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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
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.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17 Temporary note:
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.
22
23 \f
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
25
26 ** New configure option '--without-all' to disable additional features.
27 This disables most of the features that are normally enabled by default.
28
29 ** New configure option '--enable-link-time-optimization' to utilize
30 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
31
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
36 may be useful.
37
38 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
39 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
40
41 ---
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
44 to emacs-VERSION.
45
46 ---
47 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
48
49 ---
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
52 you want them.
53
54 ---
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.
57
58 ---
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).
62
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.
67
68 ---
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.
75
76 \f
77 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
78
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.
82
83 ---
84 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
85
86 \f
87 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
88
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.
92
93 ** Help changes
94
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.
100
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).
104
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.
111
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.
116
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.
121
122 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
123 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
124
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.
127
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-
132 option.
133
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.
137
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
141 treated as images.
142
143 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
144 :background image spec property.
145
146 ** Internationalization changes
147
148 *** New language environment: Persian.
149
150 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
151 See the "Face Attributes" section of the Elisp manual.
152
153 ** New fringe bitmap exclamation-mark.
154
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.
158
159 +++
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.
162
163 +++
164 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
165 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
166
167 ** Mode line changes
168
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.
172
173 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to
174 invokes `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
175
176 +++
177 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
178 local variables on remote hosts.
179
180 +++
181 ** `insert-char' is now a command, and `ucs-insert' an obsolete alias
182 for it.
183
184 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
185 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
186
187 \f
188 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
189
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
192 accidentally type.
193
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'.
197
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.
201
202 +++
203 ** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register.
204
205 +++
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.
209
210 ** Search changes
211
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.
215
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'.
224
225 ** query-replace changes
226
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'.
231
232 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
233 prompts for a column number.
234
235 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
236 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
237
238 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
239
240 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
241 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
242
243 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
244
245 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
246 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
247
248 ** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
249
250 \f
251 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
252
253 ** Compilation has a new `compilation-always-kill' configuration variable.
254
255 ** Term changes
256
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'
262 faces.
263
264 ** CL
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
268 the "cl--" prefix).
269
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'.
274
275 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is just a bunch of aliases that
276 provide the old non-prefixed names.
277
278 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
279 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
280
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.
285
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.
289
290 ** Desktop
291
292 *** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory. Desktop
293 files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
294
295 ** Python mode
296
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
300 text based shell).
301
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
308
309 *** Some user options have been removed:
310
311 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
312
313 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
314 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
315
316 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
317 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
318
319 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
320 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
321
322 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
323 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
324
325 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
326 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
327 No longer relevant.
328
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
349
350 ** VHDL mode
351
352 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
353
354 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
355
356 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
357
358 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
359
360 ** SQL Mode
361
362 *** DB2 added `sql-db2-escape-newlines'
363
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.
367
368 ** Diff mode
369
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.
378
379 *** The new command `diff-remove-trailing-whitespace' fixes trailing
380 whitespace problems introduced by the diff.
381
382 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode
383 on high color displays.
384
385 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
386 See flymake-fringe-indicator-position, flymake-error-bitmap and
387 flymake-warning-bitmap.
388
389 ** `sh-script'
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.
393
394 ** reStructuredText mode
395
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.
398
399 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
400 modes. TAB is your friend.
401
402 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
403 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
404
405 *** Major revision of comment handling.
406
407 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
408
409 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
410 the experience for Sphinx users.
411
412 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
413
414 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
415
416 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
417
418 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
419
420 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
421
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'.
424
425 ** Apropos
426
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.
430
431 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
432 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
433
434 ** Buffer Menu
435 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
436
437 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
438 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
439
440 ** Calendar
441
442 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
443 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
444
445 ** Customize
446
447 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
448
449 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
450 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
451 these commands now).
452
453 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
454 channel keys found, if any.
455
456 ** Dired
457
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.
461
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.
465
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.
468
469 ** Shell
470
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.
474
475 ** FFAP
476
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").
480
481 ** Follow mode
482
483 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
484
485 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
486 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
487
488 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
489 shared key for Emacs Server.
490
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.
493
494 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
495
496 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
497
498 ** Tramp
499
500 +++
501 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy
502 definitions. See the manual for details.
503
504 +++
505 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
506
507 ** D-Bus
508
509 +++
510 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
511
512 +++
513 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
514
515 +++
516 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
517 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
518
519 +++
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.
522
523 +++
524 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
525
526 +++
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
529 details.
530
531 +++
532 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
533
534 +++
535 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
536
537 +++
538 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
539 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
540 server properties.
541
542 ** Package Menu
543
544 *** Newly-available packages are listed in the Package Menu as "new",
545 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
546
547 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
548
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.
551
552 ** URL
553
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.
559
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.
563
564 ** Obsolete packages:
565
566 *** assoc.el
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.
570
571 *** bruce.el
572
573 *** ledit.el
574
575 *** mailpost.el
576
577 *** mouse-sel.el
578
579 *** patcomp.el
580
581 *** cust-print.el
582
583 \f
584 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
585 \f
586 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
587
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.
592
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.
596
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.
600
601 +++
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
605 `custom-variable-p'.
606
607 +++
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.
612
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).
615
616 +++
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.
620
621 ** Spelling changes.
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.
624
625 *** Renamed functions
626
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
635
636 *** Renamed hooks
637 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
638 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
639
640 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
641 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
642 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
643
644 *** Renamed Lisp variables
645
646 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
647 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
648 deactivate-current-input-method-function
649
650 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed:
651
652 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
653 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
654 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'.
655
656 \f
657 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.3
658
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
664 the cycle.
665
666 ** New minor mode `read-only-mode' to replace toggle-read-only (now obsolete).
667
668 ** New functions `autoloadp' and `autoload-do-load'.
669
670 ** New function `posnp' to test if an object is a `posn'.
671
672 ** `function-get' fetches the property of a function, following aliases.
673
674 ** `toggle-read-only' accepts a second argument specifying whether to
675 print a message, if called from Lisp.
676
677 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
678 `setf' is autoloaded and `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
679
680 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
681 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
682
683 ** `macro-declaration-function' is obsolete, use `macro-declarations-alist'.
684
685 ** New function `set-temporary-overlay-map'.
686
687 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
688
689 ** New error type and new function `user-error'. Doesn't trigger the debugger.
690
691 ** Debugger
692 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill'.
693
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.
697
698 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
699 recursive invocations.
700
701 +++
702 ** New utility function `buffer-narrowed-p'.
703
704 ** Window changes
705
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.
708
709 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window'.
710
711 *** New option `temp-buffer-resize-frames'.
712
713 *** New function `fit-frame-to-buffer' and new option
714 `fit-frame-to-buffer-bottom-margin'.
715
716 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected' and
717 `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
718
719 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
720 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
721 selected.
722
723 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
724 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
725
726 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
727 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
728
729 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
730 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
731 in Emacs 24.1:
732 +++
733 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
734 **** `special-display-regexps'
735 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
736 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
737 **** `special-display-function'
738
739 ** Completion
740
741 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
742 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
743
744 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
745 table, but with a different prefix.
746
747 ** Time
748
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.
752
753 ** Floating point
754
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.
760
761 ** New function file-name-base.
762
763 ** New function `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
764
765 ** `automount-dir-prefix' is obsolete.
766 ** `buffer-has-markers-at' is obsolete.
767 ** `window-system-version' is obsolete.
768 \f
769 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on non-free operating systems
770
771 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
772
773 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
774 is detected.
775
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.
779
780 ** On MS-Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
781 \f
782 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
783
784 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
785
786 \f
787 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
788
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
792 --without-gconf.
793
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.
798
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.
803
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.
809
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.
814
815 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
816 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
817
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
821 to about 2 GiB.
822
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.
826
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.
830
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'.
833
834 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
835 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
836
837 \f
838 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
839
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.)
843
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
847 Nextstep builds).
848
849 \f
850 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
851
852 ** Completion
853
854 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
855 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
856
857 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
858
859 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
860 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
861
862 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
863
864 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
865 default completion style in certain circumstances.
866
867 *** New completion style `substring'.
868
869 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
870
871 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
872
873 ** Mail changes
874
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).
881
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.
885
886 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
887 and Mail mode changes
888
889 ** Emacs server and client changes
890
891 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
892
893 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
894
895 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
896 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
897
898 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
899 its exit status is 1.
900
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.
904
905 ** Internationalization changes
906
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.
913
914 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
915 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
916
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
921 paragraph.
922
923 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
924 the right window edge.
925
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.
931
932 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
933 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
934
935 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
936 (U+2010 and U+2011).
937
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.
941
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.
945
946 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
947 selected for installation.
948
949 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
950
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'.
954
955 ** Custom theme changes
956
957 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
958 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
959
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.
966
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.
971
972 ** Improved GTK integration
973
974 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
975 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
976
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.
980
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
984 entries for this.
985
986 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
987 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
988
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.
991
992 ** Graphical interface changes
993
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.
997
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.
1000
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
1004
1005 ** Exiting changes
1006
1007 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1008 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1009
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.
1013
1014 ** Scrolling changes
1015
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.
1020
1021 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1022
1023 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1024 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1025
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'.
1028
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.
1034
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
1039 margin.
1040
1041 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1042 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1043
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.
1048
1049 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1050 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1051
1052 ** Trash changes
1053
1054 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1055 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1056
1057 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1058 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1059
1060 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1061
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
1065 subdirectories.
1066
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.
1072
1073 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1074 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1075
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
1080 corresponding way.
1081
1082 ** Window changes
1083
1084 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1085 in the quitted window.
1086
1087 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1088 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1089
1090 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1091
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).
1095
1096 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1097 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1098
1099 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1100 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1101
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.
1106
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.
1112
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.
1116
1117 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1118 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1119
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.
1123
1124 ** Minibuffer changes
1125
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.
1129
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'.
1133
1134 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1135
1136 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1137
1138 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
1139 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
1140 successful operation.
1141
1142 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
1143 for `list-colors-display'.
1144
1145 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
1146
1147 \f
1148 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
1149
1150 ** Search changes
1151
1152 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
1153 `isearch-yank-line'.
1154
1155 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
1156 `isearch-yank-kill'.
1157
1158 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
1159
1160 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
1161
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
1166 alias for it.
1167
1168 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
1169 also deletes newlines around point.
1170
1171 ** Deletion changes
1172
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
1176 instead.
1177
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'.
1181
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.
1186
1187 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
1188
1189 ** Selection changes.
1190
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.
1195
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.
1198
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).
1203
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.
1209
1210 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
1211
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'.
1215
1216 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
1217
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.
1221
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.
1224
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.
1228
1229 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
1230
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.
1236
1237 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
1238
1239 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
1240 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
1241
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.
1245
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.
1251
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).
1257
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'.
1263
1264 \f
1265 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1266
1267 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
1268
1269 ** BibTeX mode
1270
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'.
1275
1276 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
1277
1278 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
1279
1280 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
1281
1282 ** Browse-url
1283
1284 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
1285
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.
1288
1289 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
1290
1291 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
1292 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
1293
1294 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
1295 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
1296
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.
1300
1301 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
1302
1303 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
1304 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
1305
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.
1309
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)
1313
1314 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1315 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1316
1317 ** CC Mode
1318
1319 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1320 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1321
1322 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1323
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,
1326 not the top level.
1327
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.
1331
1332 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1333
1334 ** Compilation mode
1335
1336 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1337 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1338
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'.
1342
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*
1346 buffer was used.
1347
1348 ** Customize
1349
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.
1353
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.
1356
1357 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1358
1359 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1360 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1361
1362 ** D-Bus
1363
1364 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1365 or session bus.
1366
1367 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1368 optionally do not register names.
1369
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.
1372
1373 ** Dired-x
1374
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.
1378
1379 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1380 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1381
1382 ** ERC changes
1383
1384 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1385 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1386
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.
1391
1392 ** Eshell changes
1393
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.
1397
1398 ** gdb-mi
1399
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.
1403
1404 ** Image mode
1405
1406 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1407 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1408
1409 ** Info
1410
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.
1416
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
1420 by default.
1421
1422 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1423
1424 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1425
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.
1429
1430 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1431 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1432
1433 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1434
1435 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1436
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.
1441
1442 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1443 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1444
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.
1448
1449 ** Rmail
1450
1451 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1452 in the Rmail incoming message.
1453
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.
1457
1458 ** Shell mode
1459
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.
1463
1464 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1465 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1466
1467 ** SMTPmail
1468
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'
1472 to change this.
1473
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
1482
1483 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1484 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1485
1486 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1487
1488 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1489
1490 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1491 the credentials file.
1492
1493 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1494 If you had that set, you need to put
1495
1496 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1497
1498 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1499
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.
1503
1504 ** SQL mode
1505
1506 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1507 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1508
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.
1513
1514 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1515 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1516
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'.
1521
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.
1528
1529 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1530 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1531
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.
1535
1536 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1537 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1538
1539 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1540
1541 ** TeX modes
1542
1543 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1544
1545 ** Tramp
1546
1547 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1548
1549 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1550 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1551
1552 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1553 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1554
1555 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1556 default value to "".
1557
1558 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1559 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1560
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.
1564
1565 ** VC and related modes
1566
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.
1572
1573 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1574
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.
1580
1581 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1582 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1583
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.
1590
1591 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1592 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1593
1594 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1595 this was not advertised at the time.
1596
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.
1600
1601 ** Obsolete modes
1602
1603 *** abbrevlist.el
1604
1605 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1606
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)
1611
1612 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1613
1614 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1615
1616 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1617
1618 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1619 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1620
1621 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1622
1623 ** Miscellaneous
1624
1625 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1626 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1627
1628 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1629 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1630
1631 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1632
1633 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1634
1635 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1636
1637 \f
1638 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1639
1640 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1641 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1642
1643 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1644 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1645 matching closing one.
1646
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.
1651
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.
1655
1656 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1657 from which other modes can be derived.
1658
1659 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1660
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
1665 secrets.
1666
1667 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1668 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1669
1670 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1671 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1672
1673 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1674
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.
1681
1682 \f
1683 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1684
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.
1687
1688 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1689
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.
1694
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".
1700
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'.
1706
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.
1711
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
1715 of the header line.
1716
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.
1724
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
1729 older Emacsen too.
1730
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.
1734
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).
1738
1739 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1740
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'.
1747
1748 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1749 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1750
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.
1755
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.
1759
1760 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1761
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):
1765
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')
1787
1788 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1789 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1790
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').
1796
1797 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1798 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1799
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'.
1804
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'.
1808
1809 \f
1810 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1811
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
1816 file.
1817
1818 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1819 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1820
1821 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1822 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1823
1824 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1825
1826 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1827 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1828
1829 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1830 declared as dynamically bound.
1831
1832 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1833
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.
1837
1838 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1839
1840 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1841 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1842
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.)
1849
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.
1853
1854 ** Window changes
1855
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.
1860
1861 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1862 windows.
1863
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.
1868
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.
1874
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.
1880
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.
1887
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.
1892
1893 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1894 live window on that frame instead.
1895
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.
1902
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.
1909
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.
1914
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.
1918
1919 *** Display actions
1920
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.
1925
1926 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1927
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.
1933
1934 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1935
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.
1939
1940 ** Completion
1941
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.
1946
1947 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1948 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1949
1950 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1951
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.
1959
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'.
1963
1964 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1965 behavior of `completing-read'.
1966
1967 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1968 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1969
1970 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1971 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1972
1973 ** New hook types
1974
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.
1979
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.)
1984
1985 ** Debugger changes
1986
1987 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1988 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1989
1990 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1991
1992 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1993
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.
1997
1998 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1999 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2000
2001 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2002 named Emacs server instances.
2003
2004 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2005 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2006
2007 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2008 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2009
2010 ** New input reading functions
2011
2012 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2013 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2014
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
2017 invalid input.
2018
2019 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2020
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
2024 obsolete alias.
2025
2026 ** Syntax parsing changes
2027
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
2036 syntactic rules.
2037
2038 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2039
2040 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2041
2042 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2043
2044 ** Major and minor mode changes
2045
2046 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2047 as well as those in the -*- line.
2048
2049 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2050 should be derived.
2051
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.
2055
2056 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2057 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2058
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.
2062
2063 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2064
2065 ** File-handling changes
2066
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).
2071
2072 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2073
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 "--")'.
2077
2078 ** Image API
2079
2080 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2081
2082 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2083
2084 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2085
2086 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2087 is being animated.
2088
2089 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2090 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2091
2092 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2093 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2094
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.
2098
2099 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2100 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2101 functions.
2102
2103 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2104 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2105
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'.
2110
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.
2115
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.
2121
2122 ** Networking and encryption changes
2123
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.
2129
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'
2137 greater than 0.
2138
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.
2142
2143 ** Isearch
2144
2145 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
2146
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".
2153
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'.
2156
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'.
2163
2164 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
2165
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))
2170
2171 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
2172 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
2173
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.
2178
2179 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
2180
2181 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2182
2183 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
2184 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
2185
2186 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
2187 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
2188
2189 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
2190
2191 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
2192 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
2193
2194 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
2195
2196 \f
2197 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
2198
2199 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
2200 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
2201
2202 ** New configure.bat options
2203
2204 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
2205
2206 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
2207
2208 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
2209
2210 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
2211
2212 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
2213
2214 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
2215 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
2216
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.)
2219
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.
2222
2223 \f
2224 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2225 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2226
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.
2231
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.
2236
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/>.
2239
2240 \f
2241 Local variables:
2242 mode: outline
2243 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
2244 end: