1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS.
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
11 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
12 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
14 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
15 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
18 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
19 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if they these are available.
21 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
23 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
24 a version-dependent component.
26 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
27 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
28 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
29 character is still bound as before.
31 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
34 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
35 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to executable-chmod.
37 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
38 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
39 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
40 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
41 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
42 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
43 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
45 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
46 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
47 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
48 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
49 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
50 always want to read any escape code verbatimly. If you just want to
51 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
52 (`universal-coding-system-argument').
54 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
55 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
57 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
58 point in a pop-up window.
60 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
61 displays all characters in that character set.
63 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
64 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
66 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
69 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
71 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
72 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
74 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
75 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
76 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
77 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
79 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
80 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
81 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
82 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
84 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
85 on the display using several methods
87 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
88 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
89 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
91 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
92 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
94 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
96 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
97 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
99 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
100 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
101 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
102 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
104 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
105 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
106 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
108 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
109 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
111 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
112 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
115 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
116 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
119 ** New X resources recognized
121 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
122 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
123 is useful for debugging X problems.
127 emacs.synchronous: true
129 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
130 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
131 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
132 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
133 visual class names are
142 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
143 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
146 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
147 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
148 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
153 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
155 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
156 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
157 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
158 resource values are `true' or `on'.
162 emacs.privateColormap: true
164 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
165 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
166 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
168 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
169 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
170 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
173 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
175 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
176 all frames except the selected one.
178 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
179 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
181 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
182 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X either in the echo
183 area or with tooltips.
185 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
186 read mail from the menu etc.
188 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
189 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
191 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
193 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
197 -------------------------
204 ** Changes in Outline mode.
206 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
207 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
208 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
210 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
211 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
213 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
214 or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
215 several other special buffers.
217 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
218 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
221 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
222 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
224 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
225 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
226 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
228 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
229 is running in batch mode. For example,
231 (message "%s" (read t))
233 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
236 ** Faces and frame parameters.
238 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
239 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
240 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
241 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
242 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
243 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
244 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
246 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
247 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
248 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
249 `default' face and vice versa.
253 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
254 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
255 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
257 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
259 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
260 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
261 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
262 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
264 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
265 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
266 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
268 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
271 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
273 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
274 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
275 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
276 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
279 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
281 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
282 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
283 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
284 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
287 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
288 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
289 under Lisp changes, below.
291 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
293 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
294 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
297 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
298 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
299 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
300 customizing face `fringe'.
302 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
303 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
307 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
308 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
310 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
312 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
313 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
314 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
315 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
316 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
319 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
320 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
321 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
322 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
323 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
324 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
326 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
327 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
328 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
329 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
330 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
331 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
333 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
334 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
335 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
336 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
337 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
339 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
341 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
342 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
343 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
345 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
347 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
348 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
349 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
350 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
351 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
356 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
357 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
361 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
362 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
363 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
366 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
368 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
369 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
370 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
373 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
374 have to do anything to activate it.
376 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
378 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
379 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
380 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
381 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
383 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
385 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
387 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
389 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
392 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
395 ** Hscrolling in C code.
397 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
398 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
403 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
404 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
406 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
408 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
409 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
410 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
411 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
412 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
414 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
416 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
419 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
420 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
422 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
424 - Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
425 toggles the read-only status.
427 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
429 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
431 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
432 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
435 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
437 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
438 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
439 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
440 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
441 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
442 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
447 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
448 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
449 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
451 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
452 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
453 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
454 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
455 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
456 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
458 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
460 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
462 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
463 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
464 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
466 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
467 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
469 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
470 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
471 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
473 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
475 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
476 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
477 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
478 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
480 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
481 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
482 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
483 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
485 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
486 notably at the end of lines.
488 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
489 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
491 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
493 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
494 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
495 after each match to get the replacement text.
497 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
498 you edit the replacement string.
500 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', let's
501 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
502 lisp-complete-symbol.
504 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
506 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
507 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
508 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
509 window size by setting the following variable:
511 - User option: max-mini-window-height
513 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
514 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
515 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
519 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
521 ** Changes to hideshow.el
523 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
524 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
526 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
528 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
529 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
530 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
531 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
532 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
533 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
535 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
536 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
537 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
538 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
540 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
542 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
543 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
544 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
545 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
546 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
548 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
549 something like this in your .emacs.
551 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
553 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
555 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
557 If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
558 entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
559 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
561 New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
562 buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
564 Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
565 if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
567 The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
568 expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
569 cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
572 ** Changes in Font Lock
574 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
575 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
578 ** Comint (subshell) changes
580 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
581 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
583 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
584 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
585 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
587 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
588 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
589 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
591 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and
592 scheme-interaction-mode now highlight user input, and support choosing
593 previous input with mouse-2. To control this feature, see the
594 user-option `comint-highlight-input'.
596 ** Changes to Rmail mode
598 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
599 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
600 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
601 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
602 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
605 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
606 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
607 regexp matching your mail addresses.
609 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
610 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
611 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
612 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
613 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
615 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
618 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
619 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
622 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
623 in which folder to put messages automatically.
625 ** Changes to TeX mode
627 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
630 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
632 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
633 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
634 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
635 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
636 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
637 can be edited from that buffer.
639 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
640 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
641 `A' to use all marked entries).
643 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
644 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
646 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
647 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
648 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
651 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
652 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
653 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
654 in column 1 are always made leaves.
656 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
657 has the following new features:
659 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
660 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
661 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
662 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
664 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
665 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
666 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
667 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
668 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
671 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
676 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
677 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
678 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
680 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
681 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
682 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
683 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
687 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
688 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
689 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
691 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
692 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
695 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
696 between custom options. Example:
698 (defcustom default-input-method nil
699 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
700 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
701 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
703 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
704 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
706 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
707 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
708 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
710 ** New features in evaluation commands
712 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
713 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
714 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
715 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
716 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
718 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
719 code when called with a prefix argument.
723 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
724 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
725 is, delete only empty directories.
727 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
728 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
729 copy directories recursively.
731 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
732 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
733 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
735 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
736 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
739 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
740 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
741 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
742 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
743 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
745 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
746 use the -f option when sending mail.
750 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
751 current user setups (although it's believed that these
752 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
753 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
754 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
755 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
758 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
759 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
760 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
761 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
762 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
763 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
764 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
765 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
767 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
768 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
769 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
770 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
773 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
774 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
775 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
776 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
777 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
778 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
779 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
780 function documentation for more info.
782 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
783 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
784 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
785 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
786 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
787 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
788 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
789 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
791 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
793 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
794 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
796 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
797 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
798 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
799 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
800 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
803 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
804 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
805 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
808 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
809 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
810 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
811 chapter about this in the manual.
813 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
814 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
815 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
816 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
817 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
819 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
820 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
821 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
823 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
824 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
826 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
827 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
828 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
831 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
832 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
833 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
834 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
837 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
838 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
839 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
842 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
843 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
844 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
845 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
848 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
849 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
850 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
851 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
854 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
855 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
856 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
858 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
860 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
861 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
862 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
863 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
865 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
866 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
867 the column specified by comment-column.
869 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
870 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
871 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
872 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
873 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
874 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
876 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
877 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
880 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
882 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
883 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
884 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
885 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
888 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
890 ** Makefile mode changes
892 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
894 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
895 Fontlock mode is active.
899 ** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
900 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
901 that started the search.
903 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
904 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
906 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
908 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
909 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
910 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
911 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
912 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
913 `secondary-selection'.
915 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
916 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
917 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
918 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
919 usual snappy response.
921 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
922 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
923 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
924 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
926 ** Changes in sort.el
928 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
929 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
930 new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
933 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
935 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
936 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
937 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
939 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
940 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
942 ** Shell script mode changes.
944 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
945 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
946 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
950 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
952 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
953 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
954 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
955 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
956 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
958 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
959 declarations when given the --declarations option.
961 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
962 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
964 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
967 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
969 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
971 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
974 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
975 variables are tagged.
977 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
979 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
982 ** Changes in etags.el
984 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
985 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
986 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
988 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
989 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
991 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
992 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
993 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
994 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
996 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
998 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
999 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1001 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1003 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1004 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1005 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1007 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1008 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1010 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1011 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1013 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1014 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1015 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1017 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1018 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1019 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1020 There is currently no specific input method support for them.
1022 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1023 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1024 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1026 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1028 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1030 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
1031 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1032 expression from that list, are not checked.
1034 ** New modes and packages
1036 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1037 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1039 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1040 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1041 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1043 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1044 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1045 separate Texinfo file.
1047 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine
1048 or by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1049 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS.
1050 It comes with log-view-mode to view RCS and SCCS logs and log-edit-mode
1051 used to enter checkin log messages.
1053 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1054 without invoking external programs.
1056 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1057 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1058 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1059 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1060 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1062 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1063 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1065 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1066 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1068 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1069 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1070 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1071 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1072 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1075 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1076 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1077 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1078 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1080 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1081 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1082 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1084 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1087 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1089 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1091 ; comment (until end of line)
1095 $A default non-terminal
1096 $"C" default terminal
1097 $?C? default special
1098 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1099 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1100 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1101 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1102 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1103 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1104 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1105 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1106 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1107 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1108 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1109 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1110 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1111 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1112 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1114 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1116 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1117 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1118 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1119 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1120 equal signs of assignments.
1122 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1123 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1125 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1126 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1127 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1128 customize the package.
1130 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1132 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1133 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1134 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1135 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1136 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1137 which answers different needs.
1139 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1140 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1141 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1142 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1143 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1146 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1147 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1149 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1151 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1153 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1155 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1158 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1161 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1163 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1165 *** whitespace.el ???
1167 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1168 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1169 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1170 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1171 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1172 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1173 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1175 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1177 Here is an example of columns:
1180 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1181 porcupine strawberry airplane
1183 Doing the following settings:
1185 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1186 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1187 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1188 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1191 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1193 M-x delimit-columns-region
1197 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1198 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1199 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1201 delim-col has the following options:
1203 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1206 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1207 between each column.
1209 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1212 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1215 delim-col has the following commands:
1217 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1218 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1220 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1221 were operated on recently.
1223 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1225 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1226 recentf at Emacs startup.
1228 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1229 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1230 file list can be displayed:
1232 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1233 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1234 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1236 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1237 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1239 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1242 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1243 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1244 specific to Message mode.
1246 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1247 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1248 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1250 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1251 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1252 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1254 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1255 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1257 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1259 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1260 minibuffer with completion.
1262 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1263 with the diary features.
1265 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1266 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1268 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1271 ** Withdrawn packages
1273 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1274 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1276 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1278 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1281 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1282 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1284 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1285 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1287 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1288 function was declared obsolete.
1290 ** Function plist-member is renamed from widget-plist-member (which is
1291 retained as an alias).
1293 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1294 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1295 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1297 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1299 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1301 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1302 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1304 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1306 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1308 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1310 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1311 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1312 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1313 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1316 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1317 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1318 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1319 minibuffer even if it is active.
1321 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1322 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1323 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1324 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1325 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1326 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1328 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1329 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1330 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1331 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1332 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1333 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1334 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1336 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key
1337 and event names in angle brackets.
1339 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1340 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1341 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1342 Default value is nil.
1344 ** The user option line-number-display-limit can now be set to nil,
1347 ** select-safe-coding-system now also checks the most preferred
1348 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1349 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1351 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1354 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1355 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1356 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1357 than replacing the local map.
1359 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1360 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1362 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1365 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1367 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1368 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1369 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1370 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1372 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1373 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1374 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1375 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1377 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1378 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1379 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1381 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1382 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1383 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1384 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1385 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1386 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1387 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1390 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1392 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1393 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1394 character set as previously.
1396 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1397 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1398 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1400 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1401 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1402 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1403 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1405 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1406 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1408 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1409 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1412 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1413 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1415 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1416 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1417 buffers and strings.
1419 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1420 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1421 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1422 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1423 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1424 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1425 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1428 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1429 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1430 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1432 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1433 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1434 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1435 may differ between buffer and string text.
1437 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1438 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1440 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1441 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1442 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1443 `composition' from STRING.
1445 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1446 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1448 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1451 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1452 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1453 character set is not used.
1455 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1456 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1457 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1460 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1461 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1462 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1465 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1466 that offset in the file before writing.
1468 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1471 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1472 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
1474 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1475 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1476 from which the command was issued.
1478 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1479 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1480 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1481 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1484 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1485 to `window-buffer-height'.
1487 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1489 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1490 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1491 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1493 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1496 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1497 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1499 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1500 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1501 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1503 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1504 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1505 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1506 is currently displayed in some window.
1508 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1509 argument function's results.
1511 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1512 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1514 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1515 header is the list of headers passed to it.
1517 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1518 ignores differences in case and text representation.
1520 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1521 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1524 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1525 nil don't display a cursor
1526 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1527 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1528 others display a box cursor.
1530 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1531 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1532 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1533 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1535 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1536 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
1537 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1538 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1542 (string-to-syntax "()")
1545 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1548 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1549 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1556 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1561 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1566 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1573 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
1574 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1577 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1578 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1579 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1580 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1583 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1585 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
1586 for a regexp in a string.
1588 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1589 `mouse-position-function'.
1591 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1592 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1594 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1595 Keywords are now always considered constants.
1598 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1601 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1602 returned by function `recent-keys'.
1605 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1606 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1607 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1608 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1612 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1613 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1616 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1617 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1618 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1619 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1622 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1623 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1624 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1625 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
1628 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1629 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1630 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1633 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1634 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1637 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1639 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
1640 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1641 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1645 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
1646 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
1649 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1650 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1653 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1654 instead of being optional.
1657 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1658 modify read-only text.
1661 ** New functions and variables for locales.
1663 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1664 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
1665 time functions like strftime. The new variables
1666 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1667 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
1669 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1670 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1671 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
1672 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1673 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1674 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1675 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
1678 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1679 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1680 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1684 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1685 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1688 ** New function `propertize'
1690 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1691 strings with text properties.
1693 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1695 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1696 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1697 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1698 specified value of that property. Example:
1700 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1703 ** push and pop macros.
1705 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1706 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
1707 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1709 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1710 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1711 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1713 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1715 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1716 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
1718 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1719 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1720 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1721 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1723 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1724 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1725 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1726 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1729 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1730 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1732 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1733 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1734 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1735 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
1736 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1738 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1740 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1741 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1742 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1743 [:alpha:] matches letters.
1744 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1745 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1746 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1747 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1748 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1749 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
1750 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1751 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1752 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1753 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1754 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1757 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1759 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1761 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1763 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1764 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1768 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1769 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1770 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1774 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1775 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1777 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1779 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1780 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1781 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
1782 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1783 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1785 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1787 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1788 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1789 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1793 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
1794 Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
1795 their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
1796 hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1798 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
1800 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1802 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1804 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1806 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1808 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1811 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1813 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1815 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1817 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1819 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1821 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1823 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1825 Returns the size of TABLE.
1827 - Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1829 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1831 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1833 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1835 - Function: clrhash TABLE
1839 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1841 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1844 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
1846 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1847 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1849 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1851 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1853 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1855 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1856 arguments KEY and VALUE.
1858 - Function: sxhash OBJ
1860 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1862 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1864 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1865 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
1866 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
1867 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1868 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1870 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1872 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1873 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1874 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1876 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1877 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
1879 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
1880 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
1882 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
1883 (sxhash (upcase a)))
1885 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
1886 'case-fold-string-hash))
1888 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
1891 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
1893 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
1894 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
1895 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
1898 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
1900 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
1901 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
1904 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
1905 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
1906 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
1907 is too short to reach that column.
1910 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
1911 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
1912 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
1913 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
1915 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
1916 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
1917 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
1920 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
1921 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
1924 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
1925 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
1928 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
1929 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
1930 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
1931 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
1932 temporary-file-directory instead.
1935 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
1936 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
1937 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
1938 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
1941 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
1942 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
1945 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
1947 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
1948 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
1949 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
1952 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
1954 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
1955 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
1956 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
1957 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
1958 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
1959 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
1961 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
1962 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
1963 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
1964 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
1967 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
1969 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
1970 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
1971 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
1974 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
1975 string where arguments appear in the result string.
1979 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
1981 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
1982 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
1985 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
1988 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
1990 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
1991 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
1994 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
1996 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
1997 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2003 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2004 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2006 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2007 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2008 to enable sound support.
2010 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2011 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2012 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2013 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2014 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2016 The following sound properties are supported:
2020 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2021 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2025 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2026 may be present, but not both.
2030 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2031 0..1. This property is optional.
2033 Other properties are ignored.
2035 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2037 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2040 ** Changes to garbage collection
2042 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2043 of live and free strings.
2045 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2046 strings that have been consed so far.
2049 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2053 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2055 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2058 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2060 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2062 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2063 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2064 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2065 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2066 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2068 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2069 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2072 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2075 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center'.
2077 When this property is specified, the image is vertically centered
2078 around a centerline which would be the vertical center of text drawn
2079 at the position of the image, in the manner specified by the text
2080 properties and overlays that apply to the image.
2083 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2085 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2086 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2087 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2088 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2090 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2091 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2093 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2094 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2095 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2096 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2097 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2098 just display it black instead.
2100 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2103 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2107 ** New face implementation.
2109 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2110 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2115 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2117 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2119 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2120 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2122 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2124 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2126 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2128 6. Foreground color.
2130 7. Background color.
2132 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2134 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2136 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2138 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2140 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2143 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2144 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2146 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2147 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2148 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2149 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2150 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2151 attributes mentioned above.
2153 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2154 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2157 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2158 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2164 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2165 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2166 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2167 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2168 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2169 results in a fully-specified face.
2172 *** Face realization.
2174 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2175 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2176 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2177 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2178 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2179 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2181 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2182 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2183 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2184 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2186 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2187 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2188 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2189 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2190 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2192 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2193 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2194 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2195 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2196 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2199 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2200 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2201 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2202 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2205 **** Clearing face caches.
2207 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2208 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2214 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2215 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2216 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2218 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2219 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2220 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2221 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2222 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2224 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2225 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2226 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2228 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2230 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2231 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2232 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2233 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2234 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2235 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2236 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2238 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2239 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2245 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2246 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2249 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2250 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2251 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2252 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2253 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2256 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2258 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2261 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2263 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2265 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2266 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2267 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2269 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2270 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2271 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2272 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2273 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2274 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2275 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2276 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2277 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2278 of the face font sort order.
2280 - Function: x-font-family-list
2282 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2283 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2284 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2285 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2287 - Variable: font-list-limit
2289 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2290 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2291 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2294 *** Setting face attributes.
2296 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2297 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2298 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2301 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2302 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2304 The following attributes are recognized:
2308 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2309 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2310 and `?' are allowed.
2314 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2315 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2316 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2317 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2321 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
2326 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2327 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2328 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2332 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2333 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2336 `:foreground', `:background'
2338 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2342 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2343 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2344 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2349 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2350 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2351 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2356 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2357 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2358 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2359 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2363 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2364 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2365 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2366 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2367 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2368 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2369 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2370 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2371 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2372 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2373 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2374 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2375 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2376 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2377 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2378 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2383 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2384 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2388 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2389 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2390 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2391 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2392 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2393 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2395 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2396 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2400 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2401 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2402 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2405 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2406 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2407 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2409 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2412 *** Face attributes and X resources
2414 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2417 Face attribute X resource class
2418 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2419 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2420 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2421 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2422 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2423 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2424 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2425 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2426 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2427 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2428 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2429 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2430 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2431 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2432 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2433 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2434 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2435 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2436 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2437 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2440 *** Text property `face'.
2442 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2443 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2444 specification can be
2446 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2448 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2449 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2450 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2451 for face attribute names.
2453 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2454 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2455 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2458 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2460 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2461 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2462 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
2463 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
2464 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
2465 used to clear the mapping table.
2467 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2469 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2470 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2471 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2472 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2473 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2474 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2475 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2476 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2477 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2478 modify their color-related behavior.
2480 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2483 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2485 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2486 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2487 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2488 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2489 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2490 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2491 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2492 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2493 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2496 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
2498 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
2500 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2501 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2502 Otherwise, it returns zero.
2504 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2506 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2507 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2510 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
2511 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
2512 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
2513 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
2514 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2515 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2516 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2519 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
2520 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
2521 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
2523 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2525 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
2527 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2528 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2529 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2530 constrained position if that is is different.
2532 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2533 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2534 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2535 constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
2536 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2537 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2540 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2541 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2542 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2543 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2544 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2546 - Function: erase-field &optional POS
2548 Erases the field surrounding POS.
2549 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2550 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2552 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2554 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2555 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2556 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2557 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
2558 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2560 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2562 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2563 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2564 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2565 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
2566 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2568 - Function: field-string &optional POS
2570 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2571 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2572 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2574 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2576 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2577 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2578 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2583 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2584 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2585 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2586 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2588 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2589 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2590 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2591 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2594 IMAGE is an image specification.
2596 *** Image specifications
2598 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2599 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2600 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
2601 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2602 described below are ignored.
2604 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2608 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2609 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2610 to use for its ascent.
2612 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2613 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2615 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
2616 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
2617 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
2618 overlays that apply to the image.
2622 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
2623 margin around the image. Default is 0.
2627 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2632 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2633 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2634 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2635 which is intended to display images "disabled."
2637 `:heuristic-mask BG'
2639 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2640 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2641 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2642 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2643 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2644 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2645 background of the image.
2649 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2650 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2651 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2652 may be present in the image specification.
2656 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2657 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2658 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2659 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2661 *** Supported image types
2663 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
2665 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2666 properties supported are
2670 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2671 is the frame's foreground.
2675 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2676 the frame's background color.
2678 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2679 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2680 instead of a `:file' property.
2684 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2688 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2694 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2695 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2697 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2699 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2702 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2703 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2706 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
2708 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2709 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2710 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2711 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2713 Additional image properties supported are:
2715 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2717 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2718 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2721 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2722 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2724 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2725 to display compressed images.
2727 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
2729 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2730 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2733 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2735 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
2736 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2739 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2741 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2742 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2745 **** GIF, image type `gif'
2747 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2748 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2750 Additional image properties supported are:
2754 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2755 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2757 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2758 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2759 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2762 (defun show-anim (file max)
2763 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2764 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2766 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2769 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
2772 (goto-char (point-min))
2773 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2774 (insert-image img "x"))
2775 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2777 **** PNG, image type `png'
2779 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2780 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2783 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2785 Additional image properties supported are:
2789 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
2790 integer. This is a required property.
2794 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
2795 must be a integer. This is an required property.
2799 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2800 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2801 files. This is an required property.
2803 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2808 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2809 which are supported in the current configuration.
2811 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2812 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2813 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2814 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
2815 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
2817 *** Simplified image API, image.el
2819 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2820 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2821 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2822 define an image based on available image types. The functions
2823 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2829 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2832 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2833 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2834 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2835 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2836 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2837 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2838 of the display margins.
2840 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2841 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2842 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2843 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2849 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2850 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2851 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2852 that have a `help-echo' property.
2854 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
2855 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
2856 the window in which the help was found, OBJECT is the buffer or string
2857 which had the `help-echo' property. POSITION is the position within
2858 OBJECT under the mouse pointer. The function should return a help
2859 string or nil for none.
2861 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
2862 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
2864 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
2865 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
2866 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
2867 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
2868 used as help string.
2870 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
2871 help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
2872 help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
2875 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
2877 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
2878 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
2880 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
2881 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
2882 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
2883 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
2886 (global-set-key [A-down]
2889 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
2890 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
2891 (global-set-key [A-up]
2894 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
2895 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
2898 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
2900 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
2901 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
2902 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
2903 is called with one argument, POS.
2905 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
2906 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
2907 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
2908 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
2909 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
2912 ** Tool bar support.
2914 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
2915 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
2916 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
2917 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
2918 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
2919 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
2921 *** Tool bar item definitions
2923 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2924 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
2925 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
2927 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
2928 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
2929 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
2930 property (see below).
2932 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
2933 binding are currently ignored.
2935 The following properties are recognized:
2939 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
2944 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
2948 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
2949 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
2950 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
2952 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
2954 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
2955 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
2959 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
2960 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
2961 meaning of each of the four elements:
2963 Index Use when item is
2964 ----------------------------------------
2965 0 enabled and selected
2966 1 enabled and deselected
2967 2 disabled and selected
2968 3 disabled and deselected
2970 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
2971 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
2973 `:help HELP-STRING'.
2975 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
2976 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
2978 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
2980 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
2981 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
2982 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
2984 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
2985 raised when the mouse moves over them.
2987 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
2988 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
2989 pixels. Default is 1.
2991 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
2992 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
2994 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
2996 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
2999 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3000 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3001 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3003 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3005 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3007 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3010 ** Mode line changes.
3013 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3015 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3016 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3017 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3019 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3020 a `local-map' text property.
3022 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3023 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3025 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3026 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3027 `local-map' property.
3029 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3030 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3033 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3034 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3037 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3038 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3041 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3043 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3044 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3045 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3046 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3049 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3052 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3053 position in the header-line.
3056 ** Text property `display'
3058 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3059 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3060 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3061 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3063 *** Variable width and height spaces
3065 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3066 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3067 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3068 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3069 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3070 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3071 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3073 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3074 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3075 properties described below.
3077 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3078 characters having the `display' property.
3082 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3083 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3085 - :relative-width FACTOR
3087 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3088 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3089 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3090 width of that character by FACTOR.
3094 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3095 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3097 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3101 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3104 - :relative-height FACTOR
3106 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3107 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3111 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3112 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3113 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3116 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3120 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3121 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3122 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3123 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3124 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3125 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3126 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3127 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3128 as display specification.
3130 *** Other display properties
3132 - :space-width FACTOR
3134 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3135 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3140 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3142 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3143 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3144 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3145 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3146 a font is available counts as a step.
3148 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3149 as tall as the frame's default font.
3151 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3152 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3154 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3155 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3159 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3160 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3161 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3162 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3163 `:height' subproperty.
3165 *** Conditional display properties
3167 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3168 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3169 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3170 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3171 the text having the `display' property.
3173 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3177 ** New menu separator types.
3179 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3180 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3181 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3182 to specify other menu separator types.
3184 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3186 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3189 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3191 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3193 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3195 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3197 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3199 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3201 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3203 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3205 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3207 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3208 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3210 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3212 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3214 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3216 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3218 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3220 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3222 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3224 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3226 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3228 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3230 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3232 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3234 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3236 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3238 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3239 the corresponding single-line separators.
3242 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3244 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3245 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3246 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3247 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3248 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3249 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3250 default foreground is black.
3252 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3253 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3254 `ScrollBarBackground').
3256 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3257 settings for scroll bar colors.
3260 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3261 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3264 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3265 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3266 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3267 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3268 the original window start.
3271 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3272 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3273 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3276 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3278 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3279 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3280 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3281 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3283 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3284 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3286 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3288 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3289 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3290 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3291 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3292 temporarily to nil, for example
3294 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3295 (enlarge-window 10))
3297 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3298 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3300 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3301 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3302 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3303 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3304 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3305 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3307 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3309 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3312 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3314 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3316 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3317 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3318 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3319 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3320 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3322 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3326 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3328 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3331 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3333 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3334 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3336 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3338 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3340 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3341 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3342 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3344 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3345 is the one that is used.
3347 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3348 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3349 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3350 separate from the command's regular output.
3351 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3352 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3353 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3356 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3357 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3358 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3359 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3361 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3362 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3363 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3364 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3366 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3367 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3368 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3369 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3371 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3372 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3373 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3374 they never ignore case.
3376 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3377 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3378 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3379 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3380 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3381 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3382 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3384 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3385 the same format that was used in the file before.
3387 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3388 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3390 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3391 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3392 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3394 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3395 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3396 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3397 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3398 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3399 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3400 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3402 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3403 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3404 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3405 format. You can now customize these variables.
3407 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3408 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3409 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3410 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3412 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3413 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3414 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3416 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3417 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3418 doesn't have any effect.
3420 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3423 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3424 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3425 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3427 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3428 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3429 `auto-show-mode' command.
3431 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3432 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3433 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3434 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3435 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3437 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3438 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3440 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3441 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3442 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3444 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3445 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3446 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3447 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3449 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3451 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3452 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3453 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3454 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3455 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3457 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3458 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3460 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3461 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3462 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3463 `?' on other systems.
3465 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3466 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3469 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3470 current codepage when it starts.
3474 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3475 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3476 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3477 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3478 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3479 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3483 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3484 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3486 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3487 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3488 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3489 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3490 buffer-file-coding-system.
3492 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3493 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3496 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3497 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3498 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3499 list of possible coding systems.
3503 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3504 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3505 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3506 docstring for details.
3508 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3509 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3510 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3511 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3512 lineup functions use this feature currently.
3514 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3515 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3517 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3518 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3520 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3521 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3522 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3523 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3526 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3527 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3529 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3530 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3531 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3532 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3534 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3535 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3536 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3537 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3538 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3540 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3542 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3544 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3545 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3547 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3549 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3550 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3551 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3552 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3553 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3557 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3558 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3559 Gnus manual for the full story.
3561 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3562 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3563 group, which is created automatically.
3565 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3568 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3570 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3571 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3573 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3576 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3578 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3579 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3581 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3583 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3584 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3586 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3587 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3589 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3590 control over simplification.
3592 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3594 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3597 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3599 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3601 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
3602 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3603 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3605 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3606 `a' forces normal posting method.
3608 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3611 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3614 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3615 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3617 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3620 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3622 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3624 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3625 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3627 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3628 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3630 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3632 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3635 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3636 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3638 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3639 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3641 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3643 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3645 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3647 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3649 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3650 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3651 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3653 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3654 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3655 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3656 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3657 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3659 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3660 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3661 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3662 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3664 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3665 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3666 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3669 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3671 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3672 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3674 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3675 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3676 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3677 removed from the label.
3679 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3680 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3682 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3683 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3685 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3686 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
3689 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3691 ** New/deleted modes and packages
3693 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3694 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3696 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3697 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3698 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3700 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3701 changes with a special face.
3703 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3704 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3705 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3707 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3709 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3710 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3711 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3712 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3713 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3715 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3716 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3717 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3719 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3720 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3721 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3722 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3723 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3724 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3725 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3726 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3727 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3729 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3730 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
3731 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
3732 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
3733 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
3736 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
3737 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
3738 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
3739 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
3740 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
3741 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
3743 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
3744 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
3745 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
3746 was not documented clearly before.
3748 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
3749 This includes Tetris and Snake.
3751 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
3753 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
3754 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
3755 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
3756 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
3758 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
3759 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
3760 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
3762 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
3764 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
3765 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3767 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3768 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3771 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3772 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3773 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3774 file names and attributes are returned.
3776 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3777 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3778 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3779 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3782 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3783 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3785 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
3787 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3788 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3789 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3792 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3793 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3796 The new function process-running-child-p
3797 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3798 terminal to its own child process.
3800 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3801 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3802 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3803 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3805 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3806 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3808 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3809 :included is an alias for :visible.
3811 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3812 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3813 to move or copy menu entries.
3815 ** Multibyte editing changes
3817 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3818 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3819 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3820 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3821 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3822 (setq char (sref str idx)
3823 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3824 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3826 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3827 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3828 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3830 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3831 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3832 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3834 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3836 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3837 across the boundary.
3839 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3840 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3841 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3842 contains 8-bit characters.
3843 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
3844 contains invalid characters.
3846 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
3847 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
3848 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
3849 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
3852 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
3853 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
3854 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
3855 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
3857 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
3858 compose Thai characters in a string.
3860 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
3861 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
3862 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
3863 menus should always use the third argument.
3865 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
3866 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
3867 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
3868 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
3870 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
3871 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
3872 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
3873 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
3875 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
3876 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
3877 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
3880 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
3882 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
3883 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
3884 requested feature cannot be loaded.
3886 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
3887 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
3888 means to clear out that attribute.
3890 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
3891 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
3893 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
3894 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
3895 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
3896 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
3898 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
3899 the gap of the current buffer.
3901 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
3902 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
3905 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
3906 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
3907 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
3908 it back in after any modifications have been made.
3910 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
3912 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
3913 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
3914 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
3915 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
3916 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
3918 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
3919 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
3920 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
3921 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
3922 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
3924 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
3925 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
3926 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
3928 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
3929 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
3930 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
3931 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
3932 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
3935 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
3936 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
3937 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
3938 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
3940 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
3942 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
3943 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
3944 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
3945 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
3947 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
3948 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
3949 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
3950 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
3951 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
3952 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
3953 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
3956 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
3959 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
3960 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
3961 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
3962 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
3963 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
3965 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
3966 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
3967 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
3968 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
3970 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
3971 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
3972 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
3973 something that most users not do.
3975 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
3976 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
3977 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
3980 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
3983 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
3984 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
3985 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
3986 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
3989 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
3990 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
3991 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
3992 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
3993 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
3996 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
3997 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
3998 to be confused by TeX commands.
4000 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4001 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4002 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4003 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4005 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4006 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4007 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4008 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4009 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4011 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4012 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4014 ** Changes in input method usage.
4016 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4017 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4020 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4022 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4023 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4025 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4026 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4028 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4030 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4032 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4033 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4035 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4036 given in the following case:
4037 o When you are using a complex input method.
4038 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4040 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4041 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4042 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4043 setting it to t is helpful.
4045 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4047 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4049 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4050 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4051 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4052 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4055 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4056 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4057 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4060 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4062 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4064 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4065 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4067 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4068 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4069 its owner and group.
4071 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4072 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4074 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4075 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4077 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4078 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4079 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4080 by the left edge of the rectangle.
4082 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4083 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4084 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4085 for writing keyboard macros.
4087 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4088 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4089 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4090 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4091 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4094 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4096 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4097 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4100 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4101 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4102 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4103 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4105 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4106 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4107 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4109 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4110 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4111 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4112 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4114 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4115 failure if the command produces no output.
4117 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4118 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4121 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4122 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4123 function and variable names.
4125 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4126 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4127 file-coding-system-alist.
4129 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4130 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4131 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4132 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4133 according to the current fontset.
4135 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4137 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4138 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4139 nonascii-insert-offset.
4141 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4142 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4143 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4144 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4146 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4147 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4149 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4150 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4152 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4153 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4156 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4157 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4159 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4160 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4161 all variables that have documentation.
4163 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4164 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4165 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4166 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4167 it should show; the default is 20.
4169 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4170 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4173 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4174 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4175 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4176 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4177 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4178 Newly added options are included as well.
4180 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4181 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4182 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4184 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4187 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4188 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4190 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4191 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4194 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4195 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4198 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4199 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4200 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4201 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4204 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4206 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4207 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4208 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4210 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4211 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4212 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4217 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4218 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4220 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4221 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4223 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4224 read and post multi-lingual articles.
4226 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4227 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4228 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4229 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4230 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4231 made invisible again.
4233 ** Mail reading and sending changes
4235 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4236 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4237 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4240 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4241 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4242 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4243 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4244 rmail-default-body-file.
4246 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4247 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4248 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4250 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4251 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4252 is evaluated to insert the signature.
4254 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4255 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4256 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4257 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4258 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4259 especially interested in trying feedmail.
4261 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4262 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4263 provided by feedmail are:
4265 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4266 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4267 there is also a queue for draft messages
4269 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4270 be prompted for confirmation
4272 **** does smart filling of address headers
4274 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4275 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4276 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4278 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4279 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4280 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4281 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4285 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4286 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4288 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4289 run Dired on the directory name at point.
4291 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4292 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4293 for a specified regexp.
4297 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4300 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4301 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4304 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4305 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4306 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4307 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4309 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4310 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4311 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4312 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4313 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4315 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4316 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4317 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4318 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4319 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4321 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4322 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4323 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4324 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4326 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4327 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4328 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4330 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4331 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4332 session to resolve them.
4334 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4335 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4336 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4339 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4340 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4341 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4342 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4343 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4344 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4347 ** Changes in Font Lock
4349 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4350 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4351 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4352 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4353 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4355 ** Frame name display changes
4357 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4358 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4359 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4360 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4362 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4363 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4366 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4368 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4369 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4370 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4372 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4374 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4375 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4376 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4378 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4379 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4382 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4383 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4384 previously sent input.
4386 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4387 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4388 as the search string.
4390 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4391 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4395 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4396 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4397 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
4400 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4401 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4402 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4403 style is still the default however.
4405 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4407 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4408 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4409 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4411 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4412 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4414 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4415 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4417 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4418 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4420 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4421 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4423 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4424 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4425 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4426 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4428 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
4430 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
4431 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4432 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4434 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4435 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4436 expanding dynamically.
4438 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4439 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4441 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4442 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4443 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4444 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4446 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4448 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4450 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4451 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4452 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4453 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4454 against the first word in the title.
4456 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4457 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4458 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
4459 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
4460 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
4461 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
4463 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4464 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4465 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4466 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4468 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
4470 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4471 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4472 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4473 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4474 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4475 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4477 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4478 Editing group once the package is loaded.
4480 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4481 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4482 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4484 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4485 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4489 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4490 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
4491 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4493 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
4494 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4495 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4496 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
4499 o URLs are automatically skipped
4500 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4502 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4504 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4506 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4507 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4508 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4509 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4511 *** New recursive parser.
4513 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4514 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4515 recursive parser scans the individual files.
4517 *** Parsing only part of a document.
4519 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4520 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4521 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4523 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4525 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
4527 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4529 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4531 *** Using multiple selection buffers
4533 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4534 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4536 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4538 *** References to external documents.
4540 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4541 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4542 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4543 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4544 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4545 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4546 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4548 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4550 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4551 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4553 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4554 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4556 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4558 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4559 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4561 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4563 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4564 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4565 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4566 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4567 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4568 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4571 *** Support for the varioref package
4573 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4577 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4578 and citations are created. These hooks are
4579 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4580 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
4582 *** Citations outside LaTeX
4584 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4585 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4587 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
4589 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4590 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4593 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4595 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4596 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4597 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4598 directories that contain the same file name.
4600 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4601 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4602 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4603 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4604 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4605 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4606 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4609 ** New modes and packages
4611 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4612 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4613 it, but some do not.
4615 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4618 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4619 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4622 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4624 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4625 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4626 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4627 established system of notation similar to Chess.
4629 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4630 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4631 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4633 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4634 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4635 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4636 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4637 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4640 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4641 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4643 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4644 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4645 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4646 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4648 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4650 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4651 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4652 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4653 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4654 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4655 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4656 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4657 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4658 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4659 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4660 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4662 Platform-specific modes:
4664 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4665 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4666 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4667 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4668 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4669 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4670 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4671 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4672 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4674 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4676 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4677 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4678 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4679 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4681 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4682 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4683 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4685 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4686 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4687 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4688 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4690 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4691 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4692 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4695 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4696 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4697 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4698 current input method for reading this one event.
4700 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4701 now control whether to output certain characters as
4702 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4703 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4704 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4705 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4707 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4709 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4710 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4712 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4713 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4714 always increases point by 1.
4716 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4717 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4719 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4721 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4722 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4723 default value changed. For example,
4725 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4730 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
4733 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
4734 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
4735 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
4736 `:version' in the top level group.
4738 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
4740 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
4741 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
4743 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
4744 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
4745 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
4748 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
4749 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
4752 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
4753 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
4754 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
4756 ** Frame-local variables.
4758 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
4759 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
4760 local bindings for that variable.
4762 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
4763 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
4764 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
4767 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
4768 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
4769 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
4770 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4772 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4773 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4774 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4775 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4777 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4778 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4779 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4780 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4781 See the documentation in sregex.el.
4783 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4784 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4785 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4786 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4788 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4789 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4791 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4792 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4793 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4795 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4796 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4797 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4798 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4800 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4801 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4804 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4805 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4806 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4807 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4808 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4810 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4811 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4812 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4813 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4815 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4816 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4817 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4818 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4819 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4821 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4822 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4823 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4824 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4826 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4827 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4828 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4830 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4831 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4832 was directed to display this buffer.
4834 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4835 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4836 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4837 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4838 set-window-configuration.
4840 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4841 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4842 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
4843 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
4845 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
4846 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
4847 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
4849 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
4850 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
4851 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
4853 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
4854 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
4856 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
4857 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
4859 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
4860 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
4861 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
4863 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
4864 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
4865 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
4866 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
4870 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
4871 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
4874 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
4875 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
4876 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
4877 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
4878 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
4880 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
4882 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
4883 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
4884 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
4885 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
4888 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
4889 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
4890 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
4891 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
4892 The supported properties include
4894 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4896 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4897 item should appear in the menu.
4899 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
4900 which will be REAL-BINDING.
4901 It should return a binding to use instead.
4903 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
4904 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
4905 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
4906 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
4907 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
4910 This means that the command normally has no
4911 keyboard equivalent.
4912 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
4913 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
4914 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
4915 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
4916 value says whether this button is currently selected.
4918 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
4919 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
4921 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
4925 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
4926 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
4927 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
4928 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
4930 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
4932 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4933 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
4934 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
4935 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
4936 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
4937 forward, away from the user.
4939 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4941 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
4942 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
4943 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
4944 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
4945 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
4947 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
4949 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4950 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
4951 that were dragged and dropped.
4953 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4955 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
4957 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
4958 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
4959 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
4961 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
4962 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
4963 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
4965 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
4966 in Emacs 19 and before.
4968 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
4969 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
4971 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
4972 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
4973 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
4974 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
4976 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
4977 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
4978 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
4979 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
4980 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
4982 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
4983 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
4984 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
4985 consistent with the new representation.
4987 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
4988 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
4989 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
4990 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
4992 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
4993 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
4994 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
4996 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
4997 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
4998 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5000 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5001 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5002 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5004 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5005 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5007 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5008 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5010 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5011 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5012 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5013 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5015 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5016 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5018 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5019 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5020 buffer or string being searched.
5022 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5023 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5024 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5025 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5026 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5027 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5028 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5030 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5032 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5033 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5034 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5035 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5036 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5037 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5038 define-coding-system-alias.
5040 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5041 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5042 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5043 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5044 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5045 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5046 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5049 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5050 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5051 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5052 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5054 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5055 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5056 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5057 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5059 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5060 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5061 This function requires a user interaction.
5063 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5064 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5065 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5066 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5067 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5068 select-safe-coding-system.
5070 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5071 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5072 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5075 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5076 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5077 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5079 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5080 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5081 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5082 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5084 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5085 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5086 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5089 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5090 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5092 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5093 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5094 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5095 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5096 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5097 range of characters.
5099 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5100 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5102 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5103 in the current buffer at position POS.
5105 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5106 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5107 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5108 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5109 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5110 binding input-method-function to nil.
5112 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5113 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5114 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5115 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5116 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5118 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5119 subsequent events of a key sequence.
5121 *** You can customize any language environment by using
5122 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5124 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5125 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5126 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5127 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5128 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5130 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
5132 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5133 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5134 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5137 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5138 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5140 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5141 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5142 in your .emacs file.)
5144 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5145 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5147 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5148 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5150 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5151 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5154 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5155 delete the character before point, as usual.
5157 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5158 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5159 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5161 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5162 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5163 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5164 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5165 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5168 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5169 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5170 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5171 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5172 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5174 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5175 and is an alias for it.
5177 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5178 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5180 ** Scrolling changes
5182 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5183 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5185 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5186 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5189 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5190 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5191 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5192 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5194 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5195 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5196 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5197 recenters the window.
5199 ** International character set support (MULE)
5201 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5202 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5203 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5204 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5205 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5206 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5208 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5209 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5210 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5211 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5212 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5214 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5215 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5216 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5217 language, to make it possible to type them.
5219 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5220 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5222 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5223 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5225 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5227 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5229 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5230 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5231 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5232 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5233 characters for their work until they want to change.
5237 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5238 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5239 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5240 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5241 support several input methods.
5243 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5244 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5247 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5248 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5249 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5250 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5251 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5254 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5255 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5256 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5257 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5258 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5260 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5261 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5262 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5263 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5265 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5266 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5267 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5268 the first guess is wrong.
5270 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5271 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5273 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5274 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5275 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5276 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5278 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5279 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5280 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5281 translate automatically to and from either one.
5283 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5285 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5286 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5287 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5290 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5291 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5292 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5293 multibyte characters in that buffer.
5295 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5296 character conversion as well.
5298 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5300 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5301 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5302 requires using many fonts.
5304 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5305 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5307 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5308 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5309 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5310 you would use a font.
5312 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5313 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5314 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5316 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5317 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5318 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5319 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5320 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5322 *** Defining fontsets.
5324 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5325 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5326 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5328 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5329 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5330 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5331 standard fontset are created automatically.
5333 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5334 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5335 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5336 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5337 name is `fontset-startup'.
5339 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5340 The resource value should have this form:
5341 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5342 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5343 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5344 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5345 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5346 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5347 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5348 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5349 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5351 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5352 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5353 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5355 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5356 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5358 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5359 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5360 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5361 Here is the substitution rule:
5362 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5363 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5364 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5365 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5366 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5368 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5369 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5370 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5372 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5373 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5374 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5375 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5378 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5379 defaults for a particular choice of language.
5381 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5382 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5383 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5384 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5385 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5386 system for new files that you create.
5388 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5389 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5390 whole Emacs session.
5392 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5393 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5394 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5396 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5397 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5398 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5399 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5400 coding systems that Emacs supports.
5402 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5403 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5404 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5405 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5406 is used for *the immediately following command*.
5408 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5409 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5411 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5412 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5414 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5415 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5417 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5418 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5419 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5420 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5423 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5424 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5425 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5426 translated into that character code.
5428 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5429 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5431 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5433 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5434 the coding system for keyboard input.
5436 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5437 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5438 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5440 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5442 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5443 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5444 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5445 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5446 designed to work with terminals.
5448 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5449 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5450 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5451 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5452 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5453 in the corresponding buffer.
5455 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5457 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5458 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5459 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5461 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5462 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5463 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5466 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5467 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5469 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5470 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5471 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5472 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5474 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5475 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5476 related information.
5478 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5479 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5482 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5483 information about the support for a particular language.
5484 You specify the language as an argument.
5486 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5487 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5490 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5491 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5492 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
5493 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5495 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5497 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5498 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5499 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5500 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5501 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5502 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5503 K euc-korea (Korean)
5506 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5509 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5510 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5511 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5515 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5516 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5517 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5518 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5520 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5521 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5523 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5524 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5525 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5526 Rmail files themselves.
5528 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5529 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5531 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5534 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5535 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5536 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5537 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5538 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5540 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5541 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5542 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5545 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5546 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5547 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5548 without any conversion.
5550 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5551 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5552 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5553 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5555 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5556 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5558 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5559 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5561 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5562 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5564 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5565 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5566 in the buffer before point.
5568 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5569 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5572 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5573 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5575 ** File locking works with NFS now.
5577 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5578 in the same directory as FILENAME.
5580 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5581 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5582 can become a bottleneck.
5584 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5585 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5586 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5587 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5588 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5589 so useful that the change is worth while.
5591 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5592 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5593 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5594 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5596 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5597 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5600 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5601 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5602 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5604 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5605 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5606 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5608 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5609 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5610 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5612 ** Changes in View mode.
5614 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5615 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5617 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5618 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5620 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5623 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5624 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5626 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5627 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5628 not just the selected window.
5630 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5631 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5632 turns View mode on or off.
5634 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5635 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5636 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5638 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5639 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5641 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5642 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5643 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5644 which version to compare with.
5646 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
5647 blocks if a match is inside the block.
5649 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5650 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5651 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5652 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5654 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5655 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5656 blocks, all of them or none.
5658 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5659 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5662 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5663 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5664 However, the mode will not be changed if
5665 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5666 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5667 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5668 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5670 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5672 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5673 these commands do not change the major mode.
5675 ** M-x occur changes.
5677 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5678 it performs a case-sensitive search.
5680 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5681 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5682 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5684 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5685 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5686 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5687 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5688 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5690 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5691 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5692 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5693 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5695 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5696 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5697 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5699 ** Outline mode changes.
5701 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5703 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5705 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5706 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5707 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5710 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5711 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5714 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5715 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5717 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5719 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5720 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5721 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5722 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5724 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5725 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5726 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5728 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5729 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5732 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
5733 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
5734 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
5735 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
5737 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
5738 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
5739 can be. The default value is 30.
5741 ** Changes in Mail mode.
5743 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
5744 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
5745 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
5746 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
5747 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
5750 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
5751 compose-mail-other-frame.
5753 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
5754 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
5755 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
5756 buffer that shows the original message.
5758 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
5759 with separator lines around the contents.
5761 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
5762 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
5763 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
5764 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
5766 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
5768 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
5769 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
5770 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5771 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5773 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5774 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5777 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5778 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5781 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5782 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5783 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5784 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5786 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5787 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5788 be taken to be magic.
5790 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5791 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5792 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5794 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5795 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5797 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5798 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5800 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5802 new key dired.el binding old key
5803 ------- ---------------- -------
5804 * c dired-change-marks c
5806 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5807 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5808 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5810 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5811 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5812 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5813 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5814 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5815 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5819 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5820 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5821 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5822 each time you run it.
5824 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5825 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5827 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5828 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5829 means to move in the opposite direction.
5831 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5832 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5834 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5835 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5836 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5837 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5842 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
5844 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
5847 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
5848 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
5850 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
5853 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
5855 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
5857 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
5859 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
5860 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
5861 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
5863 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
5865 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
5867 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
5868 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
5870 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
5871 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
5872 used to pick articles.
5874 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
5875 another have been added.
5877 `M-x gnus-change-server'
5879 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
5880 generating lines in buffers.
5882 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
5885 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
5887 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
5889 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
5891 *** Scores can be decayed.
5893 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
5895 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
5896 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
5898 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
5901 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
5903 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
5904 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
5906 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
5908 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
5909 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
5911 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
5912 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
5914 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
5917 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
5918 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
5920 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
5922 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
5924 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
5926 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
5928 Use the `Y c' command.
5930 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
5932 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
5934 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
5936 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
5937 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
5939 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
5941 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
5943 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
5944 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
5946 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
5948 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
5949 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
5950 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
5951 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
5954 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
5955 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
5956 particular news group. This can be done by:
5958 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
5960 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
5961 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
5962 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
5963 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
5964 for reading and posting).
5966 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
5967 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
5968 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
5969 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
5972 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
5973 default. Here are some of these default settings:
5975 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
5976 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
5977 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
5978 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
5979 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
5981 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
5982 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
5986 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
5987 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
5988 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
5989 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
5990 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
5993 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
5994 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
5995 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
5996 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
5997 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
5998 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6000 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6001 of the current buffer.
6003 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6004 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6005 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6007 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6008 style that the Python developers like.
6010 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6011 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6012 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6016 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6017 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6018 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6020 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6021 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6024 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6025 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6027 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6028 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6029 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6030 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6032 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6033 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6035 ** Calendar changes.
6037 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6038 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6039 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6043 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6045 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6047 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6048 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6049 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6050 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6051 It defaults to `letter'.
6052 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6054 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6055 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6056 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6058 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6059 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6062 *** Horizontal layout
6064 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6065 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6066 All are measured in points.
6070 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6071 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6072 All are measured in points.
6076 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6077 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6078 margin above the text.
6080 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6081 framing box is printed around the header.
6083 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6084 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6086 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6087 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6088 `ps-header-font-size'.
6092 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6093 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6094 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6095 elements to this alist.
6097 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6098 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6100 ** hideshow changes.
6102 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6105 *** Support for java-mode added.
6107 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6108 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6110 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6111 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6112 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6114 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6115 robust and a lot faster.
6117 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6119 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6120 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6121 documentation for more details.
6123 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
6125 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6126 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6127 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6128 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6129 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6131 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6132 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6133 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6134 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6140 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6141 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6142 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6143 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6144 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6145 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6147 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6149 *** Maximum decoration
6151 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6152 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6153 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6154 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6155 to get the old behavior.
6159 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6161 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6162 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6164 *** Configurable support
6166 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6167 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6168 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6169 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6170 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6171 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6172 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6174 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6175 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6176 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6178 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6180 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6181 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6184 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6186 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6192 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6193 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6194 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6195 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6197 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6199 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6200 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6201 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6203 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6205 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6206 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6207 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6208 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6209 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6210 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6211 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6213 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6214 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6215 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6216 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6217 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6218 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6220 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6222 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6223 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6224 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6225 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6227 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6230 ** Ada mode changes.
6232 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6233 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6234 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6235 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6238 *** There are two new commands:
6239 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6240 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6242 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6243 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6244 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6246 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6247 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6248 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6250 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6251 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6252 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6253 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6255 ** Scheme mode changes.
6257 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6258 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6259 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6260 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6263 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6264 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6265 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6266 variables as buffer-local variables.
6268 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6271 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
6273 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6274 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6275 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6276 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6278 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6279 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6282 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6283 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6284 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6285 option takes precedence.
6287 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6288 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6289 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6291 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6292 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6295 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6296 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6298 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6299 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6302 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6303 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6304 these register values no longer become completely useless.
6305 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6306 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6307 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6309 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6310 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6311 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6312 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6314 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6315 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6316 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6317 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6318 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6320 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6321 since it applies only to the current frame.
6323 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6324 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6325 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6327 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6328 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6329 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6330 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6331 instead of just the file you are editing.
6335 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6336 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6337 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6338 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6339 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6342 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6343 knows which kind of label is needed.
6345 C-c ) reftex-reference
6346 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6347 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6349 C-c [ reftex-citation
6350 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6351 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6353 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6354 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6357 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6358 can quickly jump to every section.
6360 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6361 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6362 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6363 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6364 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6366 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6368 *** Info documentation is now available.
6370 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6371 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6373 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6374 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6376 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6377 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6379 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6380 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6381 appropriate functions.
6383 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6384 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6386 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6389 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6390 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6392 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6395 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6396 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6397 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6399 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6400 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6401 prefixed with `ALT'.
6403 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6404 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6405 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6408 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6409 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6410 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6412 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6413 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6415 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6416 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6417 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6419 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6421 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6423 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6426 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6427 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6430 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6433 *** Added support for imenu.
6435 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6436 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6437 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6438 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6440 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6441 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6443 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6445 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
6447 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6448 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6449 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6452 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6453 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6455 ** browse-url changes
6457 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6458 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6459 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6460 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6461 customization variables.
6463 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6465 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6466 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6467 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6471 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6472 pops up the Info file for this command.
6474 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6475 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6476 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6479 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6480 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6481 files in the same directory.
6483 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6484 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6485 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6489 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
6490 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
6492 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
6493 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
6494 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6495 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6496 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6497 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6498 color when Viper is in insert state.
6499 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6500 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6501 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6505 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6506 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6507 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6508 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6509 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6511 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6513 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6514 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6516 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6517 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6518 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6520 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6521 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6522 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6523 methods and protocols.
6525 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6526 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6527 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6530 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6531 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6532 at least M times and as many as N times.
6534 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6535 in files has changed slightly.
6537 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6538 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6539 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6540 with old time-stamp-format values.
6542 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6543 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6544 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6547 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6548 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6549 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6550 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6551 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6552 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6554 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6555 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6556 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6558 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6559 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6560 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6561 recommended now will continue to work then.
6563 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6566 ** There are some additional major modes:
6568 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6569 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6570 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6572 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6573 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6576 ** New Lisp packages include:
6578 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6580 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6581 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6583 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6585 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6588 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6589 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6592 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6593 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6594 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6595 strings or comments.
6597 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6598 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6599 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6600 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6603 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6604 can visit them by short forms of their names.
6606 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6607 Emacs Lisp function at point.
6609 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6611 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6612 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6614 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6616 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6618 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6620 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6621 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6623 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6624 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6625 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6626 original place after inserting the copy.
6628 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6631 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6632 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6633 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6635 Enable mouse-drag with:
6636 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6638 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6640 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6641 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6643 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6644 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6648 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6649 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6650 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6651 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6652 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6653 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6654 instance) and vice versa.
6656 To use this package load it using
6657 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6658 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
6659 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
6660 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6661 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6662 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6664 *** Interface to ph.
6666 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6668 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6669 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6672 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6674 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6675 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6676 while the real cursor does not move.
6678 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6679 for visiting your favorite web sites.
6681 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6682 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6686 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6687 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6688 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6689 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6691 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6693 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6695 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6697 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6698 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6699 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6700 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6701 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6703 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6704 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6705 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6706 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6707 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6708 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6710 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6712 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6713 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6714 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6715 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6717 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6718 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6720 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6721 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6724 ** Basic Lisp changes
6726 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6727 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6729 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6730 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
6733 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
6735 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
6737 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
6738 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
6740 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
6741 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
6744 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
6746 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
6748 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
6750 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
6751 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
6752 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
6755 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
6756 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
6757 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
6759 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
6760 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
6761 adding one of these suffixes.
6763 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
6764 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
6765 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
6767 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
6768 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
6770 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6772 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6773 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6775 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6776 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6778 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6780 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6781 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6783 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6784 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6785 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6786 works using `save-current-buffer'.
6788 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6789 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6792 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6793 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6794 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6797 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6798 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6801 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6803 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6804 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6805 Then it returns that string.
6807 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6809 (with-output-to-string
6810 (princ "The buffer is ")
6811 (princ (buffer-name)))
6813 returns "The buffer is foo".
6815 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6818 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6819 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6820 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6822 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6823 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6825 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6826 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6827 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6828 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6829 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6830 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6832 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6833 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6834 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6837 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6838 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6839 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6840 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6841 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
6843 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
6844 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
6845 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
6846 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
6848 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
6849 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
6851 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
6853 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
6854 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
6855 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
6856 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
6859 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
6860 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
6863 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
6865 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
6866 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
6867 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
6868 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
6869 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
6871 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
6873 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
6874 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
6875 more than the number of characters.
6877 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
6878 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
6879 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
6880 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
6881 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
6882 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
6884 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
6885 and returns a string containing those characters.
6887 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
6888 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
6889 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
6890 character, sref signals an error.
6892 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
6893 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
6894 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6896 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
6897 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
6898 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6900 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
6901 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
6902 to a vector of the characters in it.
6904 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
6905 of a string. You call it as follows:
6907 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
6909 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
6910 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
6911 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
6912 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
6913 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
6915 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
6916 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6918 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
6919 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6921 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
6922 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
6923 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
6924 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
6926 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
6928 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
6930 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
6931 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
6932 are not included in the resulting value.
6934 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
6935 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
6936 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
6937 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
6939 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
6940 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
6941 character extends across that column), then the padding character
6942 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
6943 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
6944 column START-COLUMN.
6946 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
6947 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
6948 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
6949 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
6950 changed text, before the change.
6952 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
6953 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
6954 one character set for each script, not for each language.
6956 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
6958 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
6960 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
6961 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
6963 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
6964 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
6965 which identify the character within that character set.
6967 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
6968 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
6969 opposite of split-char.
6971 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
6972 of all the characters between BEG and END.
6974 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
6975 of all the characters in a string.
6977 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
6978 and specifying coding systems.
6980 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
6981 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
6982 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
6983 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
6984 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
6985 as what to do about code conversion.)
6987 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
6988 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
6990 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
6991 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
6992 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
6994 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
6995 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
6996 to match against a file name.
6998 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
6999 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7000 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7001 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7002 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7003 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7005 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7006 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7008 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7009 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7011 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7012 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7013 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7016 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7017 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7018 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7019 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7020 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7021 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7023 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7024 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7026 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7027 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7028 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7029 start the subprocess.
7031 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7032 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7033 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7034 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7035 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7037 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7038 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7041 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7042 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7043 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7044 connection permanently or until overridden.
7046 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7047 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7048 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7049 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7050 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7051 system for one operation at a time.
7053 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7054 files, subprocesses or network connections.
7056 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7057 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7058 The value is a cons cell,
7059 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7060 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7061 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7062 input to the subprocess.
7064 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7065 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7067 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7068 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7069 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7071 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7072 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7073 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7074 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7077 Thus, instead of writing
7079 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7080 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7082 you would now write this:
7084 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7085 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7089 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7090 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7091 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7092 for a description of them.
7094 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7095 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7097 (defgroup ispell nil
7098 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7101 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7102 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7103 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7104 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7105 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7107 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7108 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7109 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7110 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7111 first-level subgroups.
7113 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7115 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7116 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7120 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7121 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7122 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7123 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7124 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7125 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7127 ** Text property changes
7129 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7132 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7133 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7134 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7135 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7136 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7138 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7139 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7140 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7141 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7143 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7144 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7145 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7147 ** Changes in invisibility features
7149 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7150 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7151 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7152 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7153 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7154 make the overlay visible.
7156 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7157 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7158 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7159 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7160 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7161 t when it should hide it.
7163 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7165 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7166 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7167 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7168 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7169 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7170 Here is an example of how to do this:
7172 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7173 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7174 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7175 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7178 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7181 ;; When done with the overlays:
7182 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7184 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7186 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
7188 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7189 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7190 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7191 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7193 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7194 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7195 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7197 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7198 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7200 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7201 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7203 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7204 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7205 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7207 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7208 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7209 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7210 determine the syntax type of the character.
7212 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7213 of the current buffer.
7215 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7216 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7217 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7219 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7220 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7221 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7222 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7223 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7225 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7228 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7229 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7230 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7232 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7233 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7234 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7235 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7236 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7238 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7239 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7240 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7242 ** Changes in face features
7244 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7245 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7247 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7248 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7250 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7251 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7253 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7254 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7256 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7257 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7258 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7259 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7262 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7263 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7265 ** Changes in file-handling functions
7267 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7268 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7269 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7270 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7272 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7275 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7276 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7278 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7279 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7281 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7282 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7284 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7285 character code conversion as well as other things.
7287 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7288 (formerly it did not).
7290 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7291 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7293 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7294 instead of constant strings.
7296 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7297 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7298 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7300 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7301 in the same way as before.
7303 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7304 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7305 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7307 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7308 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7309 else, and returns nil.
7311 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7312 directory cannot be listed.
7314 ** Changes in minibuffer input
7316 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7317 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7318 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7319 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7322 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7323 It is available through the history command M-n.
7325 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7326 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7327 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7328 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7329 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7331 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7332 argument in this way.
7334 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7335 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7336 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7338 ** Echo area features
7340 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7341 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7342 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7343 after the echo area is cleared.
7345 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7346 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7348 ** Keyboard input features
7350 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7351 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7353 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7354 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7357 ** Frame-related changes
7359 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7360 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7361 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7363 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7364 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7365 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7367 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7368 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7369 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7370 in the selected frame.
7372 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7373 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7374 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7376 ** X Windows features
7378 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7379 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7380 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7382 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7383 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7385 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7386 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7387 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7389 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7390 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7392 ** Subprocess features
7394 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7395 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7398 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7399 and returns the output from the command as a string.
7401 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7402 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7404 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7405 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7407 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7408 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7409 goes after the other menu items.
7411 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
7412 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
7413 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7416 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7417 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7419 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7420 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7423 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7424 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7425 but its hook is still run.
7427 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7428 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7430 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7431 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7432 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7434 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7435 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7436 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7439 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7440 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7442 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7443 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7444 functions like display-time.
7446 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7447 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7449 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7450 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7451 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7453 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7454 if there is an error in compilation.
7456 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7457 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7458 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7459 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7461 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7462 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7463 the *scratch* buffer.
7465 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7466 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7467 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7468 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7470 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7471 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7472 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7474 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7475 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7476 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7477 and compose-mail-other-frame.
7479 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7480 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7481 full name of the specified user will be returned.
7483 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7484 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7485 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7486 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7487 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7490 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7491 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7492 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7493 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7495 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7496 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7497 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7498 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7500 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7502 ** imenu.el changes.
7504 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
7505 item from menu created by imenu.
7507 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7508 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7509 select one of those items.
7511 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7513 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7515 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7516 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7518 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7519 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7520 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7522 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7524 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7525 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7527 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7528 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7529 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7530 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7531 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7534 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7535 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7537 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7538 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7539 as in previous Emacs versions.
7541 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7542 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7543 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7546 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7547 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7548 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7549 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7552 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7553 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7554 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7555 line and then executing the macro.
7557 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7559 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7560 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7561 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7566 *** Font Lock support modes
7568 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7569 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7570 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7571 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7572 Font Lock mode is enabled.
7574 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7576 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7582 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7583 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7584 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7585 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7586 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7587 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7588 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7590 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7592 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7594 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7596 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7598 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7601 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7606 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7607 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7608 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7609 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7611 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7612 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7614 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
7615 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7618 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7619 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7621 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7623 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7625 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7627 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
7630 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7632 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7634 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7636 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7638 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
7641 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7643 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7645 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7647 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7649 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7651 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7653 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7655 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7658 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7660 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7663 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7665 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
7666 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
7668 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7670 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7672 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7674 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7676 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7679 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7681 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7682 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7684 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7685 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7686 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7688 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7689 articles with the `*' command.
7691 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7693 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
7695 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7697 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7699 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
7700 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7702 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
7705 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7707 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7709 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7711 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7713 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
7715 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7717 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
7719 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7721 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
7723 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7724 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7726 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
7729 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7731 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
7732 buffer to allow easier treatment.
7734 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
7736 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
7738 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
7740 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
7743 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
7745 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
7747 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
7748 cited text to hide is now customizable.
7750 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
7752 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
7754 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
7756 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
7758 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
7760 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
7763 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
7765 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
7766 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
7767 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
7770 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7773 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7776 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7777 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7780 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7781 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7782 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7783 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7784 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7787 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7789 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7791 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7792 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7793 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7794 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7795 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7797 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7798 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7799 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
7801 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7803 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7804 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7805 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7806 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7807 chapter of the manual for details.
7809 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7810 customization variables take effect.
7812 ** Marking with the mouse.
7814 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7815 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7816 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7818 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7820 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7822 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7823 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7825 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7826 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7827 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7828 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7829 applications, these problems are significant.
7831 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7832 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7833 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7834 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7835 other DOS application as a subprocess.
7837 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7838 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7840 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7841 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7842 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
7843 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
7844 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
7845 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
7847 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
7849 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
7850 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
7851 minibuffer contains.
7853 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
7855 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
7856 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
7857 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
7858 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
7860 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
7861 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
7862 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
7863 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
7865 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
7866 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
7868 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
7869 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
7870 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
7872 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
7873 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
7874 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
7875 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
7877 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
7879 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
7880 to replace the characters it "deletes".
7882 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
7884 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
7885 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
7886 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
7887 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
7888 immediately after the selected one.
7890 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
7891 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
7893 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
7895 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
7896 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
7897 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
7898 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
7901 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
7902 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
7905 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
7906 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
7907 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
7908 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
7909 now that the bug is fixed.
7911 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
7913 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
7914 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
7915 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
7916 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
7918 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
7919 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
7920 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
7921 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
7923 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
7924 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
7925 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
7927 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
7928 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
7929 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
7930 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
7933 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
7934 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
7936 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
7937 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
7938 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
7939 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
7941 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
7942 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
7943 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
7944 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
7945 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
7946 `mail-directory-stream'.)
7948 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
7949 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
7950 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
7951 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
7953 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
7954 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
7955 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
7957 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
7958 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
7959 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
7960 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
7961 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
7962 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
7963 to a limitation in font-lock).
7965 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
7967 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
7968 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
7969 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
7972 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
7973 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
7975 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7977 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
7979 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
7981 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
7983 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
7984 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
7985 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
7986 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
7987 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
7988 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
7990 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
7993 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
7994 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
7996 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8001 *** Global Font Lock mode
8003 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8004 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8005 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8006 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8007 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8009 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8011 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8015 *** Local Refontification
8017 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8018 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8019 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8020 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8022 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8023 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8024 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8025 above and below point.
8027 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8031 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8032 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8033 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8034 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8035 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8038 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8040 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8041 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8043 ** hide-show changes.
8045 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8046 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8049 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8050 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8052 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8053 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8054 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8058 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8059 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8061 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8062 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8064 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8066 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8067 pressing both mouse buttons.
8069 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8070 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8073 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8076 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8078 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8079 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8081 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8083 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8085 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
8087 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8089 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8091 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8093 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8094 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8095 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8096 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8097 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8099 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8101 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8102 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8103 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8106 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8109 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8111 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8112 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8114 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8115 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8117 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8118 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8119 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8121 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8122 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8125 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8127 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8128 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8129 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8131 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8132 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8133 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8135 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8136 up if too much time passes.
8138 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8140 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8141 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8142 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8145 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8146 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8147 call looks like this:
8149 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8151 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8152 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8153 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8156 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8157 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8160 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8161 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8162 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8163 each time Emacs becomes idle.
8165 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8166 idle for SECS seconds.
8168 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8169 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8170 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8173 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8174 there is no answer within a certain time.
8176 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8178 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8179 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8180 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8182 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8183 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8184 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8185 arguments in between are ignored.
8187 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8188 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8190 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8191 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8192 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8193 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8196 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8197 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8198 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8199 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8200 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8201 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8203 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8204 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8205 systems with limited file name syntax.
8207 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8208 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8209 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8212 (defvar save-completions-file-name
8213 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8214 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8216 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8217 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8218 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8219 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8220 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8222 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8223 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8224 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8226 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8227 marker from its buffer position.
8229 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8230 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8231 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8233 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8234 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8235 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8236 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8237 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8238 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8240 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8241 errors that happen often during editing.
8243 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8244 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8245 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8247 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8248 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8250 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8251 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8252 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8253 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8254 and not get-buffer-window.
8256 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8257 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8258 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8260 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8261 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8262 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8263 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8264 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8265 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8266 over and over for the same text.
8268 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8270 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8271 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8273 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
8276 in addition to the normal
8280 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8281 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8282 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8284 * For older news, see the file ONEWS.
8286 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8287 Copyright information:
8289 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8291 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8292 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8293 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8294 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8296 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8297 of this document, or of portions of it,
8298 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8299 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8303 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"