximum size of buffers (as well as the largest fixnum) is doubled.
53 On typical 32bit systems, buffers can now be up to 512MB.
54
55 ** Function arguments in *Help* buffers are now in uppercase by default.
56 You can customize the new variable `help-downcase-arguments' to change it.
57
58 ** Unibyte sessions are now considered obsolete.
59 I.e. the use of the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE, or command line
60 arguments --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
61 is deprecated. Similarly for custom-izing enable-multibyte-characters, or
62 setting default-enable-multibyte-characters.
63
64 ** The default value of `trash-directory' has changed to nil, which
65 means that `move-file-to-trash' trashes files according to
66 freedesktop.org specifications, the same method used by the Gnome,
67 KDE, and XFCE desktops. (This change has no effect on Windows, which
68 uses `system-move-file-to-trash' for trashing.)
69
70 +++
71 ** Emacs frames can be maximized.
72 The command line arguments -mm/--maximized and the value maximized to the
73 frame parameter fullscreen makes the Emacs frame maximized.
74
75 +++
76 ** New frame parameter sticky makes Emacs frames sticky in virtual desktops.
77
78 ** The pointer now becomes invisible when typing.
79 Customize make-pointer-invisible to turn it off.
80
81 ** Emacs can use the system default monospaced font in Gnome.
82 The use of the system default font can be turned on or off by customizing
83 the variable 'font-use-system-font'. It is off by default.
84 If the system default is changed, Emacs changes also.
85 This requires that gconf-support is built in. If configure finds the
86 gconf-libraries, that support is included. Gconf-support can be
87 turned off with the configure option --without-gconf.
88
89 ** Emacs now reacts to Xft-changes made by configuration tools on X11.
90 Changes to antialias, hinting, hintstyle, RGBA, DPI and lcdfilter are
91 handeled. The XSETTINGS mechanism is used to implement this.
92
93 ** Killing a buffer with a running process now asks for confirmation.
94 You can remove this query in two ways: either remove
95 `process-kill-buffer-query-function' from `kill-buffer-query-functions',
96 or set the appropriate process flag with `set-process-query-on-exit-flag'.
97
98 ** The variable `load-in-progress' won't get corrupted by binding it
99 with `let'. In certain situations, loading an Emacs Lisp file from
100 source while in the midst of loading another file (e.g., with
101 `require' or `autoload') could cause the value of `load-in-progress'
102 to be corrupted once the outer load completed. Most code doesn't care
103 about this, but some (like c-mode) may check it.
104
105 ** File-local variable changes
106
107 *** Specifying a minor mode as a local variables enables that mode,
108 unconditionally. The previous behavior, toggling the mode, was
109 neither reliable nor generally desirable.
110
111 *** New commands for adding and removing file-local variables:
112 `add-file-local-variable', `delete-file-local-variable',
113 `add-file-local-variable-prop-line', and
114 `delete-file-local-variable-prop-line'.
115
116 *** New commands for adding and removing directory-local variables,
117 and copying them to and from file-local variable lists:
118 `add-dir-local-variable', `delete-dir-local-variable',
119 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals',
120 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals-prop-line' and
121 `copy-file-locals-to-dir-locals'.
122
123 ** New coding system `utf-8-hfs' is available in
124 international/ucs-normalize.el. It is suitable for
125 default-file-name-coding-system on Mac OS X.
126
127 \f
128 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.2
129
130 ** Selection changes
131 +++
132 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, any active region automatically
133 becomes the primary selection (for interaction with other window
134 applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
135 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
136
137 *** When `save-interprogram-paste-before-kill' is non-nil, emacs will
138 not clobber the the interprogram paste when something is killed in it
139 by saving the former in the `kill-ring' before the latter.
140
141 ** When `kill-do-not-save-duplicates' is non-nil, identical subsequent
142 kills are not duplicated in the `kill-ring'.
143
144 +++
145 ** The default value for `blink-matching-paren-distance' has been increased.
146
147 ** The new completion-style `initials' is available.
148 For instance, this can complete M-x lch to list-command-history.
149
150 ** Completions in the *Completions* buffer are sorted vertically
151 when the value of the new variable `completions-format' is `vertical'.
152
153 \f
154 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
155
156 ** The bookmark menu has a narrowing search via bookmark-bmenu-search.
157
158 ** LaTeX mode now provides completion via latex-complete and
159 latex-indent-or-complete.
160
161 ** lucid.el and levents.el are now declared obsolete.
162
163 ** pcomplete provides a new command `pcomplete-std-completion' which
164 is similar to `pcomplete' but using the standard completion UI code.
165
166 ** .calc.el and .abbrev_defs obey user-emacs-directory.
167
168 ** Calc graphing commands (`g f' etc.) now work on MS-Windows,
169 if you have the native Windows port of Gnuplot version 3.8 or later
170 installed.
171
172 ** Calendar and diary
173
174 *** Fancy diary display is now the default.
175 If you prefer the simple display, customize `diary-display-function'.
176
177 *** The diary's fancy display now enables view-mode.
178
179 ---
180 *** The command `calendar-current-date' accepts an optional argument
181 giving an offset from today.
182
183 ** Desktop
184 ---
185 *** The default value for `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is nil.
186 This means Desktop will try restoring all buffers, when you restart
187 your Emacs session. Also, `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is only
188 effective for buffers that have no associated file. If you want to
189 exempt buffers that do correspond to files, customize the value of
190 `desktop-files-not-to-save' instead.
191
192 ** FIXME mail-user-agent change
193 This probably affects a lot of documentation.
194
195 ** FIXME gdb-mi
196
197 ** Info
198
199 *** The new command `Info-virtual-index' bound to "I" displays a menu of
200 matched topics found in the index.
201
202 *** The new command `info-finder' replaces finder.el with a virtual Info
203 manual that generates an Info file which gives the same information
204 through a menu structure.
205
206 +++
207 ** New connection methods in Tramp.
208 The new connection methods "rsyncc", "imap" and "imaps" have been
209 introduced. On systems which support GVFS-Fuse, Tramp offers also the
210 new connection methods "dav", "davs", "obex" and "synce".
211
212 ** nXML mode is now the default for editing XML files.
213
214 ** VC and related modes
215
216 *** When using C-x v v or C-x v i on a unregistered file that is in a
217 directory not controlled by any VCS, ask the user what VC backend to
218 use to create a repository, create a new repository and register the
219 file.
220
221 *** FIXME: add info about the new VC functions: vc-root-diff and
222 vc-root-print-log once they stabilize.
223
224 *** The log functions (C-x v l and C-x v L) do not show the full log
225 by default anymore. The number of entries shown can be chosen
226 interactively with a prefix argument, by customizing
227 vc-log-show-limit. The log buffer display buttons that can be used
228 to change the number of entries shown.
229 RCS, SCCS, CVS and Git do not support this feature.
230
231 *** vc-annotate supports annotations through file copies and renames,
232 it displays the old names for the files and it can show logs/diffs for
233 the corresponding lines. Currently only Git and Mercurial take
234 advantage of this feature.
235
236 *** When a file is not found, VC will not try to check it out of RCS anymore.
237
238 *** Diff and log operations can be used from dired buffers.
239
240 *** vc-git changes
241
242 **** The new variable vc-git-add-signoff can be used to add a
243 Signed-off-by line when committing.
244
245 **** Support for operating with stashes has been added to vc-dir: the stash list is
246 displayed in the *vc-dir* header, stashes can be created, removed and
247 their content displayed.
248
249 **** vc-dir displays the stash status
250
251 *** log-edit-strip-single-file-name controls whether or not single filenames
252 are stripped when copying text from the ChangeLog to the *VC-Log* buffer.
253
254 ** Elint
255
256 ---
257 *** Elint now uses compilation-mode.
258
259 ---
260 *** Elint can now scan individual files and whole directories,
261 and can be run in batch mode.
262
263 ---
264 *** Elint does a more thorough initialization, and recognizes more built-in
265 functions and variables. Customize `elint-scan-preloaded' if you want
266 to sacrifice some accuracy for a faster startup.
267
268 ---
269 *** Elint attempts some basic understanding of featurep and (f)boundp tests.
270
271 ---
272 *** Customize `elint-ignored-warnings' to suppress some warnings.
273
274 ** Miscellaneous
275
276 *** The new command `async-shell-command' bound globally to `M-&' executes
277 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand to
278 the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
279 Command*'.
280
281 +++
282 *** Autorevert Tail mode now works now for remote files.
283
284 \f
285 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
286
287 ** htmlfontify.el turns a fontified Emacs buffer into an HTML page.
288
289 ** FIXME CEDET
290
291 ** js.el is a new major mode for JavaScript files.
292
293 ** imap-hash.el is a new library to address IMAP mailboxes as hashtables.
294
295 \f
296 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.2
297
298 ** Several obsolete functions removed.
299 The functions have been obsolete since Emacs 19, and are unlikely to
300 be in use:
301
302 time-stamp-month-dd-yyyy, time-stamp-dd/mm/yyyy, time-stamp-mon-dd-yyyy
303 time-stamp-dd-mon-yy, time-stamp-yy/mm/dd, time-stamp-yyyy/mm/dd,
304 time-stamp-yyyy-mm-dd, time-stamp-yymmdd, time-stamp-hh:mm:ss,
305 time-stamp-hhmm, baud-rate
306
307 ---
308 ** Support for generating Emacs 18 compatible bytecode (by setting
309 the variable `byte-compile-compatibility') has been removed.
310
311 \f
312 * Lisp changes in Emacs 23.2
313
314 ** New function `completion-in-region' to use the standard completion
315 facilities on a particular region of text.
316
317 ** The 4th arg to all-completions (aka hide-spaces) is declared obsolete.
318
319 ** read-file-name-predicate is obsolete. It was used to pass the predicate
320 to read-file-name-internal because read-file-name-internal abused its `pred'
321 argument to pass the current directory, but this hack is not needed
322 any more.
323
324 ** completion-base-size is obsoleted by completion-base-position.
325 This change causes a few backward incompatibilities, mostly with
326 choose-completion-string-functions where the `mini-p' argument has
327 been replaced by a `base-position' argument, and where the `base-size'
328 argument is now always nil.
329
330 ** called-interactively-p now takes one argument and replaces interactive-p
331 which is now marked obsolete.
332 ** New function set-advertised-calling-convention makes it possible
333 to obsolete arguments as well as make some arguments mandatory.
334 ** eval-next-after-load is obsolete.
335 ** New hook `after-load-functions' run after loading an Elisp file.
336
337 ** You can control which binding is preferentially shown in menus and
338 docstrings by adding a `:advertised-binding' property to the corresponding
339 command's symbol. That property can hold a single binding or a list
340 of bindings.
341
342 ** New macro with-silent-modifications to tweak text properties without
343 affecting the buffer's modification state.
344 ** All the default-FOO variables that hold the default value of the FOO
345 variable, are now declared obsolete.
346
347 ** read-key is a function halfway between read-event and read-key-sequence.
348 It reads a single key, but obeys input and escape sequence decoding.
349
350 ** start-process-shell-command and start-file-process-shell-command
351 now only take a single `command' argument.
352
353 ** The variable `process-file-side-effects' shall be bound to nil, if
354 a `process-file' call does not change a remote file. By this, file
355 name handlers like Tramp can apply optimizations.
356
357 ** Hash tables have a new printed representation that is readable.
358 The feature `hashtable-print-readable' identifies this new
359 functionality.
360
361 ** Functions performing Unicode normalization are added. They are:
362 ucs-normalize-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-NFD-string,
363 ucs-normalize-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-NFC-string,
364 ucs-normalize-NFKD-region, ucs-normalize-NFKD-string,
365 ucs-normalize-NFKC-region, ucs-normalize-NFKC-string,
366 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-string,
367 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-string.
368
369 ** completion-annotate-function specifies how to compute annotations
370 for completions displayed in *Completions*.
371
372 +++
373 ** Face aliases can now be marked as obsolete, using the macro
374 `define-obsolete-face-alias'.
375
376 ---
377 ** Changing the file-names generated by byte-compilation by redefining
378 the function `byte-compile-dest-file' before loading bytecomp.el is obsolete.
379 Instead, customize byte-compile-dest-file-function.
380
381 ---
382 ** `byte-compile-warnings' can have a new member, `constants'.
383
384 ** `delete-directory' has an optional parameter RECURSIVE.
385
386 ** New function `copy-directory', which copies a directory recursively.
387
388 +++
389 ** New function `window-full-height-p', analogous to the full-width version.
390
391 \f
392 * Changes in Emacs 23.2 on non-free operating systems
393
394 ---
395 ** On MS-Windows, `display-time' now displays the system load average
396 as well as the time, as it does on GNU and Unix.
397
398 \f
399 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
400
401 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
402 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
403 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
404
405 ** New font code.
406 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
407 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
408
409 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
410 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
411
412 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
413 where Emacs is running).
414
415 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
416
417 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
418 OpenType fonts.
419
420 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
421
422 ** Changes to image support
423
424 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
425 a GIF library.
426
427 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
428
429 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
430
431 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
432 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
433 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
434
435 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
436 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
437 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
438 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
439
440 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
441 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
442
443 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
444 bindings for Emacs.
445
446 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
447 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
448
449 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
450
451 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
452
453 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
454
455 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
456 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
457 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
458
459 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
460
461 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
462 executable format.
463
464 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
465
466 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
467
468 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
469
470 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
471
472 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
473 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
474
475 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
476 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
477 you need control over which C compiler is used.
478
479 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
480
481 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
482 or any later version.
483
484 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
485 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
486 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
487 \f
488 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
489
490 ** Improved X Window System support
491
492 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
493 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
494 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
495 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
496 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
497 There may be problems if a display exits unexpectedly and Emacs is compiled
498 with Gtk+, see etc/PROBLEMS.
499
500 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
501 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
502
503 *** Emacs starts in the background, as a daemon, when given the
504 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
505 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
506 terminal frames using emacsclient.
507
508 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
509 --alternate-editor="" is used (or when the evironment variable
510 ALTERNATE_EDITOR is set to "") and emacsclient cannot connect to an
511 emacs server.
512
513 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
514 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
515
516 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
517 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
518 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
519 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
520 for details about XEmbed.
521
522 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
523 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
524 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
525 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
526 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
527
528 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
529 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
530 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
531 active frame and INACTIVE is the opacity of non-active frames.
532
533 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
534 opacity; the default is 20.
535
536 ** Internationalization changes
537
538 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
539 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
540
541 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
542 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs' (`emacs-internal' is an alias
543 for this). This encoding is backward-compatible with Unicode's UTF-8
544 encoding. The internal encoding previously used by Emacs,
545 `emacs-mule', is still available for reading and writing files.
546
547 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
548 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
549 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
550 or 22 are loaded correctly as `emacs-mule' (whether or not they
551 contain multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it
552 may be worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be
553 shared with older Emacsen.
554
555 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
556
557 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
558 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
559 as tables of unicodes.
560
561 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
562 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
563 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
564
565 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
566 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
567
568 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
569 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
570 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
571
572 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
573 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
574 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
575 and others.
576
577 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
578 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
579 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
580 the mode-line mouse menu.
581
582 ** Menu Bar changes
583
584 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
585 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
586 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
587 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
588 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
589
590 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
591 "Save Options" item is used.
592
593 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
594 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
595 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
596
597 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
598 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
599 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
600 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
601
602 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
603 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
604 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
605
606 ** Mode-line changes
607
608 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
609 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
610
611 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
612 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
613
614 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
615 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
616
617 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
618
619 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
620 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
621
622 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
623 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
624 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
625 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
626
627 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
628 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
629 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
630 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
631
632 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
633 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
634 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
635 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
636
637 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
638
639 \f
640 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
641
642 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
643 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
644 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
645 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
646 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
647
648 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
649 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
650 file or directory.
651
652 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
653 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
654 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
655 following arguments.
656
657 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
658
659 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
660 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
661 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
662 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
663 documented.)
664 \f
665 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
666
667 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
668 on the regexp command prefix map.
669
670 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
671 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
672 the history list.
673
674 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
675 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
676 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
677 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
678 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
679 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
680
681 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
682 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
683 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
684 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
685 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
686 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
687
688 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound from
689 `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the global
690 prefix map `M-o', which is intended for such formatting commands.
691
692 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
693 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
694 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
695 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
696 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
697 identical.
698
699 \f
700 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
701
702 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
703 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
704 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
705 behavior (i.e., motion by logical lines based on buffer contents
706 alone).
707
708 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
709 invokes `suspend-frame'. These changes are for compatibility with the
710 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
711
712 ** Mark changes
713
714 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
715
716 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
717
718 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
719 activating it.
720
721 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
722 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
723
724 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
725 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
726 word at point.
727
728 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
729 region is active.
730
731 *** The variable `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty
732 active region in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on
733 that empty region.
734
735 ** Temporarily active regions
736
737 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
738 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
739 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
740 region, similar to mouse-selection.
741
742 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
743 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
744 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
745 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
746 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
747 buffer).
748
749 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
750
751 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
752 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
753 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
754 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
755 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
756 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
757 to create the file or buffer.
758
759 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
760 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
761 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
762 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
763
764 *** The rules for performing completion have been changed.
765 When generating completion alternatives, Emacs now takes the
766 minibuffer text after point, if any, into account: this text is
767 treated as a substring of the remaining part of the completion
768 alternative (i.e., the part not matched by the minibuffer text before
769 point). If no completion alternatives are found this way, Emacs
770 attempts to perform partial-completion. If still no completion
771 alternatives are found, we fall back on the Emacs 22 rules for
772 performing completion.
773
774 The new variable `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your
775 favorite completion style.
776
777 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
778 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
779 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
780 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
781 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
782 searching minibuffer completion items.
783
784 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
785
786 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
787 name of the current buffer.
788
789 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
790 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
791 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
792 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
793 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
794
795 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
796 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
797 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
798 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
799
800 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
801 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
802 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
803 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
804 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
805
806 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
807 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
808 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
809 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
810 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
811 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
812 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
813
814 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
815 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
816
817 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
818 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
819
820 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
821 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
822
823 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
824 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
825 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
826
827 ** Face changes
828
829 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
830 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
831 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
832
833 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
834 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
835 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
836 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
837
838 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
839 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
840 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
841 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
842
843 *** The commands buffer-face-mode and buffer-face-set can be used to
844 remap the default face in the current buffer. See "Buffer Face mode",
845 under New Modes and Packages.
846
847 ** Primary selection changes
848
849 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
850 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
851
852 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
853 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
854 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
855 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
856 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
857 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
858 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
859 New Modes and Packages, below.
860
861 ** Window management changes
862
863 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
864 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
865 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
866
867 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
868 vertically and horizontally.
869
870 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
871 is on a different frame.
872
873 ** Miscellaneous changes:
874
875 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
876 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
877 successive invocations.
878
879 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
880
881 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
882 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
883 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
884
885 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
886 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
887 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
888
889 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
890 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
891 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
892 run processes remotely.
893
894 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
895 matches a regexp.
896
897 *** The value of comment-style now defaults to `indent'.
898 Thefore, comment-start markers are inserted at the current indentation
899 of the region to comment, rather than the leftmost column.
900
901 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
902 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
903
904 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
905 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
906 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
907 convenience alias for this function.
908
909 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
910 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
911 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
912
913 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
914 kill into the password.
915
916 *** Tooltip frame parameters `font' and `color' in `tooltip-frame-parameters'
917 are ignored. Customize the `tooltip' face instead.
918
919 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
920 \f
921 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
922
923 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
924 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
925 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
926
927 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
928
929 ** Buffer Face mode is a minor mode for remapping the default face in
930 the current buffer. The variable `buffer-face-mode-face' specifies
931 the face to remap to. The command `buffer-face-set' prompts for a
932 face name, sets `buffer-face-mode-face' to it, and enables
933 buffer-face-mode. See "Face changes", under Editing Changes, for a
934 description of face remapping.
935
936 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
937 See http://xkcd.com/378/
938
939 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
940
941 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
942 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
943 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
944
945 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
946 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
947 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
948
949 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
950
951 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
952 the postscript file.
953
954 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
955 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
956 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
957 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
958
959 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
960 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
961
962 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
963 current buffer.
964
965 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
966 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
967 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
968 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
969 Maildir/MH setups.
970
971 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
972
973 ** nXML Mode
974 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
975 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
976 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
977
978 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
979 any invalid parts of your document.
980
981 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
982 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
983 allowed by the schema in that context.
984
985 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
986 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
987 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
988 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
989 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
990 MS-Windows and Solaris.
991
992 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
993 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
994 Manual.
995
996 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
997
998 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
999
1000 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
1001 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
1002 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
1003 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
1004 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
1005 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
1006
1007 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
1008 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
1009 requires D-Bus for communication.
1010
1011 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
1012 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
1013 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
1014 which have installed this software.
1015
1016 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
1017 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
1018 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
1019 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
1020 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
1021 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
1022 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
1023 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
1024 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
1025
1026 \f
1027 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
1028
1029 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
1030
1031 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
1032 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
1033
1034 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
1035
1036 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
1037 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
1038
1039 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
1040
1041 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
1042
1043 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
1044 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
1045
1046 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
1047 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
1048 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
1049
1050 ** Apropos
1051
1052 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
1053
1054 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
1055
1056 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
1057 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
1058 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
1059
1060 ** BibTeX mode
1061
1062 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
1063
1064 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
1065 `string', disabled by default.
1066
1067 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
1068 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
1069
1070 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
1071
1072 ** Bookmarks
1073
1074 *** bookmark.el saves bookmarks in a pre-Emacs-23-incompatible file format
1075 bookmark.el can read a .emacs.bmk file saved by an older Emacs, but an
1076 older Emacs cannot read one saved by Emacs 23.
1077
1078 ** Calendar and diary
1079
1080 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
1081 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
1082 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
1083 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
1084
1085 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
1086 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
1087 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
1088 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
1089 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
1090 using the new names.
1091
1092 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
1093 See the variables:
1094 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
1095 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
1096
1097 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
1098 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
1099
1100 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
1101 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
1102
1103 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
1104 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
1105
1106 ** Change Log mode
1107
1108 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
1109 associated with the current log entry.
1110
1111 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
1112 source code associated with a log entry.
1113
1114 ** Compile and grep modes
1115
1116 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
1117 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
1118 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
1119
1120 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
1121 the first error encountered during compilations.
1122
1123 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
1124 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
1125
1126 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
1127 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
1128 C++ sources and headers.
1129
1130 ** Copyright
1131
1132 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
1133 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
1134 considered for update.
1135
1136 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
1137 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
1138
1139 ** Custom
1140
1141 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
1142 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
1143
1144 ** Diff mode
1145
1146 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
1147 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
1148 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
1149
1150 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
1151 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
1152 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
1153
1154 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
1155 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
1156
1157 ** Dired
1158
1159 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
1160 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
1161 saving changes.
1162
1163 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
1164 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
1165 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
1166 Command*'.
1167
1168 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
1169 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
1170 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
1171 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
1172 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
1173 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
1174 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
1175 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
1176
1177 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
1178 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
1179 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
1180
1181 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
1182 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
1183 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
1184 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
1185 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
1186 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
1187 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
1188
1189 ** Fortran
1190
1191 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
1192 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
1193
1194 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
1195 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
1196
1197 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
1198
1199 ** Gnus
1200
1201 *** The Gnus package has been updated
1202 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
1203 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
1204
1205 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
1206 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
1207 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
1208 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
1209
1210 *** Passwords are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
1211 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
1212 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
1213 authentication respectively.
1214
1215 ** Help mode
1216
1217 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
1218 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
1219
1220 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
1221 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
1222
1223 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits one to specify a new
1224 position for point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
1225
1226 ** Isearch
1227
1228 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
1229 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
1230 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
1231 while Isearch is active.
1232
1233 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
1234 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
1235 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
1236 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
1237 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
1238
1239 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
1240 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
1241 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
1242
1243 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
1244 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
1245 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
1246 if there is one (e.g. going from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
1247 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
1248
1249 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
1250 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
1251 `M-s a M-C-s'.
1252
1253 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
1254 `isearch-fail' face.
1255
1256 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
1257 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
1258 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
1259 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
1260 and execute their global definitions.
1261
1262 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
1263 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
1264
1265 ** MH-E
1266
1267 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.2. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1268
1269 ** Python
1270 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
1271 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
1272
1273 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
1274 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
1275 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
1276 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
1277
1278 ** Recentf
1279
1280 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
1281 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
1282 corresponding remote host.
1283
1284 ** Rmail
1285
1286 *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
1287 Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
1288 and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
1289
1290 The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
1291 automatically converts it to mbox format. This is a one-time
1292 conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
1293 your machine and on the size of the file. You should find the rest of
1294 Rmail usage unaltered.
1295
1296 However, M-x set-rmail-inbox-list now lasts only for one session
1297 because there is no way to save the list of inbox files in an
1298 mbox-format file.
1299
1300 Also, whereas with Babyl format M-x find-file would switch to Rmail
1301 mode, with mbox format this is no longer the case (there being no way
1302 to add an "-*- rmail-*-" cookie to an mbox file). Use C-u M-x rmail
1303 instead.
1304
1305 If you have written any extensions to Rmail, they are likely to need
1306 updating. Conceptually, the Rmail buffer that you see is no longer
1307 just a narrowed portion of the whole. So you cannot access the whole
1308 of a message (or message collection) by a simple save-restriction and
1309 widen. Instead, there are two buffers: the rmail-buffer, and the
1310 rmail-view-buffer. The former is the buffer that you see, the latter
1311 is invisible. Most of the time, the invisible `view' buffer contains
1312 the full contents of the Rmail file, and the Rmail buffer contains a
1313 decoded copy of the current message (with only a subset of the
1314 headers). In this state, Rmail is said to be `swapped'.
1315
1316 You may find the following functions useful:
1317
1318 `rmail-get-header' and `rmail-set-header' get or set the value of a
1319 message header, whether or not it is currently visible.
1320
1321 `rmail-apply-in-message' is a general purpose function that calls a
1322 function (with arguments) which you specify on the full text of a given
1323 message. To further narrow to just the headers, search forward for "\n\n".
1324
1325 *** The new command `rmail-mime' displays MIME messages.
1326 It is bound to `v' in Rmail buffers and summaries. It displays plain
1327 text and multipart messages in a temporary buffer, and offers buttons
1328 to save attachments.
1329
1330 *** The command `rmail-redecode-body' no longer accepts the optional arg RAW.
1331 Since Rmail now holds messages in their original undecoded form in a
1332 separate buffer, `rmail-redecode-body' no longer encodes the original
1333 message, and therefore there should be no need to avoid encoding it.
1334
1335 *** The o command is now `rmail-output'. It is an all-purpose command
1336 for copying messages from Rmail and appending them to files. It
1337 handles Babyl-format files as well as mbox-format files, and it
1338 handles both kinds properly when they are visited in Emacs. It always
1339 copies the full headers of the message.
1340
1341 *** The C-o command is now `rmail-output-as-seen'. It uses
1342 the message as displayed, appending it to an mbox file.
1343
1344 *** The modified status of the Rmail buffer is reported in the mode-line.
1345 Previously, this information was hidden.
1346
1347 ** TeX modes
1348
1349 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
1350 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
1351 by escaped parens.
1352
1353 ** T-mouse Mode
1354
1355 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
1356 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
1357 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
1358 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
1359 minibuffer.
1360
1361 ** Tramp
1362
1363 *** New connection methods.
1364 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
1365 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
1366 "tunnel" and "socks".
1367
1368 *** IPv6 addresses.
1369 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
1370 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
1371
1372 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
1373 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead, multi hops
1374 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
1375
1376 *** More default settings.
1377 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
1378 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
1379
1380 *** Connection information is cached.
1381 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
1382 connections is kept persistently in a file. The name of this file is
1383 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
1384
1385 *** Control of remote processes.
1386 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
1387 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
1388
1389 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
1390 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
1391 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
1392
1393 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
1394 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
1395 necessary.
1396
1397 ** VC and related modes
1398
1399 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
1400 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
1401 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
1402 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
1403 a single changeset.
1404
1405 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
1406 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
1407 directory or a set of files/directories.
1408
1409 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
1410 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
1411 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
1412 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
1413 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
1414 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
1415 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
1416
1417 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
1418
1419 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
1420
1421 *** In VC Annotate mode, the key bindings have changed to use lower
1422 case keys instead of the upper case keys used in the past.
1423
1424 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1425 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1426 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
1427 line" menu entry does the same thing.
1428
1429 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
1430
1431 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1432 the current line.
1433
1434 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1435 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1436 active.
1437
1438 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1439 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1440 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1441
1442 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1443 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1444 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1445
1446 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1447
1448 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1449
1450 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of a maintainer able
1451 to update it to the new VC.
1452
1453 ** Miscellaneous
1454
1455 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1456 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1457 on the corresponding remote system.
1458
1459 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1460 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1461
1462 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1463 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1464 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1465
1466 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1467 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1468
1469 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1470 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1471
1472 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1473
1474 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1475 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1476
1477 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1478 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1479
1480 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1481
1482 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1483 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1484
1485 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1486 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1487
1488 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1489
1490 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1491
1492 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1493 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1494 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1495
1496 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1497
1498 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1499 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1500 several time zones.
1501
1502 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1503 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1504 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1505 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1506
1507 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1508 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1509
1510 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1511 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1512
1513 \f
1514 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1515
1516 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1517 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1518 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1519 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1520 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1521
1522 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1523 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1524 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1525 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1526 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1527
1528 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1529 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1530 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1531
1532 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1533 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1534 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1535 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1536 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1537
1538 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1539 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1540 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1541 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1542 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1543
1544 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1545 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1546 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1547 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1548 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1549 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1550
1551 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1552 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1553 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1554 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1555 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1556 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1557 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1558 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1559 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1560
1561 \f
1562 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1563
1564 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1565
1566 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1567 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1568
1569 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1570 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1571 that range have the same value.
1572
1573 ** Process changes
1574
1575 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1576
1577 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1578 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1579 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1580 obsolete.
1581
1582 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1583 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1584 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1585 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1586 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1587 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1588 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1589
1590 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1591 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1592
1593 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1594 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1595
1596 ** Internationalization changes
1597
1598 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1599
1600 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1601 have been removed.
1602
1603 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1604 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1605 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1606
1607 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1608 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1609 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1610
1611 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1612 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1613
1614 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1615 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1616
1617 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1618 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1619
1620 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1621 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1622
1623 *** The meaning of NAME argument of `set-fontset-font' is changed.
1624 Previously nil is accepted as the default fontset. Now, nil is for
1625 the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the default fontset.
1626
1627 *** The meaning of FONTSET argument of `print-fontset' is changed.
1628 Now, nil is for the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the
1629 default fontset.
1630
1631 ** If a function in write-region-annotate-functions returns with a
1632 different buffer current, Emacs no longer kills that buffer
1633 automatically. This behavior existed in previous versions of Emacs,
1634 but was undocumented. To kill a buffer after write-region, give the
1635 variable `write-region-post-annotation-function' a buffer-local value
1636 of `kill-buffer'.
1637
1638 ** The variable temp-file-name-pattern has been removed.
1639 This variable was only used by call-process-region, which now uses
1640 temporary-file-directory instead.
1641
1642 ** The COUNT and SYSTEM-FLAG arguments to define-abbrev have been
1643 removed. The function now takes extra arguments for specifying
1644 arbitrary abbrev properties.
1645
1646 ** end-of-defun-function is now guaranteed to work only when called
1647 from the start of a defun. It must now leave point exactly at the end
1648 of defun, since `end-of-defun' now itself moves forward over
1649 whitespace after calling it.
1650
1651 \f
1652 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1653
1654 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1655 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1656 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1657 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1658 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1659 respectively.
1660
1661 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `process-attributes'
1662 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1663 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1664 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1665 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1666
1667 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1668 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1669
1670 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1671 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1672 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1673
1674 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1675 the selected frame.
1676
1677 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1678 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1679 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1680 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1681
1682 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1683
1684 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1685 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1686 strings on the kill ring.
1687
1688 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1689 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1690 like this:
1691
1692 (condition-case nil
1693 (foo bar)
1694 ((debug error) nil))
1695
1696 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1697
1698 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count given to
1699 `beginning-of-defun'. (N.B. `end-of-defun-function' doesn't take any
1700 arguments.)
1701
1702 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1703 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1704 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1705 remote connection has been established already.
1706
1707 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1708 undefined functions.
1709
1710 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1711
1712 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1713 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1714 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1715
1716 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1717 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1718 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1719
1720 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1721 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1722 interactive forms to subroutines.
1723
1724 ** Region changes
1725
1726 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1727 an active region that they should operate on.
1728
1729 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1730 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
1731 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
1732 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
1733 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
1734
1735 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1736 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1737 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1738 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1739 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1740
1741 ** Emacs session information
1742
1743 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1744 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1745
1746 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1747
1748 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1749 Emacs initialization.
1750
1751 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1752
1753 *** display-buffer tries to be smarter when splitting windows.
1754 The new option split-window-preferred-function lets you specify your own
1755 function to pop up new windows. Its default value split-window-sensibly
1756 can split a window either vertically or horizontally, whichever seems
1757 more suitable in the current configuration. You can tune the behavior
1758 of split-window-sensibly by customizing split-height-threshold and the
1759 new option split-width-threshold. Both options now take the value nil
1760 to inhibit splitting in one direction. Setting split-width-threshold to
1761 nil inhibits horizontal splitting and gets you the behavior of Emacs 22
1762 in this respect. In any case, display-buffer may now split the largest
1763 window vertically even when it is not as wide as the containing frame.
1764
1765 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1766 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1767
1768 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have a new optional
1769 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1770 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1771
1772 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1773 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1774 individual windows.
1775
1776 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1777 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1778
1779 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1780
1781 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1782 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1783 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1784 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1785 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1786
1787 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1788 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1789 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1790
1791 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1792 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1793
1794 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
1795 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
1796
1797 ** Search and replacement changes
1798
1799 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1800
1801 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1802 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1803
1804 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1805 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1806 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
1807 argument is nil.
1808
1809 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1810 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1811 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1812 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
1813 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
1814
1815 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1816 for search related commands.
1817
1818 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1819 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1820
1821 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1822 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1823
1824 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1825 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1826 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1827 unless it ends in whitespace.
1828
1829 ** File handling changes
1830
1831 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1832 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1833
1834 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1835 variables defined in the current buffer.
1836
1837 ** Face-remapping
1838
1839 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
1840 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
1841 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
1842 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
1843 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
1844
1845 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
1846 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
1847 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
1848 Editing Changes, above).
1849
1850 *** New functions:
1851
1852 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
1853 current buffer.
1854
1855 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
1856 the current buffer.
1857
1858 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
1859
1860 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
1861
1862 ** Process changes
1863
1864 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1865 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1866 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1867 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1868 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1869
1870 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1871 returns its output as a list of lines.
1872
1873 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1874
1875 *** In multibyte buffers and strings, characters are represented by
1876 UTF-8 byte sequences. The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF
1877 with no gap; code points 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the
1878 same code points, while code points 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit
1879 bytes.
1880
1881 *** Generic characters no longer exist.
1882
1883 *** The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may
1884 belong to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1885 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1886
1887 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
1888 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
1889
1890 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
1891 characters for display.
1892
1893 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1894 positional codes instead of just 2.
1895
1896 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1897
1898 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1899 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1900
1901 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1902 priorities of charsets.
1903
1904 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1905 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1906 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1907 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1908 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1909 `titlecase'.
1910
1911 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1912 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1913 entries in that range of characters.
1914
1915 *** Use of `translation-table-for-input' for character code unification
1916 is now obsolete, since Emacs 23.1 and later uses Unicode as basis for
1917 internal representation of characters.
1918
1919 *** New functions:
1920
1921 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1922 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1923
1924 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1925
1926 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1927
1928 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1929
1930 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1931
1932 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1933
1934 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1935
1936 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1937 a character code property.
1938
1939 *** New variables:
1940
1941 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1942 search for a word boundary.
1943
1944 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1945
1946 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1947
1948 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1949 property on printing a string.
1950
1951 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1952
1953 ** Code conversion changes
1954
1955 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1956 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1957
1958 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1959 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1960 conversion should go.
1961
1962 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1963 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1964 of conversion.
1965
1966 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
1967 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
1968 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
1969 bytes.
1970
1971 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1972
1973 *** New functions:
1974
1975 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1976 coding system priority order.
1977
1978 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1979 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1980
1981 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1982
1983 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1984 by a coding system.
1985
1986 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1987 ordered by their priorities.
1988
1989 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1990
1991 **** `coding-system-from-name' returns a coding system matching with
1992 the argument name.
1993
1994
1995 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1996 It has three functionalities:
1997 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1998 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1999 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
2000 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
2001
2002 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
2003
2004 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
2005
2006 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
2007 as an input method.
2008
2009 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
2010 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
2011 character.
2012
2013 ** Changes related to the new font backend
2014
2015 *** Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource
2016 "FontBackend". For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
2017
2018 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
2019
2020 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
2021 available on your graphic device.
2022
2023 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
2024 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
2025 currently `x' and `xft'.
2026
2027 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
2028 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
2029 set the font.
2030
2031 *** New functions:
2032
2033 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
2034
2035 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
2036
2037 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
2038
2039 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
2040
2041 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
2042
2043 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
2044
2045 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
2046
2047 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
2048
2049 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
2050 entity, or font object.
2051
2052 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
2053
2054 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
2055
2056 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
2057 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
2058
2059 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
2060
2061 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
2062 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
2063 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
2064 takes a frame argument.
2065
2066 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
2067 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
2068
2069 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
2070 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
2071
2072 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
2073 session.
2074
2075 *** A new `terminal' data type.
2076 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
2077 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
2078
2079 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
2080 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
2081 which is not used directly any more.
2082
2083 *** New hooks:
2084
2085 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
2086 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
2087 file-local variables.
2088
2089 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
2090 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
2091 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
2092 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
2093
2094 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
2095 deleting a terminal.
2096
2097 *** New functions:
2098
2099 **** `delete-terminal'
2100
2101 **** `suspend-tty'
2102
2103 **** `resume-tty'.
2104
2105 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
2106
2107 ** Redisplay changes
2108
2109 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
2110 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
2111
2112 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
2113 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
2114 This is convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer
2115 position (e.g. in before/after-strings).
2116
2117 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
2118
2119 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
2120 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
2121 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
2122 times the default column width.
2123
2124 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
2125 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
2126 instead.
2127
2128 *** The new variables `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' specify display
2129 specs which are appended at display-time to every continuation line
2130 and non-continuation line, respectively. In addition, Emacs
2131 recognizes the `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' text or overlay
2132 properties; these have the same effects as the variables of the same
2133 name, but take precedence.
2134
2135 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
2136
2137 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2138
2139 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
2140
2141 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
2142 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
2143
2144 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
2145 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
2146 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
2147 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
2148
2149 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
2150 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
2151
2152 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
2153 attributes of a given face.
2154
2155 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
2156 string of days, hours, etc.
2157
2158 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
2159 specification.
2160
2161 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
2162 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
2163 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
2164
2165 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
2166
2167 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
2168 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
2169
2170 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
2171 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
2172 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
2173
2174 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
2175 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
2176 the match data.
2177
2178 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
2179 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
2180 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
2181
2182 ** Miscellaneous new variables
2183
2184 *** `auto-save-include-big-deletions', if non-nil, means auto-save is
2185 not turned off automatically after a big deletion.
2186
2187 *** `read-circle', if nil, disables the reading of recursive Lisp
2188 structures using the #N= and #N# syntax.
2189
2190 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
2191 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
2192
2193 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
2194 marker used for window-point.
2195
2196 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
2197 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
2198 relevant data.
2199
2200 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
2201 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
2202
2203 \f
2204 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
2205
2206 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
2207
2208 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
2209 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
2210
2211 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
2212
2213 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
2214 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
2215 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
2216 of multiple buffers. Top-level functions `multi-isearch-buffers',
2217 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
2218 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
2219 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
2220
2221 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
2222 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
2223
2224 \f
2225 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2226 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2227
2228 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2229 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2230 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2231 (at your option) any later version.
2232
2233 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2234 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2235 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2236 GNU General Public License for more details.
2237
2238 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2239 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2240
2241 \f
2242 Local variables:
2243 mode: outline
2244 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
2245 end:
2246
2247 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2