1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
26 ** New configure option '--without-all' to disable additional features.
27 This disables most of the features that are normally enabled by default.
29 ** New configure option '--enable-link-time-optimization' to utilize
30 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
32 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
33 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
34 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
35 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
38 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
39 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
42 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
43 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
47 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
50 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
51 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
55 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
56 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
59 ** The standalone scripts rcs-checkin and vcdiff have been removed
60 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
61 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
63 ** The configuration option '--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
64 renamed to '--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
65 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
66 check that this option enables.
69 ** The default toolkit has been changed to Gtk+ version 3.
70 If you don't pass --with-x-toolkit to configure or if you pass
71 --with-x-toolkit=gtk or --with-x-toolkit=yes, configure will try to build
72 with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
73 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
74 --with-x-toolkit=gtk2 or --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 to configure.
77 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
79 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
80 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
81 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
84 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
87 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
89 ** You can now scroll the selected window in most y-or-n prompts.
90 Typing C-v or M-v at a prompt scrolls forward or backward
91 respectively, without leaving the y-or-n prompt.
95 *** `C-h f' (describe-function) can now perform autoloading.
96 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
97 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
98 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
99 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
101 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
102 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
103 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
105 ** The function `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
106 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC) that use picosecond resolution; the PSEC
107 component is new. PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current
108 machines. Other functions that use this format, such as
109 file-attributes and format-time-string, have been changed accordingly.
110 Old-format time stamps are still accepted.
112 ** The format of timers in timer-list and timer-idle-list is now
113 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
114 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
115 accessed via the new timer--psecs accessor.
117 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
118 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
119 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
120 that support backtraces.
122 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
123 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
125 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
126 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about which bzr revision was used.
128 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
129 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
130 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
131 automatically at startup, or when customizing a relevant imagemagick-
134 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
135 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
136 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
138 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
139 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
140 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
143 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
144 :background image spec property.
146 ** Internationalization changes
148 *** New language environment: Persian.
150 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
151 See the "Face Attributes" section of the Elisp manual.
153 ** New fringe bitmap exclamation-mark.
155 ** String values for `initial-buffer-choice' also apply to emacsclient
156 frames, if emacsclient is only told to open a new frame without
157 specifying any file to visit or expression to evaluate.
160 ** You can prevent the creation of lock files by setting `create-lockfiles'
161 to nil. Use with caution, and only if you really need to.
164 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
165 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
169 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
170 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
171 that does not have its own specialized help text.
173 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to
174 invokes `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
177 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
178 local variables on remote hosts.
181 ** `insert-char' is now a command, and `ucs-insert' an obsolete alias
184 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
185 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
188 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
190 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
191 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
194 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
195 properties on yanked text, in more ways that are more general than
196 just removing them, as done by `yank-excluded-properties'.
198 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether the M-x
199 delete-trailing-whitespace command should delete trailing lines at the
200 end of the buffer. It defaults to t.
203 ** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register.
206 ** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
207 the text to put between collected texts for use with M-x
208 append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
212 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
213 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
214 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
216 *** `M-s SPC' in Isearch toggles whitespace matching mode
217 in both ordinary and regexp incremental search, so that each
218 sequence of spaces in the search string matches any combination
219 of one or more whitespace characters defined by the variable
220 `search-whitespace-regexp'. In ordinary incremental search,
221 `isearch-toggle-lax-whitespace' toggles the value of the variable
222 `isearch-lax-whitespace'. In regexp incremental search, it toggles
223 the value of the variable `isearch-regexp-lax-whitespace'.
225 ** query-replace changes
227 *** When new option `replace-lax-whitespace' is non-nil,
228 and you enter a space or spaces in the strings or regexps
229 to be replaced, `query-replace' will match any sequence matched
230 by the regexp `search-whitespace-regexp'.
232 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
233 prompts for a column number.
235 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
236 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
238 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
240 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
241 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
243 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
245 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
246 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
248 ** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
251 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
253 ** Compilation has a new `compilation-always-kill' configuration variable.
257 The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color' are
258 now deprecated in favor of the `term-face' face, that you can
259 customize. Also, it is now possible to customize how are displayed the
260 ANSI terminal colors and styles by customizing the corresponding
261 `term-color-<COLOR>', `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold'
265 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
266 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
267 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions use
270 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
271 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
272 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
273 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
275 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is just a bunch of aliases that
276 provide the old non-prefixed names.
278 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
279 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
281 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
282 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery (as opposed
283 to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture definitions in
284 closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding' is in use.
286 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
287 A side effect is that vars without corresponding value are bound to nil
288 rather than making them unbound.
292 *** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory. Desktop
293 files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
297 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
298 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
299 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
302 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed:
303 Old defcustom: | New defcustom:
304 python-indent | python-indent-offset
305 python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset
306 python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate
307 python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert
309 *** Some user options have been removed:
311 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
313 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
314 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
316 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
317 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
319 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
320 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
322 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
323 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
325 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
326 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
329 *** Some commands have been replaced:
330 Old command | New command
331 python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class
332 python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def
333 python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for
334 python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if
335 python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try
336 python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try
337 python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while
338 python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun
339 python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence
340 python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence
341 python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer
342 python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun
343 python-send-region | python-shell-send-region
344 python-send-region-and-go | Emulate with python-shell-send-region and
345 python-shell-switch-to-shell
346 python-send-string | python-shell-send-string
347 python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell
348 python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point
352 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
354 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
356 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
358 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
362 *** DB2 added `sql-db2-escape-newlines'
364 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
365 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
366 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
370 Faces for changes now use the same diff color scheme as in modern VCSes
371 where deletions are displayed in red (new faces `diff-refine-removed'
372 and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition of `diff-removed'),
373 insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added' and
374 `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
375 The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use
376 the face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added'
377 to highlight changes in context diffs.
379 *** The new command `diff-remove-trailing-whitespace' fixes trailing
380 whitespace problems introduced by the diff.
382 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode
383 on high color displays.
385 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
386 See flymake-fringe-indicator-position, flymake-error-bitmap and
387 flymake-warning-bitmap.
390 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
391 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
392 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
394 ** reStructuredText mode
396 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
397 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
399 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
400 modes. TAB is your friend.
402 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
403 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
405 *** Major revision of comment handling.
407 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
409 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
410 the experience for Sphinx users.
412 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
414 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
416 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
418 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
420 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
422 ** New `derived-mode' filter for Ibuffer, bound to `/ M'.
423 `/ m' is now bound to filter by used-mode, which used to be bound to `/ M'.
427 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
428 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
429 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
431 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
432 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
435 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
437 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
438 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
442 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
443 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
447 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
449 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
450 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
453 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
454 channel keys found, if any.
458 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
459 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
460 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
462 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff) has changed.
463 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists, rather
464 than the file at the mark.
466 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
467 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
471 *** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies what buffer to use
472 for a new asynchronous shell command when the default output buffer
473 `*Async Shell Command*' is already taken by another running command.
477 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
478 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
479 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
483 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
485 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
486 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
488 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
489 shared key for Emacs Server.
491 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
492 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
494 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
496 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
501 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy
502 definitions. See the manual for details.
505 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
510 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
513 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
516 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
517 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
520 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
521 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
524 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
527 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
528 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
532 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
535 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
538 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
539 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
544 *** Newly-available packages are listed in the Package Menu as "new",
545 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
547 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
549 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
550 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
554 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
555 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
556 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
557 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
558 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
560 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
561 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
562 in case that is not properly encoded.
564 ** Obsolete packages:
567 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
568 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
569 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
584 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
586 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
588 ** (random) by default now returns a different random sequence in
589 every Emacs run. Use (random S), where S is a string, to set the
590 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
591 sequence in later calls.
593 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
594 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
595 depends on the graphical library.
597 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
598 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
599 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
602 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
603 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
604 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
608 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
609 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, defun and
610 defmacro currently return the name of the newly defined function/macro
611 but this should not be relied upon.
613 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
614 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
617 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
618 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
619 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
622 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to avoid problems with spelling
623 that is incorrect or inconsistent with how Emacs normally spells a word.
625 *** Renamed functions
627 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
628 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
629 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
630 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
631 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
632 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
633 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
634 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
637 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
638 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
640 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
641 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
642 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
644 *** Renamed Lisp variables
646 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
647 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
648 deactivate-current-input-method-function
650 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed:
652 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
653 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
654 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'.
657 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.3
659 ** Interpreted files get eagerly macro-expanded during load.
660 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code, but can
661 also bump into harmless and previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
662 These should not be fatal: they will simply cause the macro-calls to be left
663 for later expansion (as before), but will also result in a warning describing
666 ** New minor mode `read-only-mode' to replace toggle-read-only (now obsolete).
668 ** New functions `autoloadp' and `autoload-do-load'.
670 ** New function `posnp' to test if an object is a `posn'.
672 ** `function-get' fetches the property of a function, following aliases.
674 ** `toggle-read-only' accepts a second argument specifying whether to
675 print a message, if called from Lisp.
677 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
678 `setf' is autoloaded and `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
680 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
681 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
683 ** `macro-declaration-function' is obsolete, use `macro-declarations-alist'.
685 ** New function `set-temporary-overlay-map'.
687 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
689 ** New error type and new function `user-error'. Doesn't trigger the debugger.
692 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill'.
694 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
695 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
696 to work out which code is doing something.
698 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
699 recursive invocations.
702 ** New utility function `buffer-narrowed-p'.
706 *** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
707 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
709 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window'.
711 *** New option `temp-buffer-resize-frames'.
713 *** New function `fit-frame-to-buffer' and new option
714 `fit-frame-to-buffer-bottom-margin'.
716 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected' and
717 `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
719 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
720 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
723 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
724 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
726 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
727 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
729 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
730 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
733 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
734 **** `special-display-regexps'
735 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
736 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
737 **** `special-display-function'
741 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
742 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
744 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
745 table, but with a different prefix.
749 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
750 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
751 by the underlying C implementation.
755 *** When floating point functions such as `log' are given invalid
756 arguments, e.g., (log -1.0), they now uniformly return special values
757 such as NaNs instead of signaling errors. Previously, these functions
758 returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors on others. The affected
759 functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt, log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
761 ** New function file-name-base.
763 ** New function `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
765 ** `automount-dir-prefix' is obsolete.
766 ** `buffer-has-markers-at' is obsolete.
767 ** `window-system-version' is obsolete.
769 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on non-free operating systems
771 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
773 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
776 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
777 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
778 mouse-autoselect-window.
780 ** On MS-Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
782 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
784 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
787 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
789 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
790 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
791 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
794 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
795 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
796 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
797 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
799 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
800 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
801 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
802 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
804 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
805 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
806 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
807 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
808 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
810 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
811 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
812 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
813 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
815 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
816 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
818 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
819 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
820 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
823 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
824 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
825 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
827 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
828 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
829 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
831 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
832 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
834 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
835 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
838 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
840 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
841 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
842 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
844 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
845 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
846 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
850 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
854 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
855 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
857 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
859 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
860 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
862 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
864 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
865 default completion style in certain circumstances.
867 *** New completion style `substring'.
869 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
871 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
875 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
876 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
877 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
878 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
879 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
880 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
882 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
883 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
884 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
886 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
887 and Mail mode changes
889 ** Emacs server and client changes
891 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
893 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
895 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
896 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
898 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
899 its exit status is 1.
901 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
902 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
903 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
905 ** Internationalization changes
907 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
908 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
909 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
910 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
911 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
912 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
914 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
915 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
917 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
918 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
919 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
920 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
923 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
924 the right window edge.
926 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
927 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
928 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
929 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
930 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
932 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
933 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
935 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
938 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
939 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
940 automatically select it.
942 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
943 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
944 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
946 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
947 selected for installation.
949 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
951 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
952 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
953 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
955 ** Custom theme changes
957 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
958 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
960 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
961 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
962 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
963 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
964 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
965 built-in Custom themes.
967 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
968 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
969 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
970 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
972 ** Improved GTK integration
974 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
975 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
977 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
978 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
979 the default is taken from desktop settings.
981 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
982 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
983 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
986 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
987 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
989 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
990 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
992 ** Graphical interface changes
994 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
995 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
996 displayed as a space.
998 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
999 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
1001 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
1002 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
1003 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
1007 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1008 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1010 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
1011 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
1012 do the right thing in batch mode.
1014 ** Scrolling changes
1016 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
1017 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
1018 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
1019 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
1021 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1023 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1024 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1026 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
1027 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
1029 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
1030 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
1031 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
1032 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
1033 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
1035 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
1036 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
1037 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
1038 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
1041 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1042 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1044 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
1045 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
1046 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
1047 now includes the SELinux context.
1049 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1050 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1054 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1055 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1057 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1058 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1060 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1062 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
1063 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
1064 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
1067 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
1068 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
1069 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
1070 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
1071 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
1073 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1074 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1076 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
1077 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
1078 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
1079 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
1084 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1085 in the quitted window.
1087 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1088 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1090 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1092 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
1093 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
1094 for choosing the displaying window).
1096 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1097 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1099 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1100 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1102 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
1103 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
1104 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
1105 from which such space was obtained.
1107 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
1108 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
1109 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
1110 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
1111 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
1113 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1114 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
1115 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1117 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1118 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1120 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
1121 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
1122 been shown in a specific window.
1124 ** Minibuffer changes
1126 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
1127 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
1128 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
1130 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
1131 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
1132 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
1134 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1136 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1138 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
1139 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
1140 successful operation.
1142 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
1143 for `list-colors-display'.
1145 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
1148 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
1152 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
1153 `isearch-yank-line'.
1155 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
1156 `isearch-yank-kill'.
1158 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
1160 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
1162 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
1163 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
1164 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
1165 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
1168 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
1169 also deletes newlines around point.
1173 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
1174 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
1175 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
1178 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
1179 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
1180 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
1182 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
1183 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
1184 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
1185 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
1187 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
1189 ** Selection changes.
1191 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
1192 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
1193 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
1194 mouse commands use the primary selection.
1196 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
1197 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
1199 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
1200 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
1201 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
1202 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
1204 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
1205 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
1206 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
1207 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
1208 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
1210 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
1212 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
1213 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
1214 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
1216 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
1218 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
1219 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
1220 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
1222 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
1223 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
1225 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
1226 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
1227 between applications.
1229 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
1231 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
1232 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
1233 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
1234 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
1235 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
1237 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
1239 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
1240 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
1242 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
1243 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
1244 number to count from and for a format string.
1246 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
1247 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
1248 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
1249 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
1250 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
1252 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
1253 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
1254 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
1255 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
1256 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
1258 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
1259 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
1260 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
1261 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
1262 follows `replace-match'.
1265 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1267 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
1271 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
1272 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
1273 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
1274 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
1276 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
1278 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
1280 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
1284 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
1286 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
1287 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
1289 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
1291 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
1292 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
1294 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
1295 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
1297 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
1298 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
1299 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
1301 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
1303 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
1304 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
1306 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
1307 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
1308 Use `appt-activate' instead.
1310 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1311 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
1312 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
1314 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1315 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1319 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1320 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1322 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1324 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
1325 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
1328 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
1329 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
1330 parsed as a statement continuation.
1332 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1336 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1337 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1339 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
1340 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
1341 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
1343 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
1344 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
1345 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
1350 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
1351 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
1352 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
1354 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
1355 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
1357 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1359 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1360 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1364 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1367 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1368 optionally do not register names.
1370 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1371 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1375 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1376 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1377 instead of using the current buffer.
1379 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1380 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1384 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1385 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1387 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1388 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1389 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1390 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1394 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1395 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1396 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1400 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1401 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1402 debugging of several threads.
1406 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1407 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1411 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1412 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1413 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1414 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1415 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1417 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1418 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1419 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1422 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1424 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1426 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1427 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1428 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1430 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1431 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1433 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1435 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1437 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1438 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1439 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1440 default), this performs tag completion.
1442 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1443 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1445 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1446 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1447 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1451 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1452 in the Rmail incoming message.
1454 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1455 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1456 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1460 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1461 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1462 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1464 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1465 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1469 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1470 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1471 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1474 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1475 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1476 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1477 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1478 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1479 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1480 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1481 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1483 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1484 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1486 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1488 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1490 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1491 the credentials file.
1493 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1494 If you had that set, you need to put
1496 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1498 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1500 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
1501 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
1502 to the address you wish to use instead.
1506 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1507 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1509 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1510 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1511 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1512 connection is established.
1514 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1515 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1517 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1518 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1519 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1520 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1522 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1523 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1524 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1525 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1526 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1527 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1529 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1530 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1532 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1533 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1534 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1536 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1537 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1539 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1543 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1547 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1549 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1550 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1552 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1553 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1555 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1556 default value to "".
1558 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1559 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1561 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1562 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1563 the degree of parallelism.
1565 ** VC and related modes
1567 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1568 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1569 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1570 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1571 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1573 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1575 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1576 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1577 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1578 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1579 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1581 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1582 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1584 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1585 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1586 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1587 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1588 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1589 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1591 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1592 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1594 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1595 this was not advertised at the time.
1597 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1598 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1599 this was not advertised at the time.
1605 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1607 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1608 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1609 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1610 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1612 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1614 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1616 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1618 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1619 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1621 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1625 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1626 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1628 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1629 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1631 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1633 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1635 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1638 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1640 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1641 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1643 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1644 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1645 matching closing one.
1647 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1648 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1649 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1650 electric-indent-functions.
1652 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1653 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1654 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1656 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1657 from which other modes can be derived.
1659 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1661 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1662 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1663 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1664 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1667 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1668 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1670 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1671 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1673 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1675 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1676 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1677 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1678 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1679 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1680 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1683 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1685 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1686 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1688 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1690 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1691 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1692 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1693 command still toggles the minor mode.
1695 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1696 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1697 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1698 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1699 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1701 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1702 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1703 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1704 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1705 argument `bidi-class'.
1707 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1708 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1709 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1710 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1712 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1713 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1714 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1717 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1718 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1719 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1720 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1721 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1722 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1723 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1725 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1726 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1727 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1728 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1731 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1732 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1733 replaced all known uses.
1735 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1736 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1737 major mode is special).
1739 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1741 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1742 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1743 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1744 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1745 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1746 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1748 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1749 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1751 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1752 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1753 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1754 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1756 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1757 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1758 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1760 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1762 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1763 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1764 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1766 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1767 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1768 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1769 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1770 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1771 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1772 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1773 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1774 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1775 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1776 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1777 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1778 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1779 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1780 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1781 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1782 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1783 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1784 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1785 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1786 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1788 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1789 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1791 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1792 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1793 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1794 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1795 *** `e' (`float-e').
1797 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1798 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1800 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1801 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1802 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1803 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1805 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1806 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1807 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1810 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1812 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1813 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1814 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1815 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1818 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1819 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1821 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1822 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1824 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1826 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1827 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1829 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1830 declared as dynamically bound.
1832 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1834 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1835 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1836 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1838 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1840 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1841 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1843 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1844 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1845 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1846 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1847 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1848 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1850 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1851 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1852 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1856 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1857 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1858 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1859 buffer) in the window tree.
1861 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1864 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1865 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1866 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1867 act on any window including internal ones.
1869 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1870 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1871 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1872 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1873 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1875 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1876 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1877 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1878 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1879 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1881 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1882 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1883 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1884 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1885 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1886 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1888 *** Window resizing functions.
1889 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1890 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1891 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1893 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1894 live window on that frame instead.
1896 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1897 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1898 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1899 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1900 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1901 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1903 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1904 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1905 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1906 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1907 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1908 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1910 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1911 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1912 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1913 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1915 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1916 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1917 The old names are kept as aliases.
1921 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1922 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1923 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1924 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1926 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1928 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1929 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1930 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1931 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1932 are user-customizable variables.
1934 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1936 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1937 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1938 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1942 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1943 properties of the current completion:
1944 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1945 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1947 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1948 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1950 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1952 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1953 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1954 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1955 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1956 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1957 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1958 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1960 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1961 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1962 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1964 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1965 behavior of `completing-read'.
1967 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1968 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1970 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1971 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1975 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1976 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1977 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1978 non-nil return value.
1980 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1981 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1982 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1983 advertised at the time.)
1987 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1988 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1990 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1992 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1994 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
1995 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
1996 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
1998 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1999 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2001 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2002 named Emacs server instances.
2004 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2005 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2007 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2008 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2010 ** New input reading functions
2012 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2013 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2015 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
2016 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
2019 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2021 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
2022 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
2023 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
2026 ** Syntax parsing changes
2028 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
2029 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
2030 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
2031 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
2032 Together with this new variable come a new hook
2033 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
2034 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
2035 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
2038 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2040 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2042 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2044 ** Major and minor mode changes
2046 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2047 as well as those in the -*- line.
2049 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2052 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
2053 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
2054 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
2056 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2057 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2059 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
2060 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
2061 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
2063 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2065 ** File-handling changes
2067 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
2068 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
2069 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
2070 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
2072 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2074 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
2075 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
2076 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
2080 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2082 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2084 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2086 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2089 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2090 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2092 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2093 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2095 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
2096 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
2097 ImageMagick installation supports.
2099 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2100 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2103 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2104 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2106 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
2107 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
2108 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
2109 `image-transform-set-scale'.
2111 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
2112 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
2113 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
2114 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
2116 ** XML and HTML parsing
2117 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
2118 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
2119 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
2120 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
2122 ** Networking and encryption changes
2124 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
2125 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
2126 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
2127 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
2128 must also be supplied.
2130 *** New library gnutls.el.
2131 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
2132 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
2133 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
2134 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
2135 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
2136 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
2139 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
2140 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
2141 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
2145 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
2147 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
2148 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
2149 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
2150 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
2151 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
2152 displayed with a "spinning bar".
2154 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
2155 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
2157 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
2158 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
2159 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
2160 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
2161 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
2162 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
2164 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
2166 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
2167 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
2168 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
2169 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
2171 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
2172 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
2174 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
2175 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
2176 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
2177 an empty uninterned symbol.
2179 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
2181 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2183 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
2184 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
2186 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
2187 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
2189 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
2191 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
2192 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
2194 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
2197 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
2199 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
2200 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
2202 ** New configure.bat options
2204 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
2206 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
2208 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
2210 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
2212 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
2214 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
2215 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
2217 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
2218 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
2220 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
2221 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
2224 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2225 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2227 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2228 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2229 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2230 (at your option) any later version.
2232 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2233 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2234 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2235 GNU General Public License for more details.
2237 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2238 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2243 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"