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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 23 Jan 1999
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS.
7
8 \f
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
11 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
12 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
13 \f
14 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
15
16 ** Faces and frame parameters.
17
18 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
19 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
20 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
21 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
22 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
23 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
24 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
25
26 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
27 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
28 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
29 `default' face and vice versa.
30
31 ** New face `menu'.
32
33 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
34 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
35 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
36
37 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
38
39 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
40 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
41 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
42 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
43
44 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
45 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
46 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
47
48 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
49 `ScreenGamma'.
50
51 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
52
53 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
54 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
55 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
56 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
57 the text.
58
59 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
60
61 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
62 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
63 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
64 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
65 specify a font.
66
67 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
68 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
69 under Lisp changes, below.
70
71 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
72
73 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
74 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
75 it is hollow.
76
77 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
78 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
79 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
80 customizing face `fringe'.
81
82 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
83 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
84
85 ** LessTif support.
86
87 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
88 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
89
90 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
91
92 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
93 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
94 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
95 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
96 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
97 Emacs.
98
99 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
100 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
101 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
102 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
103 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
104 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
105
106 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
107 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
108 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
109 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
110 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
111 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
112
113 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
114 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
115 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
116 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
117 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
118
119 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
120
121 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
122 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
123 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
124
125 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
126
127 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
128 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
129 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
130 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
131 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
132 whitespace.
133
134 ** Busy-cursor.
135
136 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
137 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
138
139 ** Blinking cursor
140
141 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
142 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
143 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
144 the group `cursor'.
145
146 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
147
148 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
149 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
150 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
151 details.
152
153 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
154 have to do anything to activate it.
155
156 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
157
158 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
159 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
160 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
161 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
162
163 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
164
165 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
166
167 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
168
169 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the Motif
170 one.
171
172 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, like in
173 Motif.
174
175 ** Hscrolling in C code.
176
177 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically.
178
179 ** Tool bar support.
180
181 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
182 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
183
184 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
185
186 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
187 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
188 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
189 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
190 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
191
192 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
193
194 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
195 buffers.
196
197 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
198 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
199
200 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
201
202 - Mouse-1 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
203 toggles the read-only status.
204
205 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
206
207 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
208
209 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
210 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialogs' is
211 non-nil.
212
213 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
214
215 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
216 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
217 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
218 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
219 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
220 attributes like overlines, strike-throught, box are ignored.
221
222 ** Sound support
223
224 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
225 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
226 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
227 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
228 to enable sound support.
229
230 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
231 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
232 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
233 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
234 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
235 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
236
237 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
238
239 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
240
241 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
242 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
243 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
244
245 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
246 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
247
248 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
249 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
250 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
251
252 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
253
254 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
255 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
256 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
257 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
258
259 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
260 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
261 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
262 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
263
264 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
265 notably at the end of lines.
266
267 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
268 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
269
270 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
271 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
272 after each match to get the replacement text.
273
274 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
275
276 If a message is longer than one line, or mini-buffer contents are
277 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the mini-window unless it is
278 on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum mini-window size
279 by setting the following variable:
280
281 - User option: max-mini-window-height
282
283 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
284 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
285 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
286
287 Default is 0.25.
288
289 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
290
291 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
292 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
293 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
294 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
295 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
296 can be edited from that buffer.
297
298 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
299 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
300 `A' to use all marked entries).
301
302 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
303 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
304
305 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
306 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
307 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
308 been cited.
309
310 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
311 has the following new features:
312
313 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
314 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
315 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
316 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
317
318 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
319 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
320 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
321 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
322 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
323 defaults to 1.
324
325 ** Tooltips.
326
327 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
328 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
329 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
330
331 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
332 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
333 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
334 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
335
336 ** Customize changes
337
338 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
339 `State' menu to add comments.
340
341 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
342 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
343 default).
344
345 ** New features in evaluation commands
346
347 The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
348 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
349 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
350 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
351 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
352
353 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
354 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
355 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
356 start sequences.
357
358 ** Dired changes
359
360 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
361 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
362 is, delete only empty directories.
363
364 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
365 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
366 copy directories recursively.
367
368 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
369 use the -f option when sending mail.
370
371 ** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
372 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
373
374 ** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
375 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
376 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
377
378 ** Shell script mode changes.
379
380 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
381 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
382 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
383
384 ** New language environments `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
385 These correspond respectively to the ISO character sets 8859-14
386 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign). There is
387 currently no specific input method support for them.
388
389 ** New modes and packages
390
391 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
392
393 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
394
395 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
396
397 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
398 Pascal) language.
399
400 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
401 the text at point.
402
403 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
404
405 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
406
407 *** whitespace.el ???
408
409 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
410 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
411 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
412 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
413 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
414 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
415 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
416
417 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
418
419 Here is an example of columns:
420
421 horse apple bus
422 dog pineapple car EXTRA
423 porcupine strawberry airplane
424
425 Doing the following settings:
426
427 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
428 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
429 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
430 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
431
432
433 Selecting the lines above and typing:
434
435 M-x delimit-columns-region
436
437 It results:
438
439 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
440 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
441 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
442
443 delim-col has the following options:
444
445 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
446 before all columns.
447
448 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
449 between each column.
450
451 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
452 after all columns.
453
454 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
455 each column.
456
457 delim-col has the following commands:
458
459 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
460 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
461
462 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
463 were operated on recently. When enabled, a new "Open Recent" submenu
464 is displayed in the "Files" menu.
465
466 The recent files list is automatically saved across Emacs sessions.
467
468 To enable/disable recentf use M-x recentf-mode.
469
470 To enable recentf at Emacs startup use
471 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET.
472
473 To change the number of recent files displayed and others options use
474 M-x customize-group RET recentf RET.
475
476 ** Withdrawn packages
477
478 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
479 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
480 \f
481 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
482
483 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
484 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
485 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
486 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
487
488 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
489 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
490
491 ** New function `propertize'
492
493 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
494 strings with text properties.
495
496 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
497
498 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
499 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
500 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
501 specified value of that property. Example:
502
503 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
504
505 +++
506 ** push and pop macros.
507
508 A simple version of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
509 is now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
510 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
511
512 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
513 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
514 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
515
516 +++
517 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
518 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
519
520 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
521 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
522 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
523 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
524 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
525 space, and DEL.
526 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
527 and DEL.
528 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
529 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
530 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
531 [:alpha:] matches letters.
532 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
533 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
534 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
535 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
536 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
537 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
538 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
539 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
540 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
541 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
542 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
543
544 +++
545 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
546
547 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
548
549 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
550
551 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
552 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
553
554 :test TEST
555
556 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
557 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
558 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
559
560 :size SIZE
561
562 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
563 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
564
565 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
566
567 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
568 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
569 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
570 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
571 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
572
573 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
574
575 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
576 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
577 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
578
579 :weakness WEAK
580
581 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
582 Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
583 their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
584 hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
585
586 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
587
588 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
589
590 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
591
592 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
593
594 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
595
596 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
597 values are shared.
598
599 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
600
601 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
602
603 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
604
605 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
606
607 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
608
609 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
610
611 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
612
613 Returns the size of TABLE.
614
615 - Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
616
617 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
618
619 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
620
621 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
622
623 - Function: clrhash TABLE
624
625 Clear TABLE.
626
627 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
628
629 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
630 not found.
631
632 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
633
634 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
635 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
636
637 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
638
639 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
640
641 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
642
643 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
644 arguments KEY and VALUE.
645
646 - Function: sxhash OBJ
647
648 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
649
650 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
651
652 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
653 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
654 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
655 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
656 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
657
658 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
659
660 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
661 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
662 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
663
664 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
665 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
666
667 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
668 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
669
670 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
671 (sxhash (upcase a)))
672
673 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
674 'case-fold-string-hash))
675
676 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
677
678 +++
679 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
680
681 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
682 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
683 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
684
685 +++
686 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
687
688 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
689 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
690
691 You can also do several calls to print functions using a common
692 set of #N= constructs; here is how.
693
694 (let ((print-circle t)
695 (print-continuous-numbering t)
696 print-number-table)
697 (print1 ...)
698 (print1 ...)
699 ...)
700
701 +++
702 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
703 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
704 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
705 is too short to reach that column.
706
707 +++
708 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
709 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
710 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
711 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
712
713 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
714 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
715 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
716
717 +++
718 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
719 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
720
721 +++
722 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
723 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
724
725 +++
726 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
727 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
728 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
729 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
730 temporary-file-directory instead.
731
732 +++
733 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
734 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
735 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
736 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
737
738 +++
739 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
740 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
741
742 +++
743 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
744
745 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
746 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
747 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
748
749 +++
750 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
751
752 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
753 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
754 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
755 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
756 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
757 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
758
759 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
760 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
761 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
762 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
763
764 +++
765 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
766
767 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
768 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
769 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
770 result string.
771
772 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
773 string where arguments appear in the result string.
774
775 Example:
776
777 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
778 (s2 "world"))
779 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
780 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
781 (format s1 s2))
782
783 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
784
785 +++
786 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
787
788 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
789 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
790 argument in it.
791
792 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
793 (arg "world"))
794 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
795 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
796 (message msg arg))
797
798 +++
799 ** Sound support
800
801 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
802 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
803
804 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
805 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
806 to enable sound support.
807
808 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
809 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
810 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
811 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
812 sound to play, before playing the sound.
813
814 The following sound properties are supported:
815
816 - `:file FILE'
817
818 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
819 searched relative to `data-directory'.
820
821 - `:volume VOLUME'
822
823 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
824 0..1. This property is optional.
825
826 Other properties are ignored.
827
828 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
829 \f
830 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
831
832 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
833 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
834 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
835 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
836
837 ** New face implementation.
838
839 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
840 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
841
842 +++
843 *** New faces.
844
845 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
846
847 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
848
849 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
850 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
851
852 3. Font height in 1/10pt
853
854 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
855
856 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
857
858 6. Foreground color.
859
860 7. Background color.
861
862 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
863
864 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
865
866 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
867
868 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
869
870 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
871 color.
872
873 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
874 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
875
876 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
877 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
878 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
879 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
880 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
881 attributes mentioned above.
882
883 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
884 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
885 created frames.
886
887 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
888 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
889 `fully-specified'.
890
891 +++
892 *** Face merging.
893
894 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
895 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
896 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
897 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
898 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
899 results in a fully-specified face.
900
901 +++
902 *** Face realization.
903
904 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
905 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
906 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
907 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
908 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
909 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
910
911 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
912 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
913 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
914 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
915
916 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
917 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
918 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
919 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
920 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
921
922 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
923 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
924 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
925 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
926 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
927 Emacs.
928
929 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
930 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
931 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
932 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
933
934 ++++
935 **** Clearing face caches.
936
937 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
938 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
939 unused fonts.
940
941 +++
942 *** Font selection.
943
944 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
945 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
946 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
947
948 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
949 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
950 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
951 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
952 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
953
954 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
955 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
956 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
957
958 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
959
960 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
961 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
962 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
963 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
964 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
965 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
966 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
967
968 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
969 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
970 face doesn't exist.
971
972 +++
973 **** Scalable fonts
974
975 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
976 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
977 servers.
978
979 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
980 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
981 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
982 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
983 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
984 that list. Example:
985
986 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
987
988 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
989
990 +++
991 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
992
993 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
994
995 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
996 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
997 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
998
999 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
1000 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
1001 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
1002 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
1003 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
1004 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
1005 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
1006 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
1007 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
1008 of the face font sort order.
1009
1010 - Function: x-font-family-list
1011
1012 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
1013 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
1014 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
1015 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
1016
1017 - Variable: font-list-limit
1018
1019 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
1020 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
1021 matching font. The default is currently 100.
1022
1023 +++
1024 *** Setting face attributes.
1025
1026 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
1027 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
1028 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
1029 `face-attribute'.
1030
1031 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
1032 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
1033
1034 The following attributes are recognized:
1035
1036 `:family'
1037
1038 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
1039 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
1040 and `?' are allowed.
1041
1042 `:width'
1043
1044 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
1045 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
1046 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
1047 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
1048
1049 `:height'
1050
1051 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
1052 1/10 pt.
1053
1054 `:weight'
1055
1056 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
1057 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
1058 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
1059
1060 `:slant'
1061
1062 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
1063 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
1064 `reverse-oblique'.
1065
1066 `:foreground', `:background'
1067
1068 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
1069
1070 `:underline'
1071
1072 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
1073 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
1074 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
1075 don't underline.
1076
1077 `:overline'
1078
1079 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
1080 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
1081 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
1082 overline.
1083
1084 `:strike-through'
1085
1086 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
1087 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
1088 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
1089 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
1090
1091 `:box'
1092
1093 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
1094 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
1095 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
1096 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
1097 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
1098 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
1099 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
1100 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
1101 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
1102 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
1103 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
1104 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
1105 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
1106 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
1107 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
1108 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
1109 box.
1110
1111 `:inverse-video'
1112
1113 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
1114 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
1115
1116 `:stipple'
1117
1118 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
1119 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
1120 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
1121 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
1122 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
1123 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
1124
1125 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
1126 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
1127
1128 `:font'
1129
1130 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
1131 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
1132 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
1133 versions of Emacs.
1134
1135 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
1136 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
1137 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
1138
1139 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
1140 `defface'.
1141
1142 *** Face attributes and X resources
1143
1144 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
1145 from X resources:
1146
1147 Face attribute X resource class
1148 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
1149 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
1150 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
1151 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
1152 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
1153 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
1154 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
1155 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
1156 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
1157 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
1158 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
1159 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
1160 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
1161 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
1162 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
1163 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
1164 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1165 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
1166 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
1167 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
1168
1169 +++
1170 *** Text property `face'.
1171
1172 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
1173 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
1174 specification can be
1175
1176 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
1177
1178 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
1179 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
1180 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
1181 for face attribute names.
1182
1183 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
1184 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
1185 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
1186
1187 +++
1188 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
1189
1190 The function `face-register-tty-color' can be used to define colors
1191 for use on TTY frames. It maps a color name to a color number on the
1192 terminal. Emacs defines a couple of default color mappings by
1193 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
1194 `tty-defined-colors'. The function `face-clear-tty-colors' can be
1195 used to clear the mapping table.
1196
1197 +++
1198 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
1199
1200 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
1201
1202 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
1203 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
1204 Otherwise, it returns zero.
1205
1206 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
1207
1208 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
1209 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
1210 text-property.
1211
1212 Certain functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
1213 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
1214 to the boundary between fields (beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
1215 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
1216 commands continue into the next field if repeated).
1217
1218 The new function constrain-to-field may be used to achieve similar
1219 behavior; other new field functions include field-beginning, field-end,
1220 erase-field, and field-string.
1221
1222 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
1223 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that many
1224 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
1225
1226 +++
1227 ** Image support.
1228
1229 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
1230 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
1231 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
1232 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
1233
1234 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
1235 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
1236 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
1237 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
1238 area.
1239
1240 IMAGE is an image specification.
1241
1242 *** Image specifications
1243
1244 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
1245 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
1246 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
1247 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'.
1248
1249 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
1250
1251 `:ascent ASCENT'
1252
1253 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, and specifies the percentage
1254 of the image's height to use for its ascent. Default is 50.
1255
1256 `:margin MARGIN'
1257
1258 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
1259 margin around the image. Default is 0.
1260
1261 `:relief RELIEF'
1262
1263 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
1264 around an image.
1265
1266 `:algorithm ALGO'
1267
1268 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
1269 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
1270 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
1271 which is intended to display images "disabled."
1272
1273 `:heuristic-mask BG'
1274
1275 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
1276 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
1277 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
1278 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
1279 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
1280 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
1281 background of the image.
1282
1283 `:file FILE'
1284
1285 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
1286 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
1287 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
1288 may be present in the image specification.
1289
1290
1291 *** Supported image types
1292
1293 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
1294
1295 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
1296 properties supported are
1297
1298 `:foreground FG'
1299
1300 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
1301 is the frame's foreground.
1302
1303 `:background FG'
1304
1305 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
1306 the frame's background color.
1307
1308 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
1309 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
1310 instead of a `:file' property.
1311
1312 `:width WIDTH'
1313
1314 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
1315
1316 `:height HEIGHT'
1317
1318 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
1319
1320 `:data DATA'
1321
1322 DATA must be either
1323
1324 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
1325 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
1326
1327 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
1328
1329 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
1330 bitmap.
1331
1332 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
1333
1334 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
1335 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
1336 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
1337 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
1338
1339 Additional image properties supported are:
1340
1341 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
1342
1343 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
1344 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
1345 name.
1346
1347 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
1348 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
1349
1350 `:data DATA'
1351
1352 DATA must be a string containing an XPM image. The contents of the
1353 string are of the same format as that of XPM files.
1354
1355 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
1356 to display compressed images.
1357
1358 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
1359
1360 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
1361 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
1362 defined.
1363
1364 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
1365
1366 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
1367 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1368 properties defined.
1369
1370 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
1371
1372 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
1373 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1374 properties defined.
1375
1376 **** GIF, image type `gif'
1377
1378 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
1379 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
1380
1381 Additional image properties supported are:
1382
1383 `:index INDEX'
1384
1385 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
1386 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
1387
1388 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
1389 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
1390 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
1391 every 0.1 seconds.
1392
1393 (defun show-anim (file max)
1394 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
1395 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
1396
1397 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
1398 (when (= idx max)
1399 (setq idx 0))
1400 (let ((img (create-image file nil :index idx)))
1401 (save-excursion
1402 (set-buffer buffer)
1403 (goto-char (point-min))
1404 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
1405 (insert-image img "x"))
1406 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
1407
1408 **** PNG, image type `png'
1409
1410 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
1411 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
1412 properties defined.
1413
1414 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
1415
1416 Additional image properties supported are:
1417
1418 `:pt-width WIDTH'
1419
1420 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
1421 integer. This is a required property.
1422
1423 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
1424
1425 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
1426 must be a integer. This is an required property.
1427
1428 `:bounding-box BOX'
1429
1430 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
1431 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
1432 files. This is an required property.
1433
1434 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
1435 lisp/gs.el.
1436
1437 *** Lisp interface.
1438
1439 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
1440 which are supported in the current configuration.
1441
1442 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
1443 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
1444 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
1445 manually.
1446
1447 *** Simplified image API, image.el
1448
1449 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
1450 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
1451 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
1452 define an image based on available image types. The functions
1453 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
1454 buffer.
1455
1456 +++
1457 ** Display margins.
1458
1459 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
1460 and images.
1461
1462 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
1463 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
1464 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
1465 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
1466 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
1467 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
1468 of the display margins.
1469
1470 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
1471 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
1472 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
1473 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
1474 in this file).
1475
1476 +++
1477 ** Help display
1478
1479 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
1480 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
1481 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
1482 that have a `help-echo' property.
1483
1484 The value of the `help-echo' property must be a string. For tool-bar
1485 items, their key definition is used to determine the help to display.
1486 If their definition contains a property `:help FORM', FORM is
1487 evaluated to determine the help string. Otherwise, the caption of the
1488 tool-bar item is used.
1489
1490 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
1491 help differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window causes the
1492 help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
1493
1494 +++
1495 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
1496
1497 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
1498 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
1499
1500 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
1501 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
1502 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
1503 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
1504 used.
1505
1506 (global-set-key [A-down]
1507 #'(lambda ()
1508 (interactive)
1509 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
1510 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
1511 (global-set-key [A-up]
1512 #'(lambda ()
1513 (interactive)
1514 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
1515 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
1516
1517 +++
1518 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
1519
1520 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
1521 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
1522 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
1523 is called with one argument, POS.
1524
1525 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
1526 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
1527 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
1528 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
1529 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
1530
1531 +++
1532 ** Tool bar support.
1533
1534 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
1535 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
1536 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
1537 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
1538 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
1539 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
1540
1541 *** Tool bar item definitions
1542
1543 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
1544 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
1545 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
1546
1547 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
1548 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
1549 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
1550 property (see below).
1551
1552 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
1553 binding are currently ignored.
1554
1555 The following properties are recognized:
1556
1557 `:enable FORM'.
1558
1559 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
1560 or disabled.
1561
1562 `:visible FORM'
1563
1564 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
1565
1566 `:filter FUNCTION'
1567
1568 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
1569 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
1570 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
1571
1572 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
1573
1574 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
1575 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
1576
1577 `:image IMAGES'
1578
1579 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
1580 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
1581 meaning of each of the four elements:
1582
1583 Index Use when item is
1584 ----------------------------------------
1585 0 enabled and selected
1586 1 enabled and deselected
1587 2 disabled and selected
1588 3 disabled and deselected
1589
1590 `:help HELP-STRING'.
1591
1592 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
1593 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
1594
1595 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
1596
1597 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
1598 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
1599 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
1600
1601 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
1602 raised when the mouse moves over them.
1603
1604 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
1605 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
1606 pixels. Default is 1.
1607
1608 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
1609 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
1610
1611 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
1612
1613 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
1614 a tool bar item. If
1615
1616 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
1617 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
1618 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
1619
1620 is the original tool bar item definition, then
1621
1622 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
1623
1624 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
1625 item.
1626
1627 ** Mode line changes.
1628
1629 +++
1630 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
1631
1632 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
1633 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
1634 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
1635
1636 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
1637 a `local-map' text property.
1638
1639 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
1640 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
1641
1642 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
1643 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
1644 `local-map' property.
1645
1646 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
1647 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
1648 example.
1649
1650 +++
1651 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
1652 variable mode-line-format to nil.
1653
1654 +++
1655 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
1656
1657 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
1658 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
1659 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
1660 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
1661 line.
1662
1663 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
1664 `header-line'.
1665
1666 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
1667 position in the header-line.
1668
1669 +++
1670 ** Text property `display'
1671
1672 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
1673 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
1674 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
1675 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
1676
1677 *** Variable width and height spaces
1678
1679 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
1680 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
1681 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
1682 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
1683 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
1684 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
1685 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
1686
1687 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
1688 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
1689 properties described below.
1690
1691 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
1692 characters having the `display' property.
1693
1694 - :width WIDTH
1695
1696 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
1697 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
1698
1699 - :relative-width FACTOR
1700
1701 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
1702 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
1703 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
1704 width of that character by FACTOR.
1705
1706 - :align-to HPOS
1707
1708 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
1709 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
1710
1711 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
1712
1713 - :height HEIGHT
1714
1715 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
1716 normal line height.
1717
1718 - :relative-height FACTOR
1719
1720 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
1721 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
1722
1723 - :ascent ASCENT
1724
1725 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
1726 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
1727 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
1728 equal to 100.
1729
1730 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
1731
1732 *** Images
1733
1734 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
1735 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
1736 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
1737 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
1738 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
1739 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
1740 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
1741 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
1742 as display specification.
1743
1744 *** Other display properties
1745
1746 - :space-width FACTOR
1747
1748 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
1749 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
1750 integer or float.
1751
1752 - :height HEIGHT
1753
1754 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
1755
1756 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
1757 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
1758 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
1759 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
1760 a font is available counts as a step.
1761
1762 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
1763 as tall as the frame's default font.
1764
1765 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
1766 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
1767
1768 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
1769 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
1770
1771 - :raise FACTOR
1772
1773 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
1774 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
1775 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
1776 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
1777 `:height' subproperty.
1778
1779 *** Conditional display properties
1780
1781 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
1782 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
1783 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
1784 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
1785 the text having the `display' property.
1786
1787 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
1788 `(:when t SPEC)'.
1789
1790 +++
1791 ** New menu separator types.
1792
1793 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
1794 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
1795 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
1796 to specify other menu separator types.
1797
1798 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
1799
1800 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
1801 separator occurs.
1802
1803 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
1804
1805 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
1806
1807 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
1808
1809 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
1810
1811 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
1812
1813 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
1814
1815 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
1816
1817 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
1818
1819 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
1820
1821 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
1822 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
1823
1824 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
1825
1826 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
1827
1828 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
1829
1830 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
1831
1832 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
1833
1834 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
1835
1836 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
1837
1838 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
1839
1840 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
1841
1842 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
1843
1844 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
1845
1846 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
1847
1848 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
1849
1850 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
1851
1852 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
1853 the corresponding single-line separators.
1854
1855 +++
1856 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
1857
1858 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
1859 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
1860 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
1861 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
1862 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
1863 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
1864 default foreground is black.
1865
1866 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
1867 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
1868 `ScrollBarBackground').
1869
1870 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
1871 settings for scroll bar colors.
1872
1873 +++
1874 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
1875 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
1876
1877 ---
1878 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
1879 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
1880 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
1881 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
1882 the original window start.
1883
1884 ---
1885 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
1886 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
1887 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
1888
1889 +++
1890 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
1891
1892 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
1893 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
1894 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
1895 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
1896
1897 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
1898 fixed-width and fixed-height.
1899
1900 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
1901
1902 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
1903 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
1904 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
1905 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
1906 temporarily to nil, for example
1907
1908 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
1909 (enlarge-window 10))
1910
1911 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
1912 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
1913 \f
1914 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
1915
1916 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
1917
1918 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
1919 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
1920 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
1921
1922 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
1923 is the one that is used.
1924
1925 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
1926 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
1927 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
1928 separate from the command's regular output.
1929 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
1930 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
1931 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
1932 the buffer name.
1933
1934 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
1935 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
1936 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
1937 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
1938
1939 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
1940 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
1941 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
1942 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
1943
1944 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
1945 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
1946 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
1947 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
1948
1949 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
1950 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
1951 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
1952 they never ignore case.
1953
1954 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
1955 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
1956 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
1957 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
1958 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
1959 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
1960 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
1961
1962 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
1963 the same format that was used in the file before.
1964
1965 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
1966 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
1967
1968 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
1969 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
1970 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
1971
1972 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
1973 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
1974 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
1975 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
1976 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
1977 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
1978 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
1979
1980 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
1981 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
1982 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
1983 format. You can now customize these variables.
1984
1985 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
1986 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
1987 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
1988 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
1989
1990 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
1991 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
1992 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
1993
1994 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
1995 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
1996 doesn't have any effect.
1997
1998 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
1999 not one per buffer.
2000
2001 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
2002 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
2003 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
2004
2005 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
2006 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
2007 `auto-show-mode' command.
2008
2009 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
2010 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
2011 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
2012 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
2013 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
2014
2015 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
2016 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
2017
2018 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
2019 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
2020 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
2021
2022 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
2023 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
2024 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
2025 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
2026
2027 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
2028
2029 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
2030 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
2031 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
2032 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
2033 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
2034
2035 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
2036 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
2037
2038 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
2039 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
2040 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
2041 `?' on other systems.
2042
2043 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
2044 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
2045 Unix.
2046
2047 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
2048 current codepage when it starts.
2049
2050 ** Mail changes
2051
2052 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
2053 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
2054 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
2055 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
2056 buffer-file-coding-system.
2057
2058 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
2059 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
2060 mail.
2061
2062 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
2063 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
2064 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
2065 list of possible coding systems.
2066
2067 ** CC Mode changes
2068
2069 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
2070 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
2071 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
2072 docstring for details.
2073
2074 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
2075 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
2076 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
2077 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
2078 lineup functions use this feature currently.
2079
2080 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
2081 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
2082
2083 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
2084 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
2085
2086 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
2087 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
2088 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
2089 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
2090 anonymous classes.
2091
2092 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
2093 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
2094
2095 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
2096 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
2097 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
2098 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
2099
2100 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
2101 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
2102 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
2103 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
2104 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
2105
2106 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
2107
2108 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
2109
2110 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
2111 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
2112
2113 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
2114
2115 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
2116 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
2117 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
2118 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
2119 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
2120
2121 ** Gnus changes.
2122
2123 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
2124 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
2125 Gnus manual for the full story.
2126
2127 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
2128 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
2129 group, which is created automatically.
2130
2131 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
2132 values.
2133
2134 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
2135
2136 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
2137 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
2138
2139 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
2140 `C-u C-c C-c'.
2141
2142 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
2143
2144 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
2145 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
2146
2147 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
2148
2149 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
2150 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
2151
2152 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
2153 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
2154
2155 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
2156 control over simplification.
2157
2158 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
2159
2160 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
2161 limit.
2162
2163 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
2164
2165 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
2166
2167 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
2168 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
2169 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
2170
2171 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
2172 `a' forces normal posting method.
2173
2174 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
2175 -- `W d'.
2176
2177 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
2178 to a non-nil value.
2179
2180 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
2181 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
2182
2183 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
2184 has been added.
2185
2186 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
2187
2188 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
2189
2190 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
2191 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
2192
2193 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
2194 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
2195
2196 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
2197
2198 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
2199 been added.
2200
2201 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
2202 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
2203
2204 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
2205 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
2206
2207 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
2208
2209 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
2210
2211 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
2212
2213 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
2214
2215 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
2216 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
2217 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
2218
2219 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
2220 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
2221 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
2222 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
2223 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
2224
2225 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
2226 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
2227 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
2228 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
2229
2230 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
2231 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
2232 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
2233 mismatch.
2234
2235 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
2236
2237 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
2238 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
2239
2240 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
2241 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
2242 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
2243 removed from the label.
2244
2245 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
2246 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
2247
2248 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
2249 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
2250
2251 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
2252 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
2253 expressions.
2254
2255 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
2256
2257 ** New/deleted modes and packages
2258
2259 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
2260 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
2261
2262 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
2263 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
2264 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
2265
2266 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
2267 changes with a special face.
2268
2269 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
2270 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
2271 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
2272 \f
2273 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
2274
2275 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
2276 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
2277 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
2278 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
2279 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
2280
2281 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
2282 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
2283 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
2284
2285 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
2286 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
2287 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
2288 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
2289 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
2290 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
2291 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
2292 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
2293 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
2294
2295 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
2296 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
2297 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
2298 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
2299 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
2300 program.
2301
2302 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
2303 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
2304 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
2305 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
2306 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
2307 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
2308
2309 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
2310 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
2311 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
2312 was not documented clearly before.
2313
2314 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
2315 This includes Tetris and Snake.
2316 \f
2317 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
2318
2319 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
2320 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
2321 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
2322 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
2323
2324 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
2325 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
2326 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
2327
2328 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
2329
2330 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
2331 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
2332
2333 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
2334 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
2335 integers.
2336
2337 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
2338 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
2339 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
2340 file names and attributes are returned.
2341
2342 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
2343 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
2344 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
2345 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
2346 returns the result.
2347
2348 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
2349 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
2350
2351 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
2352
2353 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
2354 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
2355 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
2356 optionally.
2357
2358 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
2359 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
2360
2361 **
2362 The new function process-running-child-p
2363 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
2364 terminal to its own child process.
2365
2366 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
2367 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
2368 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
2369 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
2370
2371 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
2372 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
2373
2374 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
2375 :included is an alias for :visible.
2376
2377 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
2378 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
2379 to move or copy menu entries.
2380
2381 ** Multibyte editing changes
2382
2383 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
2384 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
2385 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
2386 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
2387 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
2388 (setq char (sref str idx)
2389 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
2390 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
2391
2392 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
2393 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
2394 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
2395
2396 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
2397 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
2398 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
2399
2400 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
2401
2402 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
2403 across the boundary.
2404
2405 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
2406 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
2407 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
2408 contains 8-bit characters.
2409 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
2410 contains invalid characters.
2411
2412 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
2413 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
2414 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
2415 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
2416 way.
2417
2418 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
2419 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
2420 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
2421 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
2422
2423 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
2424 compose Thai characters in a string.
2425
2426 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
2427 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
2428 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
2429 menus should always use the third argument.
2430
2431 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
2432 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
2433 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
2434 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
2435
2436 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
2437 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
2438 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
2439 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
2440
2441 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
2442 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
2443 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
2444 echo area contents.
2445
2446 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
2447
2448 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
2449 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
2450 requested feature cannot be loaded.
2451
2452 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
2453 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
2454 means to clear out that attribute.
2455
2456 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
2457 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
2458
2459 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
2460 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
2461 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
2462 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
2463
2464 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
2465 the gap of the current buffer.
2466
2467 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
2468 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
2469 current buffer.
2470
2471 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
2472 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
2473 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
2474 it back in after any modifications have been made.
2475 \f
2476 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
2477
2478 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
2479 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
2480 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
2481 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
2482 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
2483
2484 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
2485 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
2486 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
2487 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
2488 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
2489
2490 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
2491 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
2492 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
2493
2494 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
2495 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
2496 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
2497 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
2498 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
2499 results.
2500
2501 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
2502 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
2503 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
2504 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
2505 \f
2506 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
2507
2508 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
2509 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
2510 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
2511 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
2512
2513 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
2514 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
2515 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
2516 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
2517 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
2518 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
2519 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
2520 region.
2521
2522 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
2523 selective undo.
2524
2525 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
2526 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
2527 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
2528 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
2529 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
2530
2531 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
2532 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
2533 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
2534 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
2535
2536 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
2537 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
2538 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
2539 something that most users not do.
2540
2541 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
2542 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
2543 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
2544 applications.
2545
2546 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
2547 pasting operations.
2548
2549 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
2550 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
2551 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
2552 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
2553 `ps-printer-name'.
2554
2555 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
2556 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
2557 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
2558 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
2559 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
2560 hits a new word.
2561
2562 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
2563 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
2564 to be confused by TeX commands.
2565
2566 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
2567 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
2568 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
2569 of various alternative replacements and actions.
2570
2571 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
2572 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
2573 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
2574 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
2575 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
2576
2577 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
2578 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
2579
2580 ** Changes in input method usage.
2581
2582 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
2583 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
2584 respectively.
2585
2586 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
2587
2588 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
2589 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
2590
2591 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
2592 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
2593
2594 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
2595
2596 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
2597
2598 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
2599 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
2600
2601 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
2602 given in the following case:
2603 o When you are using a complex input method.
2604 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
2605
2606 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
2607 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
2608 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
2609 setting it to t is helpful.
2610
2611 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
2612
2613 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
2614 keys:
2615 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
2616 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
2617 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
2618 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
2619 environment.
2620
2621 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
2622 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
2623 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
2624 get
2625
2626 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
2627
2628 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
2629
2630 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
2631 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
2632
2633 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
2634 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
2635 its owner and group.
2636
2637 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
2638 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
2639
2640 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
2641 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
2642
2643 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
2644 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
2645 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
2646 by the left edge of the rectangle.
2647
2648 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
2649 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
2650 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
2651 for writing keyboard macros.
2652
2653 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
2654 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
2655 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
2656 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
2657 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
2658 info.
2659
2660 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
2661
2662 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
2663 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
2664 contents only.
2665
2666 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
2667 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
2668 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
2669 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
2670
2671 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
2672 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
2673 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
2674
2675 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
2676 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
2677 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
2678 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
2679
2680 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
2681 failure if the command produces no output.
2682
2683 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
2684 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
2685 the mouse.
2686
2687 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
2688 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
2689 function and variable names.
2690
2691 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
2692 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
2693 file-coding-system-alist.
2694
2695 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
2696 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
2697 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
2698 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
2699 according to the current fontset.
2700
2701 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
2702
2703 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
2704 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
2705 nonascii-insert-offset.
2706
2707 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
2708 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
2709 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
2710 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
2711
2712 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
2713 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
2714
2715 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
2716 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
2717
2718 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
2719 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
2720 command keys.
2721
2722 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
2723 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
2724
2725 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
2726 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
2727 all variables that have documentation.
2728
2729 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
2730 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
2731 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
2732 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
2733 it should show; the default is 20.
2734
2735 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
2736 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
2737 of your input.
2738
2739 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
2740 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
2741 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
2742 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
2743 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
2744 Newly added options are included as well.
2745
2746 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
2747 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
2748 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
2749
2750 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
2751 Customize menu.
2752
2753 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
2754 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
2755
2756 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
2757 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
2758 invoked.
2759
2760 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
2761 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
2762 The default is 1.
2763
2764 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
2765 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
2766 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
2767 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
2768 sensibly.
2769
2770 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
2771
2772 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
2773 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
2774 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
2775
2776 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
2777 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
2778 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
2779 every night.
2780
2781 ** All you need to do, to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
2782 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
2783
2784 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
2785 read and post multi-lingual articles.
2786
2787 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
2788 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
2789 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
2790 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
2791 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
2792 made invisible again.
2793
2794 ** Mail reading and sending changes
2795
2796 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
2797 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
2798 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
2799 toggle.
2800
2801 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
2802 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
2803 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
2804 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
2805 rmail-default-body-file.
2806
2807 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
2808 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
2809 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
2810
2811 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
2812 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
2813 is evaluated to insert the signature.
2814
2815 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
2816 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
2817 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
2818 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
2819 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
2820 especially interested in trying feedmail.
2821
2822 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
2823 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
2824 provided by feedmail are:
2825
2826 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
2827 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
2828 there is also a queue for draft messages
2829
2830 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
2831 be prompted for confirmation
2832
2833 **** does smart filling of address headers
2834
2835 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
2836 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
2837 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
2838
2839 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
2840 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
2841 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
2842 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
2843
2844 ** Dired changes
2845
2846 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
2847 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
2848
2849 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
2850 run Dired on the directory name at point.
2851
2852 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
2853 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
2854 for a specified regexp.
2855
2856 ** VC Changes
2857
2858 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
2859 conveniently.
2860
2861 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
2862 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
2863 Dired.
2864
2865 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
2866 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
2867 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
2868 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
2869
2870 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
2871 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
2872 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
2873 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
2874 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
2875
2876 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
2877 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
2878 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
2879 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
2880 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
2881
2882 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
2883 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
2884 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
2885 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
2886
2887 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
2888 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
2889 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
2890
2891 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
2892 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
2893 session to resolve them.
2894
2895 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
2896 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
2897 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
2898 uses as well).
2899
2900 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
2901 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
2902 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
2903 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
2904 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
2905 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
2906 using ediff.
2907
2908 ** Changes in Font Lock
2909
2910 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
2911 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
2912 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
2913 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
2914 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
2915
2916 ** Frame name display changes
2917
2918 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
2919 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
2920 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
2921 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
2922
2923 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
2924 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
2925 menu.
2926
2927 ** Comint (subshell) changes
2928
2929 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
2930 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
2931 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
2932
2933 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
2934
2935 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
2936 that is, the line after the last line you got.
2937 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
2938
2939 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
2940 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
2941 the following line.
2942
2943 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
2944 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
2945 previously sent input.
2946
2947 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
2948 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
2949 as the search string.
2950
2951 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
2952 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
2953
2954 ** C mode changes
2955
2956 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
2957 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
2958 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
2959 definition.
2960
2961 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
2962 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
2963 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
2964 style is still the default however.
2965
2966 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
2967
2968 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
2969 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
2970 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
2971
2972 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
2973 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
2974
2975 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
2976 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
2977
2978 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
2979 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
2980
2981 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
2982 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
2983
2984 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
2985 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
2986 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
2987 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
2988
2989 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
2990
2991 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
2992 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
2993 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
2994
2995 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
2996 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
2997 expanding dynamically.
2998
2999 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
3000 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
3001
3002 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
3003 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
3004 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
3005 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
3006
3007 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
3008
3009 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
3010
3011 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
3012 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
3013 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
3014 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
3015 against the first word in the title.
3016
3017 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
3018 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
3019 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
3020 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
3021 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
3022 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
3023
3024 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
3025 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
3026 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
3027 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
3028
3029 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
3030
3031 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
3032 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
3033 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
3034 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
3035 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
3036 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
3037
3038 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
3039 Editing group once the package is loaded.
3040
3041 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
3042 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
3043 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
3044
3045 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
3046 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
3047
3048 ** Ispell changes.
3049
3050 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
3051 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
3052 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
3053
3054 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
3055 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
3056 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
3057 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
3058 include:
3059
3060 o URLs are automatically skipped
3061 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
3062
3063 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
3064
3065 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3066
3067 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
3068 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
3069 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
3070 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
3071
3072 *** New recursive parser.
3073
3074 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
3075 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
3076 recursive parser scans the individual files.
3077
3078 *** Parsing only part of a document.
3079
3080 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
3081 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
3082 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
3083
3084 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
3085
3086 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
3087
3088 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
3089
3090 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
3091
3092 *** Using multiple selection buffers
3093
3094 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
3095 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
3096
3097 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
3098
3099 *** References to external documents.
3100
3101 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
3102 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
3103 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
3104 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
3105 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
3106 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
3107 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
3108
3109 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
3110
3111 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
3112 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
3113
3114 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
3115 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
3116
3117 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
3118
3119 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
3120 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
3121
3122 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
3123
3124 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
3125 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
3126 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
3127 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
3128 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
3129 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
3130 more.
3131
3132 *** Support for the varioref package
3133
3134 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
3135
3136 *** New hooks
3137
3138 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
3139 and citations are created. These hooks are
3140 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
3141 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
3142
3143 *** Citations outside LaTeX
3144
3145 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
3146 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
3147
3148 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
3149
3150 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
3151 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
3152 fontified, use
3153
3154 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
3155
3156 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
3157 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
3158 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
3159 directories that contain the same file name.
3160
3161 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
3162 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
3163 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
3164 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
3165 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
3166 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
3167 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
3168 directory.
3169
3170 ** New modes and packages
3171
3172 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
3173 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
3174 it, but some do not.
3175
3176 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
3177 code.
3178
3179 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
3180 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
3181 around in a buffer.
3182
3183 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
3184
3185 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
3186 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
3187 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
3188 established system of notation similar to Chess.
3189
3190 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
3191 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
3192 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
3193
3194 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
3195 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
3196 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
3197 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
3198 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
3199 the like.
3200
3201 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
3202 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
3203
3204 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
3205 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
3206 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
3207 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
3208
3209 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
3210
3211 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
3212 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
3213 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
3214 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
3215 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
3216 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
3217 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
3218 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
3219 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
3220 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
3221 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
3222
3223 Platform-specific modes:
3224
3225 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
3226 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
3227 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
3228 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
3229 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
3230 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
3231 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
3232 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
3233 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
3234 \f
3235 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3236
3237 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
3238 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
3239 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
3240 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
3241
3242 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
3243 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
3244 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
3245
3246 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
3247 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
3248 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
3249 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
3250
3251 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
3252 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
3253 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
3254 environment.
3255
3256 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
3257 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
3258 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
3259 current input method for reading this one event.
3260
3261 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
3262 now control whether to output certain characters as
3263 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
3264 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
3265 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
3266 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
3267 \f
3268 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
3269
3270 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
3271 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
3272
3273 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
3274 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
3275 always increases point by 1.
3276
3277 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
3278 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
3279
3280 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
3281
3282 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
3283 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
3284 default value changed. For example,
3285
3286 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
3287 :type 'integer
3288 :group 'foo
3289 :version "20.3")
3290
3291 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
3292 :version "20.3")
3293
3294 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
3295 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
3296 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
3297 `:version' in the top level group.
3298
3299 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
3300
3301 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
3302 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
3303
3304 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
3305 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
3306 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
3307 to themselves.
3308
3309 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
3310 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
3311 values whatever.
3312
3313 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
3314 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
3315 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
3316
3317 ** Frame-local variables.
3318
3319 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
3320 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
3321 local bindings for that variable.
3322
3323 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
3324 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
3325 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
3326 parameter name.
3327
3328 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
3329 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
3330 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
3331 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
3332
3333 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
3334 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
3335 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
3336 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
3337
3338 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
3339 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
3340 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
3341 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
3342 See the documentation in sregex.el.
3343
3344 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
3345 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
3346 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
3347 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
3348
3349 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
3350 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
3351
3352 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
3353 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
3354 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
3355
3356 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
3357 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
3358 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
3359 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
3360
3361 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
3362 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
3363 empty input.
3364
3365 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
3366 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
3367 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
3368 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
3369 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
3370
3371 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
3372 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
3373 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
3374 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
3375
3376 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
3377 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
3378 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
3379 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
3380 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
3381
3382 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
3383 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
3384 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
3385 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
3386
3387 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
3388 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
3389 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
3390
3391 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
3392 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
3393 was directed to display this buffer.
3394
3395 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
3396 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
3397 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
3398 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
3399 set-window-configuration.
3400
3401 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
3402 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
3403 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
3404 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
3405
3406 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
3407 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
3408 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
3409
3410 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
3411 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
3412 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
3413
3414 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
3415 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
3416
3417 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
3418 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
3419
3420 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
3421 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
3422 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
3423
3424 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
3425 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
3426 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
3427 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
3428
3429 ** Menu changes
3430
3431 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
3432 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
3433 better supported.
3434
3435 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
3436 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
3437 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
3438 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
3439 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
3440
3441 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
3442
3443 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
3444 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
3445 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
3446 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
3447
3448 The format is:
3449 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
3450 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
3451 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
3452 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
3453 The supported properties include
3454
3455 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
3456 item is enabled.
3457 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
3458 item should appear in the menu.
3459 :filter FILTER-FN
3460 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
3461 which will be REAL-BINDING.
3462 It should return a binding to use instead.
3463 :keys DESCRIPTION
3464 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
3465 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
3466 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
3467 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
3468 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
3469 keyboard binding.
3470 :key-sequence nil
3471 This means that the command normally has no
3472 keyboard equivalent.
3473 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
3474 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
3475 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
3476 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
3477 value says whether this button is currently selected.
3478
3479 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
3480 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
3481
3482 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
3483
3484 ** New event types
3485
3486 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
3487 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
3488 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
3489 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
3490
3491 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
3492
3493 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
3494 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
3495 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
3496 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
3497 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
3498 forward, away from the user.
3499
3500 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
3501
3502 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
3503 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
3504 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
3505 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
3506 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
3507
3508 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
3509
3510 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
3511 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
3512 that were dragged and dropped.
3513
3514 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
3515
3516 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
3517
3518 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
3519 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
3520 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
3521
3522 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
3523 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
3524 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
3525
3526 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
3527 in Emacs 19 and before.
3528
3529 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
3530 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
3531
3532 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
3533 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
3534 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
3535 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
3536
3537 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
3538 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
3539 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
3540 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
3541 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
3542
3543 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
3544 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
3545 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
3546 consistent with the new representation.
3547
3548 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
3549 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
3550 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
3551 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
3552
3553 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
3554 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
3555 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
3556
3557 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
3558 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
3559 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
3560
3561 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
3562 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
3563 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
3564
3565 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
3566 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
3567
3568 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
3569 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
3570
3571 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
3572 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
3573 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
3574 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
3575
3576 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
3577 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
3578
3579 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
3580 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
3581 buffer or string being searched.
3582
3583 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
3584 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
3585 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
3586 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
3587 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
3588 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
3589 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
3590
3591 *** Structure of coding system changed.
3592
3593 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
3594 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
3595 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
3596 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
3597 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
3598 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
3599 define-coding-system-alias.
3600
3601 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
3602 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
3603 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
3604 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
3605 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
3606 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
3607 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
3608 `iso-8859-1'.
3609
3610 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
3611 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
3612 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
3613 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
3614
3615 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
3616 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
3617 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
3618 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
3619
3620 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
3621 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
3622 This function requires a user interaction.
3623
3624 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
3625 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
3626 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
3627 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
3628 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
3629 select-safe-coding-system.
3630
3631 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
3632 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
3633 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
3634 was done.
3635
3636 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
3637 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
3638 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
3639
3640 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
3641 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
3642 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
3643 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
3644
3645 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
3646 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
3647 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
3648 converted.
3649
3650 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
3651 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
3652
3653 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
3654 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
3655 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
3656 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
3657 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
3658 range of characters.
3659
3660 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
3661 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
3662
3663 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
3664 in the current buffer at position POS.
3665
3666 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
3667 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
3668 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
3669 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
3670 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
3671 binding input-method-function to nil.
3672
3673 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
3674 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
3675 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
3676 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
3677 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
3678
3679 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
3680 subsequent events of a key sequence.
3681
3682 *** You can customize any language environment by using
3683 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
3684
3685 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
3686 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
3687 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
3688 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
3689 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
3690 \f
3691 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
3692
3693 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
3694 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
3695 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
3696 tree structure.
3697
3698 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
3699 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
3700
3701 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
3702 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
3703 in your .emacs file.)
3704
3705 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
3706 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
3707
3708 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
3709 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
3710
3711 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
3712 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
3713 kills the region.
3714
3715 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
3716 delete the character before point, as usual.
3717
3718 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
3719 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
3720 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
3721
3722 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
3723 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
3724 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
3725 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
3726 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
3727 past.)
3728
3729 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
3730 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
3731 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
3732 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
3733 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
3734
3735 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
3736 and is an alias for it.
3737
3738 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
3739 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
3740
3741 ** Scrolling changes
3742
3743 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
3744 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
3745
3746 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
3747 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
3748 where it started.
3749
3750 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
3751 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
3752 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
3753 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
3754
3755 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
3756 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
3757 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
3758 recenters the window.
3759
3760 ** International character set support (MULE)
3761
3762 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
3763 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
3764 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
3765 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
3766 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
3767 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
3768
3769 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
3770 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
3771 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
3772 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
3773 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
3774
3775 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
3776 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
3777 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
3778 language, to make it possible to type them.
3779
3780 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
3781 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
3782
3783 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
3784 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
3785
3786 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
3787
3788 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
3789
3790 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
3791 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
3792 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
3793 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
3794 characters for their work until they want to change.
3795
3796 *** Input methods
3797
3798 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
3799 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
3800 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
3801 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
3802 support several input methods.
3803
3804 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
3805 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
3806 work.
3807
3808 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
3809 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
3810 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
3811 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
3812 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
3813 letter.
3814
3815 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
3816 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
3817 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
3818 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
3819 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
3820
3821 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
3822 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
3823 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
3824 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
3825
3826 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
3827 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
3828 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
3829 the first guess is wrong.
3830
3831 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
3832 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
3833
3834 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
3835 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
3836 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
3837 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
3838
3839 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
3840 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
3841 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
3842 translate automatically to and from either one.
3843
3844 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
3845
3846 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
3847 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
3848 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
3849 what you want.
3850
3851 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
3852 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
3853 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
3854 multibyte characters in that buffer.
3855
3856 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
3857 character conversion as well.
3858
3859 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
3860
3861 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
3862 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
3863 requires using many fonts.
3864
3865 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
3866 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
3867
3868 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
3869 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
3870 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
3871 you would use a font.
3872
3873 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
3874 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
3875 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
3876
3877 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
3878 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
3879 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
3880 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
3881 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
3882
3883 *** Defining fontsets.
3884
3885 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
3886 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
3887 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
3888
3889 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
3890 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
3891 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
3892 standard fontset are created automatically.
3893
3894 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
3895 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
3896 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
3897 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
3898 name is `fontset-startup'.
3899
3900 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
3901 The resource value should have this form:
3902 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
3903 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
3904 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
3905 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
3906 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
3907 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
3908 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
3909 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
3910 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
3911
3912 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
3913 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
3914 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
3915
3916 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
3917 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
3918 following resource,
3919 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
3920 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
3921 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
3922 Here is the substitution rule:
3923 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
3924 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
3925 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
3926 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
3927 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
3928
3929 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
3930 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
3931 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
3932
3933 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
3934 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
3935 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
3936 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
3937 fontsets.
3938
3939 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
3940 defaults for a particular choice of language.
3941
3942 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
3943 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
3944 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
3945 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
3946 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
3947 system for new files that you create.
3948
3949 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
3950 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
3951 whole Emacs session.
3952
3953 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
3954 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
3955 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
3956
3957 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
3958 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
3959 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
3960 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
3961 coding systems that Emacs supports.
3962
3963 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
3964 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
3965 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
3966 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
3967 is used for *the immediately following command*.
3968
3969 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
3970 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
3971
3972 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
3973 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
3974
3975 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
3976 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
3977
3978 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
3979 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
3980 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
3981 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
3982 of the file.
3983
3984 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
3985 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
3986 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
3987 translated into that character code.
3988
3989 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
3990 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
3991
3992 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
3993
3994 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
3995 the coding system for keyboard input.
3996
3997 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
3998 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
3999 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
4000
4001 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
4002
4003 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
4004 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
4005 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
4006 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
4007 designed to work with terminals.
4008
4009 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
4010 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
4011 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
4012 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
4013 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
4014 in the corresponding buffer.
4015
4016 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
4017
4018 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
4019 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
4020 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
4021
4022 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
4023 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
4024 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
4025 want to use.
4026
4027 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
4028 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
4029
4030 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
4031 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
4032 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
4033 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
4034
4035 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
4036 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
4037 related information.
4038
4039 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
4040 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
4041 scripts.
4042
4043 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
4044 information about the support for a particular language.
4045 You specify the language as an argument.
4046
4047 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
4048 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
4049 first dash.
4050
4051 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
4052 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
4053 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
4054 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
4055
4056 A alternativnyj (Russian)
4057 B big5 (Chinese)
4058 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
4059 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
4060 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
4061 E euc-japan (Japanese)
4062 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4063 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
4064 K euc-korea (Korean)
4065 R koi8 (Russian)
4066 Q tibetan
4067 S shift_jis (Japanese)
4068 T lao
4069 T tis620 (Thai)
4070 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
4071 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
4072 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
4073 v viqr (Vietnamese)
4074 z hz (Chinese)
4075
4076 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
4077 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
4078 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
4079 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
4080
4081 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
4082 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
4083
4084 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
4085 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
4086 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
4087 Rmail files themselves.
4088
4089 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
4090 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
4091
4092 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
4093 for sending mail:
4094
4095 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
4096 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
4097 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
4098 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
4099 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
4100
4101 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
4102 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
4103 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
4104 translations.
4105
4106 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
4107 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
4108 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
4109 without any conversion.
4110
4111 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
4112 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
4113 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
4114 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
4115
4116 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
4117 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
4118
4119 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
4120 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
4121
4122 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
4123 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
4124
4125 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
4126 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
4127 in the buffer before point.
4128
4129 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
4130 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
4131 you are using.
4132
4133 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
4134 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
4135
4136 ** File locking works with NFS now.
4137
4138 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
4139 in the same directory as FILENAME.
4140
4141 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
4142 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
4143 can become a bottleneck.
4144
4145 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
4146 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
4147 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
4148 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
4149 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
4150 so useful that the change is worth while.
4151
4152 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
4153 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
4154 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
4155 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
4156
4157 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
4158 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
4159 show-paren-mode.
4160
4161 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
4162 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
4163 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
4164
4165 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
4166 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
4167 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
4168
4169 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
4170 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
4171 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
4172
4173 ** Changes in View mode.
4174
4175 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
4176 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
4177
4178 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
4179 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
4180
4181 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
4182 previous state.
4183
4184 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
4185 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
4186
4187 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
4188 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
4189 not just the selected window.
4190
4191 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
4192 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
4193 turns View mode on or off.
4194
4195 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
4196 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
4197 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
4198
4199 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
4200 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
4201
4202 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
4203 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
4204 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
4205 which version to compare with.
4206
4207 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
4208 blocks if a match is inside the block.
4209
4210 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
4211 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
4212 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
4213 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
4214
4215 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
4216 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
4217 blocks, all of them or none.
4218
4219 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
4220 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
4221 confirmation first.
4222
4223 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
4224 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
4225 However, the mode will not be changed if
4226 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
4227 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
4228 not suitable for ordinary files, or
4229 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
4230
4231 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
4232
4233 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
4234 these commands do not change the major mode.
4235
4236 ** M-x occur changes.
4237
4238 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
4239 it performs a case-sensitive search.
4240
4241 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
4242 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
4243 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
4244
4245 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
4246 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
4247 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
4248 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
4249 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
4250
4251 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
4252 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
4253 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
4254 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
4255
4256 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
4257 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
4258 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
4259
4260 ** Outline mode changes.
4261
4262 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
4263
4264 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
4265
4266 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
4267 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
4268 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
4269 was already active.
4270
4271 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
4272 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
4273 get confused by it.
4274
4275 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
4276 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
4277
4278 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
4279
4280 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
4281 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
4282 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
4283 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
4284
4285 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
4286 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
4287 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
4288
4289 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
4290 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
4291 values.
4292
4293 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
4294 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
4295 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
4296 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
4297
4298 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
4299 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
4300 can be. The default value is 30.
4301
4302 ** Changes in Mail mode.
4303
4304 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
4305 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
4306 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
4307 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
4308 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
4309 behavior.
4310
4311 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
4312 compose-mail-other-frame.
4313
4314 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
4315 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
4316 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
4317 buffer that shows the original message.
4318
4319 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
4320 with separator lines around the contents.
4321
4322 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
4323 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
4324 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
4325 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
4326
4327 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
4328
4329 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
4330 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
4331 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
4332 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
4333
4334 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
4335 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
4336 /etc/passwd.
4337
4338 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
4339 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
4340 /etc/passwd.
4341
4342 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
4343 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
4344 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
4345 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
4346
4347 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
4348 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
4349 be taken to be magic.
4350
4351 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
4352 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
4353 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
4354
4355 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
4356 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
4357
4358 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
4359 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
4360
4361 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
4362
4363 new key dired.el binding old key
4364 ------- ---------------- -------
4365 * c dired-change-marks c
4366 * m dired-mark m
4367 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
4368 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
4369 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
4370 * u dired-unmark u
4371 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
4372 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
4373 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
4374 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
4375 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
4376 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
4377
4378 ** Rmail changes.
4379
4380 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
4381 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
4382 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
4383 each time you run it.
4384
4385 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
4386 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
4387
4388 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
4389 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
4390 means to move in the opposite direction.
4391
4392 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
4393 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
4394
4395 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
4396 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
4397 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
4398 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
4399 for output.
4400
4401 ** Gnus changes.
4402
4403 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
4404
4405 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
4406 Gnus.
4407
4408 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
4409 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
4410
4411 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
4412 article mode line.
4413
4414 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
4415
4416 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
4417
4418 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
4419
4420 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
4421 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
4422 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
4423
4424 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
4425
4426 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
4427
4428 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
4429 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
4430
4431 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
4432 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
4433 used to pick articles.
4434
4435 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
4436 another have been added.
4437
4438 `M-x gnus-change-server'
4439
4440 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
4441 generating lines in buffers.
4442
4443 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
4444 `M-C-_'.
4445
4446 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
4447
4448 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
4449
4450 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
4451
4452 *** Scores can be decayed.
4453
4454 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
4455
4456 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
4457 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
4458
4459 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
4460 the native server.
4461
4462 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
4463
4464 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
4465 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
4466
4467 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
4468
4469 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
4470 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
4471
4472 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
4473 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
4474
4475 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
4476 a group.
4477
4478 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
4479 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
4480
4481 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
4482
4483 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
4484
4485 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
4486
4487 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
4488
4489 Use the `Y c' command.
4490
4491 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
4492
4493 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
4494
4495 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
4496
4497 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
4498 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
4499
4500 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
4501
4502 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
4503
4504 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
4505 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
4506
4507 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
4508
4509 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
4510 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
4511 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
4512 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
4513 this issue.)
4514
4515 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
4516 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
4517 particular news group. This can be done by:
4518
4519 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
4520
4521 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
4522 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
4523 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
4524 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
4525 for reading and posting).
4526
4527 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
4528 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
4529 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
4530 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
4531 there.
4532
4533 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
4534 default. Here are some of these default settings:
4535
4536 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
4537 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
4538 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
4539 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
4540 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
4541
4542 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
4543 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
4544
4545 ** CC mode changes.
4546
4547 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
4548 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
4549 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
4550 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
4551 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
4552 loaded.
4553
4554 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
4555 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
4556 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
4557 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
4558 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
4559 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
4560
4561 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
4562 of the current buffer.
4563
4564 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
4565 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
4566 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
4567
4568 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
4569 style that the Python developers like.
4570
4571 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
4572 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
4573 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
4574
4575 ** VC Changes [new]
4576
4577 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
4578 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
4579 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
4580
4581 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
4582 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
4583 developers.
4584
4585 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
4586 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
4587
4588 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
4589 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
4590 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
4591 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
4592
4593 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
4594 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
4595
4596 ** Calendar changes.
4597
4598 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
4599 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
4600 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
4601
4602 ** ps-print changes
4603
4604 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
4605
4606 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
4607
4608 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
4609 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
4610 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
4611 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
4612 It defaults to `letter'.
4613 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
4614
4615 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
4616 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
4617 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
4618
4619 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
4620 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
4621 It defaults to 1.
4622
4623 *** Horizontal layout
4624
4625 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
4626 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
4627 All are measured in points.
4628
4629 *** Vertical layout
4630
4631 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
4632 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
4633 All are measured in points.
4634
4635 *** Headers
4636
4637 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
4638 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
4639 margin above the text.
4640
4641 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
4642 framing box is printed around the header.
4643
4644 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
4645 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
4646
4647 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
4648 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
4649 `ps-header-font-size'.
4650
4651 *** Font managing
4652
4653 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
4654 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
4655 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
4656 elements to this alist.
4657
4658 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
4659 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
4660
4661 ** hideshow changes.
4662
4663 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
4664 C++, ; for lisp).
4665
4666 *** Support for java-mode added.
4667
4668 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
4669 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
4670
4671 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
4672 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
4673 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
4674
4675 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
4676 robust and a lot faster.
4677
4678 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
4679
4680 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
4681 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
4682 documentation for more details.
4683
4684 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
4685
4686 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
4687 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
4688 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
4689 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
4690 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
4691
4692 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
4693 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
4694 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
4695 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
4696
4697 ** Font Lock mode
4698
4699 *** Custom support
4700
4701 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
4702 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
4703 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
4704 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
4705 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
4706 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
4707
4708 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
4709
4710 *** Maximum decoration
4711
4712 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
4713 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
4714 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
4715 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
4716 to get the old behavior.
4717
4718 *** New support
4719
4720 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
4721
4722 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
4723 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
4724
4725 *** Configurable support
4726
4727 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
4728 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
4729 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
4730 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
4731 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
4732 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
4733 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
4734
4735 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
4736 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
4737 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
4738
4739 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
4740
4741 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
4742 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
4743 for any mode.
4744
4745 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
4746
4747 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
4748
4749 in your ~/.emacs.
4750
4751 *** New faces
4752
4753 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
4754 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
4755 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
4756 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
4757
4758 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
4759
4760 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
4761 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
4762 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
4763
4764 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
4765
4766 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
4767 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
4768 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
4769 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
4770 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
4771 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
4772 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
4773
4774 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
4775 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
4776 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
4777 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
4778 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
4779 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
4780
4781 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
4782
4783 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
4784 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
4785 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
4786 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
4787
4788 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
4789 settings.
4790
4791 ** Ada mode changes.
4792
4793 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
4794 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
4795 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
4796 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
4797 stubs.
4798
4799 *** There are two new commands:
4800 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
4801 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
4802
4803 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
4804 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
4805 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
4806
4807 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
4808 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
4809 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
4810
4811 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
4812 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
4813 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
4814 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
4815
4816 ** Scheme mode changes.
4817
4818 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
4819 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
4820 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
4821 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
4822 have any effect.
4823
4824 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
4825 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
4826 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
4827 variables as buffer-local variables.
4828
4829 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
4830 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
4831
4832 ** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
4833 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
4834 buffer in Emacs.
4835
4836 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
4837 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
4838 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
4839
4840 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
4841 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
4842 the current defun.
4843
4844 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
4845 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
4846
4847 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
4848 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
4849 necessary).
4850
4851 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
4852 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
4853 these register values no longer become completely useless.
4854 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
4855 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
4856 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
4857
4858 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
4859 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
4860 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
4861 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
4862
4863 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
4864 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
4865 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
4866 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
4867 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
4868
4869 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
4870 since it applies only to the current frame.
4871
4872 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
4873 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
4874 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
4875
4876 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
4877 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
4878 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
4879 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
4880 instead of just the file you are editing.
4881
4882 ** RefTeX mode
4883
4884 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
4885 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
4886 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
4887 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
4888 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
4889
4890 C-c ( reftex-label
4891 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
4892 knows which kind of label is needed.
4893
4894 C-c ) reftex-reference
4895 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
4896 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
4897
4898 C-c [ reftex-citation
4899 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
4900 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
4901
4902 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
4903 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
4904
4905 C-c = reftex-toc
4906 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
4907 can quickly jump to every section.
4908
4909 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
4910 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
4911 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
4912 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
4913 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
4914
4915 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4916
4917 *** Info documentation is now available.
4918
4919 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
4920 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
4921
4922 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
4923 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
4924
4925 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
4926 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
4927
4928 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
4929 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
4930 appropriate functions.
4931
4932 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
4933 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
4934
4935 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
4936 been cleaned.
4937
4938 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
4939 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
4940
4941 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
4942 shall be delimited.
4943
4944 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
4945 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
4946 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
4947
4948 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
4949 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
4950 prefixed with `ALT'.
4951
4952 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
4953 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
4954 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
4955 documentation).
4956
4957 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
4958 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
4959 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
4960
4961 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
4962 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
4963
4964 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
4965 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
4966 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
4967
4968 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
4969
4970 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
4971
4972 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
4973 from alien sources.
4974
4975 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
4976 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
4977 crossref entries.
4978
4979 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
4980 region.
4981
4982 *** Added support for imenu.
4983
4984 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
4985 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
4986 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
4987 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
4988
4989 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
4990 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
4991
4992 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
4993
4994 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
4995 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
4996 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
4997 as an argument.
4998
4999 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
5000 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
5001
5002 ** browse-url changes
5003
5004 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
5005 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
5006 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
5007 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
5008 customization variables.
5009
5010 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
5011
5012 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
5013 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
5014 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
5015
5016 ** Changes in Ediff
5017
5018 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
5019 pops up the Info file for this command.
5020
5021 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
5022 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
5023 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
5024 directories).
5025
5026 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
5027 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
5028 files in the same directory.
5029
5030 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
5031 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
5032 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
5033
5034 ** Changes in Viper
5035
5036 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
5037 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
5038 instead of vip-.
5039 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
5040 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
5041 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
5042 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
5043 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
5044 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
5045 color when Viper is in insert state.
5046 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
5047 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
5048 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
5049
5050 ** Etags changes.
5051
5052 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
5053 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
5054 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
5055 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
5056 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
5057
5058 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
5059
5060 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
5061 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
5062
5063 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
5064 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
5065 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
5066
5067 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
5068 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
5069 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
5070 methods and protocols.
5071
5072 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
5073 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
5074 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
5075 paragraph name.
5076
5077 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
5078 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
5079 at least M times and as many as N times.
5080
5081 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
5082 in files has changed slightly.
5083
5084 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
5085 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
5086 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
5087 with old time-stamp-format values.
5088
5089 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
5090 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
5091 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
5092 reasons.
5093
5094 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
5095 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
5096 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
5097 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
5098 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
5099 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
5100
5101 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
5102 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
5103 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
5104
5105 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
5106 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
5107 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
5108 recommended now will continue to work then.
5109
5110 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
5111 details.
5112
5113 ** There are some additional major modes:
5114
5115 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
5116 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
5117 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
5118
5119 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
5120 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
5121 into Emacs.
5122
5123 ** New Lisp packages include:
5124
5125 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
5126
5127 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
5128 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
5129
5130 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
5131
5132 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
5133 in shell buffers.
5134
5135 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
5136 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
5137 and `elint-defun'.
5138
5139 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
5140 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
5141 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
5142 strings or comments.
5143
5144 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
5145 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
5146 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
5147 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
5148 at these points.
5149
5150 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
5151 can visit them by short forms of their names.
5152
5153 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
5154 Emacs Lisp function at point.
5155
5156 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
5157
5158 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
5159 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
5160
5161 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
5162
5163 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
5164
5165 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
5166
5167 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
5168 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
5169
5170 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
5171 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
5172 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
5173 original place after inserting the copy.
5174
5175 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
5176 on the buffer.
5177
5178 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
5179 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
5180 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
5181
5182 Enable mouse-drag with:
5183 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
5184 -or-
5185 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
5186
5187 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
5188 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
5189
5190 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
5191 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
5192
5193 *** ogonek
5194
5195 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
5196 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
5197 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
5198 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
5199 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
5200 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
5201 instance) and vice versa.
5202
5203 To use this package load it using
5204 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
5205 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
5206 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
5207 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
5208 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
5209 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
5210
5211 *** Interface to ph.
5212
5213 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
5214
5215 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
5216 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
5217 these servers.
5218
5219 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
5220
5221 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
5222 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
5223 while the real cursor does not move.
5224
5225 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
5226 for visiting your favorite web sites.
5227
5228 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
5229 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
5230
5231 ** movemail change
5232
5233 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
5234 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
5235 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
5236 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
5237
5238 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
5239 \f
5240 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
5241
5242 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
5243
5244 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
5245 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
5246 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
5247 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
5248 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
5249
5250 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
5251 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
5252 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
5253 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
5254 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
5255 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
5256 \f
5257 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
5258
5259 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
5260 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
5261 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
5262 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
5263
5264 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
5265 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
5266
5267 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
5268 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
5269 "win".
5270
5271 ** Basic Lisp changes
5272
5273 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
5274 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
5275
5276 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
5277 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
5278 or by the user.
5279
5280 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
5281
5282 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
5283
5284 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
5285 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
5286
5287 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
5288 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
5289 its argument.
5290
5291 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
5292
5293 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
5294
5295 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
5296
5297 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
5298 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
5299 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
5300 `format' function.
5301
5302 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
5303 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
5304 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
5305
5306 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
5307 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
5308 adding one of these suffixes.
5309
5310 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
5311 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
5312 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
5313
5314 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
5315 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
5316
5317 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
5318
5319 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
5320 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
5321
5322 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
5323 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
5324
5325 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
5326
5327 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
5328 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
5329
5330 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
5331 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
5332 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
5333 works using `save-current-buffer'.
5334
5335 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
5336 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
5337 of the last form.
5338
5339 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
5340 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
5341 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
5342 as the last form.
5343
5344 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
5345 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
5346 matches.
5347
5348 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
5349
5350 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
5351 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
5352 Then it returns that string.
5353
5354 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
5355
5356 (with-output-to-string
5357 (princ "The buffer is ")
5358 (princ (buffer-name)))
5359
5360 returns "The buffer is foo".
5361
5362 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
5363 is non-nil.
5364
5365 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
5366 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
5367 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
5368
5369 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
5370 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
5371
5372 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
5373 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
5374 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
5375 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
5376 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
5377 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
5378
5379 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
5380 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
5381 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
5382 characters".
5383
5384 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
5385 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
5386 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
5387 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
5388 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
5389
5390 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
5391 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
5392 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
5393 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
5394
5395 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
5396 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
5397
5398 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
5399
5400 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
5401 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
5402 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
5403 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
5404 guaranteed.
5405
5406 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
5407 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
5408 character).
5409
5410 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
5411
5412 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
5413 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
5414 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
5415 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
5416 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
5417
5418 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
5419
5420 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
5421 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
5422 more than the number of characters.
5423
5424 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
5425 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
5426 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
5427 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
5428 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
5429 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
5430
5431 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
5432 and returns a string containing those characters.
5433
5434 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
5435 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
5436 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
5437 character, sref signals an error.
5438
5439 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
5440 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
5441 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
5442
5443 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
5444 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
5445 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
5446
5447 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
5448 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
5449 to a vector of the characters in it.
5450
5451 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
5452 of a string. You call it as follows:
5453
5454 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
5455
5456 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
5457 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
5458 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
5459 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
5460 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
5461
5462 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
5463 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
5464
5465 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
5466 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
5467
5468 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
5469 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
5470 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
5471 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
5472
5473 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
5474
5475 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
5476
5477 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
5478 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
5479 are not included in the resulting value.
5480
5481 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
5482 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
5483 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
5484 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
5485
5486 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
5487 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
5488 character extends across that column), then the padding character
5489 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
5490 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
5491 column START-COLUMN.
5492
5493 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
5494 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
5495 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
5496 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
5497 changed text, before the change.
5498
5499 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
5500 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
5501 one character set for each script, not for each language.
5502
5503 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
5504
5505 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
5506
5507 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
5508 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
5509
5510 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
5511 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
5512 which identify the character within that character set.
5513
5514 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
5515 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
5516 opposite of split-char.
5517
5518 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
5519 of all the characters between BEG and END.
5520
5521 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
5522 of all the characters in a string.
5523
5524 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
5525 and specifying coding systems.
5526
5527 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
5528 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
5529 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
5530 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
5531 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
5532 as what to do about code conversion.)
5533
5534 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
5535 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
5536
5537 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
5538 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
5539 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
5540
5541 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
5542 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
5543 to match against a file name.
5544
5545 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
5546 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
5547 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
5548 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
5549 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
5550 specifies the coding system for encoding.
5551
5552 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
5553 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
5554
5555 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
5556 the coding system to use for network sockets.
5557
5558 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
5559 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
5560 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
5561 service names.
5562
5563 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
5564 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
5565 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
5566 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
5567 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
5568 specifies the coding system for encoding.
5569
5570 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
5571 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
5572
5573 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
5574 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
5575 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
5576 start the subprocess.
5577
5578 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
5579 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
5580 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
5581 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
5582 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
5583
5584 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
5585 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
5586 subprocess.
5587
5588 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
5589 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
5590 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
5591 connection permanently or until overridden.
5592
5593 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
5594 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
5595 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
5596 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
5597 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
5598 system for one operation at a time.
5599
5600 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
5601 files, subprocesses or network connections.
5602
5603 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
5604 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
5605 The value is a cons cell,
5606 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
5607 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
5608 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
5609 input to the subprocess.
5610
5611 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
5612 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
5613
5614 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
5615 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
5616 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
5617
5618 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
5619 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
5620 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
5621 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
5622 customization.
5623
5624 Thus, instead of writing
5625
5626 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
5627 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
5628
5629 you would now write this:
5630
5631 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
5632 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
5633 :type 'boolean
5634 :group foo)
5635
5636 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
5637 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
5638 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
5639 for a description of them.
5640
5641 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
5642 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
5643
5644 (defgroup ispell nil
5645 "Spell checking using Ispell."
5646 :group 'processes)
5647
5648 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
5649 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
5650 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
5651 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
5652 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
5653
5654 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
5655 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
5656 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
5657 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
5658 first-level subgroups.
5659
5660 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
5661
5662 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
5663 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
5664
5665 ** easy-mmode
5666
5667 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
5668 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
5669 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
5670 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
5671 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
5672 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
5673
5674 ** Text property changes
5675
5676 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
5677 text property.
5678
5679 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
5680 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
5681 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
5682 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
5683 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
5684
5685 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
5686 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
5687 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
5688 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
5689
5690 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
5691 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
5692 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
5693
5694 ** Changes in invisibility features
5695
5696 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
5697 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
5698 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
5699 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
5700 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
5701 make the overlay visible.
5702
5703 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
5704 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
5705 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
5706 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
5707 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
5708 t when it should hide it.
5709
5710 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
5711
5712 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
5713 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
5714 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
5715 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
5716 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
5717 Here is an example of how to do this:
5718
5719 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
5720 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
5721 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
5722 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
5723
5724 ...
5725 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
5726
5727 ...
5728 ;; When done with the overlays:
5729 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
5730 ;; Or respectively:
5731 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
5732
5733 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
5734
5735 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
5736 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
5737 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
5738 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
5739
5740 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
5741 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
5742 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
5743
5744 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
5745 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
5746
5747 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
5748 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
5749
5750 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
5751 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
5752 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
5753
5754 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
5755 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
5756 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
5757 determine the syntax type of the character.
5758
5759 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
5760 of the current buffer.
5761
5762 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
5763 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
5764 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
5765
5766 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
5767 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
5768 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
5769 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
5770 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
5771
5772 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
5773 text property.
5774
5775 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
5776 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
5777 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
5778
5779 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
5780 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
5781 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
5782 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
5783 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
5784
5785 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
5786 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
5787 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
5788
5789 ** Changes in face features
5790
5791 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
5792 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
5793
5794 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
5795 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
5796
5797 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
5798 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
5799
5800 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
5801 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
5802
5803 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
5804 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
5805 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
5806 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
5807 overlay property).
5808
5809 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
5810 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
5811
5812 ** Changes in file-handling functions
5813
5814 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
5815 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
5816 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
5817 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
5818
5819 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
5820 begins with ~.
5821
5822 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
5823 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
5824
5825 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
5826 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
5827
5828 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
5829 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
5830
5831 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
5832 character code conversion as well as other things.
5833
5834 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
5835 (formerly it did not).
5836
5837 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
5838 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
5839
5840 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
5841 instead of constant strings.
5842
5843 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
5844 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
5845 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
5846
5847 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
5848 in the same way as before.
5849
5850 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
5851 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
5852 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
5853
5854 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
5855 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
5856 else, and returns nil.
5857
5858 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
5859 directory cannot be listed.
5860
5861 ** Changes in minibuffer input
5862
5863 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
5864 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
5865 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
5866 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
5867 ways:
5868
5869 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
5870 It is available through the history command M-n.
5871
5872 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
5873 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
5874 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
5875 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
5876 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
5877
5878 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
5879 argument in this way.
5880
5881 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
5882 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
5883 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
5884
5885 ** Echo area features
5886
5887 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
5888 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
5889 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
5890 after the echo area is cleared.
5891
5892 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
5893 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
5894
5895 ** Keyboard input features
5896
5897 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
5898 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
5899
5900 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
5901 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
5902 by keyboard macros.
5903
5904 ** Frame-related changes
5905
5906 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
5907 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
5908 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
5909
5910 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
5911 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
5912 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
5913
5914 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5915 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
5916 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
5917 in the selected frame.
5918
5919 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
5920 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
5921 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
5922
5923 ** X Windows features
5924
5925 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
5926 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
5927 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
5928
5929 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
5930 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
5931
5932 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
5933 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
5934 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
5935
5936 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
5937 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
5938
5939 ** Subprocess features
5940
5941 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
5942 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
5943 automatically.
5944
5945 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
5946 and returns the output from the command as a string.
5947
5948 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
5949 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
5950
5951 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
5952 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
5953
5954 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
5955 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
5956 goes after the other menu items.
5957
5958 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
5959 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
5960 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
5961 are in use.
5962
5963 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
5964 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
5965
5966 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
5967 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
5968 form.
5969
5970 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
5971 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
5972 but its hook is still run.
5973
5974 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
5975 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
5976
5977 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
5978 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
5979 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
5980
5981 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
5982 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
5983 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
5984 warned.
5985
5986 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
5987 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
5988
5989 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
5990 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
5991 functions like display-time.
5992
5993 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
5994 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
5995
5996 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
5997 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
5998 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
5999
6000 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
6001 if there is an error in compilation.
6002
6003 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
6004 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
6005 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
6006 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
6007
6008 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
6009 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
6010 the *scratch* buffer.
6011
6012 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
6013 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
6014 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
6015 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
6016
6017 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
6018 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
6019 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
6020
6021 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
6022 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
6023 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
6024 and compose-mail-other-frame.
6025
6026 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
6027 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
6028 full name of the specified user will be returned.
6029
6030 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
6031 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
6032 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
6033 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
6034 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
6035 files at all.
6036
6037 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
6038 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
6039 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
6040 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
6041
6042 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
6043 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
6044 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
6045 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
6046
6047 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
6048
6049 ** imenu.el changes.
6050
6051 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
6052 item from menu created by imenu.
6053
6054 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
6055 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
6056 select one of those items.
6057 \f
6058 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
6059 \f
6060 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
6061
6062 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
6063 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
6064
6065 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
6066 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
6067 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
6068 \f
6069 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
6070
6071 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
6072 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
6073
6074 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6075 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
6076 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
6077 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
6078 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
6079 all caps.
6080
6081 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
6082 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
6083
6084 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
6085 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
6086 as in previous Emacs versions.
6087
6088 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
6089 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
6090 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
6091 frames.
6092
6093 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
6094 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
6095 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
6096 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
6097 accident.
6098
6099 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
6100 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
6101 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
6102 line and then executing the macro.
6103
6104 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
6105
6106 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
6107 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
6108 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
6109 characters.
6110
6111 ** Font Lock mode
6112
6113 *** Font Lock support modes
6114
6115 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
6116 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
6117 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
6118 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
6119 Font Lock mode is enabled.
6120
6121 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
6122
6123 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
6124
6125 in your ~/.emacs.
6126
6127 *** lazy-lock
6128
6129 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
6130 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
6131 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
6132 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
6133 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
6134 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
6135 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
6136
6137 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
6138
6139 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
6140
6141 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
6142
6143 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6144
6145 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
6146 paren and key.
6147
6148 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
6149 supported.
6150
6151 ** Gnus changes.
6152
6153 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
6154 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
6155 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
6156 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
6157
6158 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
6159 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
6160
6161 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
6162 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
6163 obsolete.
6164
6165 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
6166 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
6167
6168 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
6169
6170 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
6171
6172 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
6173
6174 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
6175 referred.
6176
6177 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
6178
6179 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
6180
6181 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
6182
6183 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
6184
6185 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
6186 buffers.
6187
6188 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
6189
6190 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
6191
6192 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
6193
6194 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
6195
6196 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
6197
6198 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
6199
6200 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
6201
6202 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
6203 is possible.
6204
6205 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
6206
6207 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
6208 groups of groups.
6209
6210 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
6211
6212 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
6213 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
6214
6215 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
6216
6217 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
6218
6219 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
6220
6221 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
6222
6223 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
6224 expiration times.
6225
6226 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
6227
6228 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
6229 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
6230
6231 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
6232 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
6233 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
6234
6235 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
6236 articles with the `*' command.
6237
6238 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
6239
6240 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
6241
6242 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
6243
6244 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
6245
6246 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
6247 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
6248
6249 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
6250 buffer.
6251
6252 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
6253
6254 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
6255
6256 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
6257
6258 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
6259
6260 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
6261
6262 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
6263
6264 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
6265
6266 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
6267
6268 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
6269
6270 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6271 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6272
6273 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
6274 refetching.
6275
6276 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
6277
6278 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
6279 buffer to allow easier treatment.
6280
6281 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
6282
6283 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
6284
6285 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
6286
6287 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
6288 articles.
6289
6290 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
6291
6292 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
6293
6294 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
6295 cited text to hide is now customizable.
6296
6297 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
6298
6299 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
6300
6301 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
6302
6303 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
6304
6305 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
6306
6307 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
6308 in greater detail.
6309 \f
6310 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
6311
6312 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
6313 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
6314 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
6315 exists.
6316
6317 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
6318 as well as lists.
6319
6320 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
6321 of a given keymap.
6322
6323 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
6324 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
6325 keymap or nil.
6326
6327 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
6328 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
6329 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
6330 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
6331 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
6332 alias.
6333 \f
6334 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
6335
6336 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
6337
6338 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
6339 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
6340 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
6341 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
6342 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
6343
6344 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
6345 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
6346 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
6347
6348 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
6349
6350 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
6351 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
6352 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
6353 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
6354 chapter of the manual for details.
6355
6356 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
6357 customization variables take effect.
6358
6359 ** Marking with the mouse.
6360
6361 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
6362 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
6363 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
6364
6365 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
6366
6367 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
6368
6369 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
6370 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
6371
6372 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
6373 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
6374 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
6375 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
6376 applications, these problems are significant.
6377
6378 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
6379 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
6380 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
6381 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
6382 other DOS application as a subprocess.
6383
6384 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
6385 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
6386
6387 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
6388 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
6389 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
6390 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
6391 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
6392 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
6393
6394 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
6395
6396 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
6397 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
6398 minibuffer contains.
6399
6400 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
6401
6402 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
6403 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
6404 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
6405 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
6406
6407 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
6408 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
6409 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
6410 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
6411
6412 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
6413 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
6414
6415 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
6416 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
6417 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
6418
6419 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
6420 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
6421 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
6422 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
6423
6424 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
6425
6426 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
6427 to replace the characters it "deletes".
6428
6429 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
6430
6431 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
6432 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
6433 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
6434 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
6435 immediately after the selected one.
6436
6437 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
6438 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
6439
6440 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
6441
6442 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
6443 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
6444 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
6445 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
6446 recover-session.
6447
6448 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
6449 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
6450 will not work.
6451
6452 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
6453 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
6454 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
6455 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
6456 now that the bug is fixed.
6457
6458 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
6459
6460 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
6461 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
6462 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
6463 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
6464
6465 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
6466 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
6467 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
6468 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
6469
6470 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
6471 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
6472 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
6473
6474 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
6475 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
6476 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
6477 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
6478 remain normal.
6479
6480 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
6481 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
6482
6483 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
6484 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
6485 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
6486 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
6487
6488 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
6489 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
6490 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
6491 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
6492 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
6493 `mail-directory-stream'.)
6494
6495 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
6496 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
6497 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
6498 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
6499
6500 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
6501 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
6502 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
6503
6504 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
6505 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
6506 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
6507 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
6508 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
6509 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
6510 to a limitation in font-lock).
6511
6512 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
6513
6514 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
6515 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
6516 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
6517 this example:
6518
6519 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
6520 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
6521
6522 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6523
6524 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
6525
6526 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
6527
6528 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
6529
6530 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
6531 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
6532 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
6533 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
6534 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
6535 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
6536
6537 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
6538 does the same job.
6539
6540 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
6541 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
6542
6543 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
6544 text.
6545
6546 ** Font Lock mode
6547
6548 *** Global Font Lock mode
6549
6550 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
6551 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
6552 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
6553 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
6554 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
6555
6556 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
6557
6558 (global-font-lock-mode t)
6559
6560 in your ~/.emacs.
6561
6562 *** Local Refontification
6563
6564 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
6565 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
6566 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
6567 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
6568
6569 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
6570 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
6571 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
6572 above and below point.
6573
6574 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
6575
6576 ** Follow mode
6577
6578 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
6579 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
6580 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
6581 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
6582 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
6583 follow-mode.
6584
6585 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
6586
6587 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
6588 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
6589
6590 ** hide-show changes.
6591
6592 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
6593 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
6594 normal hooks.
6595
6596 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
6597 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
6598
6599 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
6600 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
6601 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
6602
6603 ** MSDOS Changes
6604
6605 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
6606 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
6607
6608 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
6609 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
6610
6611 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
6612
6613 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
6614 pressing both mouse buttons.
6615
6616 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
6617 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
6618 are:
6619
6620 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
6621 now works.
6622
6623 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
6624
6625 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
6626 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
6627
6628 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
6629
6630 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
6631
6632 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
6633
6634 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
6635
6636 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
6637 \f
6638 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
6639
6640 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
6641 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
6642 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
6643 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
6644 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
6645
6646 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
6647
6648 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
6649 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
6650 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
6651 be different.
6652
6653 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
6654 than `system-type'.
6655
6656 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
6657
6658 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
6659 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
6660
6661 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
6662 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
6663
6664 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
6665 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
6666 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
6667
6668 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
6669 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
6670 like this:
6671
6672 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
6673
6674 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
6675 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
6676 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
6677
6678 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
6679 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
6680 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
6681
6682 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
6683 up if too much time passes.
6684
6685 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
6686
6687 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
6688 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
6689 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
6690 form in BODY.
6691
6692 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
6693 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
6694 call looks like this:
6695
6696 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
6697
6698 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
6699 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
6700 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
6701 ARGS.
6702
6703 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
6704 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
6705 command.
6706
6707 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
6708 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
6709 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
6710 each time Emacs becomes idle.
6711
6712 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
6713 idle for SECS seconds.
6714
6715 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
6716 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
6717 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
6718 instead.
6719
6720 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
6721 there is no answer within a certain time.
6722
6723 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
6724
6725 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
6726 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
6727 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
6728
6729 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
6730 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
6731 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
6732 arguments in between are ignored.
6733
6734 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
6735 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
6736
6737 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
6738 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
6739 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
6740 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
6741 version.
6742
6743 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
6744 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
6745 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
6746 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
6747 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
6748 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
6749
6750 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
6751 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
6752 systems with limited file name syntax.
6753
6754 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
6755 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
6756 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
6757 completions.el:
6758
6759 (defvar save-completions-file-name
6760 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
6761 "*The filename to save completions to.")
6762
6763 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
6764 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
6765 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
6766 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
6767 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
6768
6769 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
6770 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
6771 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
6772
6773 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
6774 marker from its buffer position.
6775
6776 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
6777 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
6778 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
6779
6780 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
6781 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
6782 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
6783 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
6784 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
6785 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
6786
6787 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
6788 errors that happen often during editing.
6789
6790 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
6791 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
6792 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
6793
6794 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
6795 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
6796
6797 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
6798 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
6799 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
6800 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
6801 and not get-buffer-window.
6802
6803 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
6804 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
6805 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
6806
6807 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
6808 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
6809 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
6810 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
6811 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
6812 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
6813 over and over for the same text.
6814
6815 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
6816
6817 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
6818 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
6819
6820 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
6821 ;; $HEADER: text $
6822
6823 in addition to the normal
6824
6825 ;; HEADER: text
6826
6827 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
6828 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
6829 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
6830 \f
6831 * For older news, see the file ONEWS.
6832
6833 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
6834 Copyright information:
6835
6836 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6837
6838 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6839 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6840 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6841 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6842
6843 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6844 of this document, or of portions of it,
6845 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6846 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6847 \f
6848 Local variables:
6849 mode: outline
6850 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
6851 end: