1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
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.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
31 ** Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
32 backends. This requires the freetype and fontconfig libraries, and
33 supports local fonts (fonts installed on the machine where Emacs is
34 running). Additionally, the Xft library can be used for antialiasing
35 support, the otf library for complex text layout by OpenType fonts,
36 and the m17n library for text shaping. Fontconfig-like font names
37 (e.g. monospace-12) are accepted. The old font handling code can
38 be used by passing the configure option `--disable-font-backend'
39 (also available as a run-time option).
41 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
44 ** The Mac Carbon port is no longer supported.
45 Instead, use... [FIXME what?]
47 ** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
50 ** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
52 ** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
54 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
55 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
57 ** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
59 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
60 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
61 you need control over which C compiler is used.
63 ** The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
64 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
66 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
68 ** Operations like C-x b and C-x C-f which use switch-to-buffer do not fail
69 any more when used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they
70 fallback on using pop-to-buffer which will use some other window.
72 ** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
73 Start the server (M-x server-start). Then `emacsclient -t' creates a
74 tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can also use any
75 number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11 frame on
76 the current $DISPLAY or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set.
78 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
79 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
81 ** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
82 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
84 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
85 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. utf-8-emacs is backwards
86 compatible with the UTF-8 encoding of Unicode. The `emacs-mule'
87 coding system can still read and write data in the old internal encoding.
89 Since the internal encoding is also used by default for byte-compiled
90 files -- i.e. the normal coding system for byte-compiled Lisp files is
91 now utf-8-Emacs -- Lisp containing non-ASCII characters which is
92 compiled by Emacs 23 can't be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files
93 compiled by Emacs 20, 21, or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule
94 (whether or not they contain multibyte characters), which makes loading
95 them somewhat slower than Emacs 23-compiled files. Thus it may be worth
96 recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared with older
99 ** There are assorted new coding systems/aliases -- see M-x list-coding-systems.
101 ** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
102 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
103 as tables of unicodes.
105 The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of each
106 dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
108 A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
109 characters for display.
111 ** There are new Chinese-GBK, Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali,
112 Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu, Sinhala, and TaiViet language
115 ** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
116 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line option
117 --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
118 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
119 for details about XEmbed.
121 ** Emacs comes with a new set of default icons.
122 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
123 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
125 ** Built-in functions (subr) can now have an interactive specification
126 that is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
127 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
129 ** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
130 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
132 ** split-window-preferred-function specifies whether display-buffer should
133 split windows vertically or horizontally.
135 ** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
136 frame. Its behavior has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
137 default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in
138 the currently selected Emacs frame.
140 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
142 ** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
144 ** C-SPC C-SPC in transient-mark-mode pushes a mark without activating it.
146 ** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
147 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
149 ** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode enabled, Emacs uses a
150 Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server, rather than faking events
151 using the client program mev. This C level approach provides mouse
152 highlighting, and help echoing in the minibuffer.
154 ** The new variable next-error-recenter specifies how next-error should
155 recenter the visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example,
156 0 for top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
158 ** New command recenter-top-bottom moves the current line to window
159 center, top and bottom on successive invokations.
161 ** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
163 ** The mode-line displays a `@' if the default-directory for the current buffer
164 is on a remote machine, or a hyphen otherwise.
166 ** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a minor mode,
167 in the same way as it already did for major modes.
169 ** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both vertically
172 ** The new command close-display-connection can be used to close a connection
173 to a remote display, e.g. because the display is about to become unreachable.
175 ** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
176 called with a prefix, and the default directory is a remote file name.
177 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
178 run processes remotely.
180 ** The new command `display-time-world' starts an updating time display
181 using several time zones, in a buffer.
183 ** The new function `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a
184 readable string of days, hours, etc.
186 ** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
187 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
189 ** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
191 ** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
192 Emacs initialization.
194 ** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode, unify-8859-on-decoding-mode
198 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
200 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
201 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
202 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
203 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
204 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
206 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
207 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
210 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
211 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
212 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
215 ** The new command-line option `--disable-font-backend' disables the
216 new font backend code at runtime. This option is not available if
217 Emacs was compiled without font-backend support.
219 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
221 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
224 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
225 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
229 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
232 ** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
233 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
234 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
237 ** M-q now fills the region if the region is active and
238 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on. Otherwise, it fills the current
242 ** M-$ now checks spelling of the region if the region is active and
243 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
246 ** TAB now indents the region if the region is active and
247 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on.
249 ** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
250 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty region.
252 ** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
253 `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
255 ** New command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name matches a regexp.
257 ** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary selection
258 by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
260 ** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
261 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
262 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
263 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
265 ** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring
266 also updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank,
267 just as M-w would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
269 ** Minibuffer changes
271 *** Many commands that read a buffer name now provide a list of all buffers
272 sorted by recency in the list of minibuffer default values available
273 via M-n or down-arrow. It is also possible to search this buffer list
274 in the minibuffer using incremental search commands C-s and C-M-s
275 (for instance, `C-x b C-s substr RET RET' to select a buffer by part
278 *** In C-x d, if you type M-n you get the visited file name of the
281 *** In Dired, a list of commands for ! extracted from mailcap according to
282 file extensions are added to the default list accessible by M-n.
284 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
285 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
286 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last isearch
287 regexp, the last isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
289 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
290 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
291 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
292 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
293 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
294 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
295 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
299 *** `mode-line-emphasis' is used to highlight certain mode-line information;
300 for example while waiting for a VC command to finish.
302 ** Font-Lock (syntax highlighting) changes
304 *** `font-lock-comment-face' once again differs from the default on displays
305 with fewer than 16 colors (e.g. older xterms and the Linux console),
306 but only in the light background case.
310 *** The new function `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing
311 all the basic attributes of a given face.
314 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
316 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
317 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
319 ** The package doc-view.el has been added. It supports viewing of PDF,
320 PostScript and DVI documents inside an Emacs buffer by converting the
321 document to a set of PNG images first. One can also search for a
322 regular expression in the document. The commentary of the file explains
325 ** The nXML package has been added. It is a new mode for editing XML
326 documents. nXML mode allows a schema to be associated with the XML
327 document being edited. nXML mode uses Relax NG as its schema
328 language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
330 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
331 any invalid parts of your document.
333 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
334 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
335 allowed by the schema in that context.
337 ** A new game called `bubbles' has been added. This is a version of
338 the "Same Game" with configurable difficulty level.
340 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
342 ** Remember Mode (remember.el) is now included with Emacs. It is a
343 mode for quickly jotting down things to remember. Included with
344 remember.el is a backend that can save notes to a Diary file. Please
345 consult the Remember Manual for usage details.
347 ** D-Bus language bindings for Elisp are provided by the package
348 dbus.el and by extensions to the C modules of Emacs. D-Bus is an
349 inter-process communication mechanism for applications residing on the
350 same host, based on messages. See the manual for further details.
352 ** EasyPG is now part of the Emacs distribution. It is an all-in-one
353 GnuPG interface which includes GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic
354 operations on regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg
355 files. See the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual for further details.
357 ** json.el is now included with Emacs. It is a library for parsing
358 and generating JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). JSON is a
359 lightweight data-interchange format.
361 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
362 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
363 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
365 ** The package linum.el is now included with Emacs. It it a new minor
366 mode to display line numbers for the current buffer.
369 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
371 ** A new `whitespace' package has been installed, and the pre-existing one
372 renamed to `old-whitespace'.
373 [FIXME someone explain why this is good, if it is...]
375 ** In Change Log mode, the new function `change-log-find-file', bound to
376 C-c C-f, finds the file associated with the current log entry.
378 ** abbrev was rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
379 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
381 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
382 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
383 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
384 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
385 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
386 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
387 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
388 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
389 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
390 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
393 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
394 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
395 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
396 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
397 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
398 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
400 ** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
401 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
405 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in isearch mode
406 runs `occur' with the current search string.
408 *** isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
409 When running isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
410 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
411 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
413 This is enabled if isearch-buffers-multi is non-nil.
415 *** The part of an isearch that failed to match is highlighted in `isearch-fail'
418 ** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
419 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see smerge-auto-refine.
423 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
424 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
425 diff-auto-refine. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
427 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
428 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
429 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
431 ** archive-mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
433 ** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
435 ** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
436 the first error encountered during compilations.
438 ** In the `copyright' package, you can specify your copyright holders' names.
439 Only copyright lines with holders matching copyright-names-regexp will be
440 considered for update.
442 ** eldoc highlights the function argument under point
443 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
445 ** hide-ifdef-mode permits to shadow ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
446 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
449 ** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
450 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
453 *** The --members option is now the default.
455 Use --no-members if you want the old default behaviour of not tagging
456 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
459 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
461 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
463 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
465 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
466 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, and
467 Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems
468 as a single changeset.
470 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type V to toggle the annotation visibility.
472 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
475 ** log-edit now has a command bound to C-c C-d to show the diff for
478 ** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
480 ** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
481 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
482 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
483 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
487 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
489 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
490 `string', disabled by default.
492 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
493 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
495 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
500 *** New connection methods.
501 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
502 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
503 "tunnel" and "socks".
505 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
506 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
507 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
509 *** More default settings.
510 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
511 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
513 *** Connection information is cached.
514 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
515 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
516 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
518 *** Control of remote processes.
519 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
520 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
522 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
523 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
524 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
526 ** Miscellaneous programming mode changes
528 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
529 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
531 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
532 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
533 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
534 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
536 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
538 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
539 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
542 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
546 *** The Gnus package has been updated
548 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
549 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
550 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
551 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
553 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
555 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
559 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
560 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
561 on the corresponding remote system.
563 *** C-x C-q in dired-mode now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
564 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
567 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
569 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
571 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
572 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
574 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
575 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
577 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
578 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
581 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
584 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
585 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
586 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. Previously IPv6 was
587 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
588 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
590 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
591 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
592 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
593 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
594 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
596 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
597 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
598 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
599 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
600 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
601 for the list of extra keys that are available.
603 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
605 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
606 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
607 that range have the same value.
609 ** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
611 ** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
614 ** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically. The
615 functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to enable
616 support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
619 ** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
621 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
622 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
623 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
624 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
625 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
626 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
627 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
629 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
630 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
632 ** The following features have been removed. They were used for
633 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
634 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
636 *** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
637 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
639 *** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
640 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
642 *** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
643 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
645 *** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
646 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
649 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
651 ** The new `buffer-swap-text' function can swap the text between two buffers.
652 This can be useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
654 ** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
656 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
658 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
659 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
661 ** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents the
662 search and match primitives from changing the match data.
665 ** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
666 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
668 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
669 property, then `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from
670 the local value of the hook variable. This means it remains
671 even if you change major modes.
674 ** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
675 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
676 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
677 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
678 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
680 ** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a certain
681 variable as having been made within Custom.
683 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
686 ** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
687 an active region that they should operate on.
689 ** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode
690 is enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
691 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
692 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
694 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
695 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
696 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
697 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
699 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
700 undefined functions. The new `check-declare' package verifies that such
701 statements are accurate (i.e. the functions are actually defined in
702 the specified files).
704 ** The new function `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
706 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
707 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
708 strings on the kill ring.
710 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
712 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
713 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
714 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
716 Generic characters no longer exist.
718 In buffer and string, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
719 sequence in a multibyte buffer/string.
721 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong to
722 multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets unicode,
723 iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
725 *** The new function `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument
726 is a character. This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
728 *** The new function `max-char' returns the maximum character code
729 (currently it is #x3FFFFF).
731 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
733 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
734 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
736 *** The new function `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
738 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
739 priorities of charsets.
741 *** The new function `charset-priority-list' returns the list of
742 charsets ordered by priority.
744 *** The new function `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
746 *** The new function `unibyte-charset' returns the current unibyte
747 charset. The unibyte charset determines how unibyte/multibyte
750 *** The new function `set-unibyte-charset' sets the unibyte charset.
752 *** The new function `unibyte-string' make a unibyte string from bytes.
754 *** The new function `define-char-code-property' defines a character
757 *** The new function `char-code-property-description' returns the
758 description string of a character code property.
760 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
761 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
762 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
763 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
764 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
767 *** The new variable `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a
768 char-table of functions to search for a word boundary.
770 *** The new variable `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
772 *** The new variable `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
774 *** The new variable `print-charset-text-property' controls how to
775 handle `charset' text property on printing a string.
777 *** The new variable `printable-chars' is a char-table defining if a
778 character is printable or not.
780 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
781 accepts a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
782 entries in that range of characters.
784 ** Code conversion changes
786 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
787 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
789 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
790 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
791 conversion should go.
793 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
794 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
797 *** The new function `with-coding-priority' executes the body part with
798 the specified coding system priority order.
800 *** The new function `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text
801 in the region is encodable by the specified coding systems.
803 *** The new function `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases
806 *** The new function `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of
807 charsets supported by a coding system.
809 *** The new function `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of
810 coding systems ordered by their priorities.
812 *** The new function `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of
815 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
817 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
818 It has three functionalities:
819 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
820 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
821 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
822 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
824 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
826 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
828 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
831 ** Changes related to the new font backend
833 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
834 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
836 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
838 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
839 available on your graphic device.
841 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
842 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
843 currently `x' and `xft'.
845 *** New function `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
847 *** New function `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
849 *** New function `font-get' returns a font property value.
851 *** New function `font-put' sets a font property value.
853 *** New function `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching
854 the given specification.
856 *** New function `list-families' returns a list of family names of
859 *** New function `font-font' returns a font-entity best matching with
860 the given specification.
862 *** New function `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font
863 (font-spec, font-entity, or font-object).
865 *** New function `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
867 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
868 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
871 ** Changes related to multiple tty support
873 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
874 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
876 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
878 *** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
879 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
882 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
883 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
885 *** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
886 frame on another tty device interactively.
888 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
889 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
891 *** New functions: `delete-tty', `suspend-tty', `resume-tty'.
893 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
894 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
896 *** New hooks: `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions'
897 are called after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed,
898 respectively. The functions are called with the terminal id of the frame
899 being suspended/resumed as a parameter.
901 *** New function: `environment'.
903 *** New variable: `local-function-key-map'.
904 This in addition to the global function-key-map variable that
905 already existed. The global variable is not used directly any more;
906 instead, the local-function-key-map is initialized so as to inherit from
909 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
911 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
912 keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
914 *** In addition to the global function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
915 local-function-key-map variables, and uses them instead of the
916 global keymaps to set up translations and function key sequences
917 relevant to a specific terminal device.
920 ** You can now also pass the value of the `invisible' property to invisible-p
921 to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible. Convenient when
922 checking invisibility of text which has no buffer position
923 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
925 ** Non-breaking space now acts as whitespace.
928 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
930 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
937 ** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
941 ** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
943 ** New function `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide
946 ** The new function `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
948 ** The new function `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
950 ** The new function `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated
951 with a given image specification.
954 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
955 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
958 ** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
959 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
960 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
961 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
962 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
964 ** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
965 returns its output as a list of lines.
968 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
969 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
970 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
971 remote connection has been established already.
973 ** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
974 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
977 ** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
978 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex interactive
979 forms to subroutines.
981 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
983 ** The package isearch-multi.el has been added. It implements a new mode
984 `isearch-buffers-minor-mode' that allows isearch to search through
985 multiple buffers. In this mode a new variable
986 `isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' defines the function to call
987 to get the next buffer to search in the series of multiple buffers.
989 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
992 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
993 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
995 GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
996 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
997 the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
1000 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1001 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1002 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1003 GNU General Public License for more details.
1005 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1006 along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
1007 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
1008 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
1013 paragraph-separate: "[
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1016 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2