]> code.delx.au - gnu-emacs/blob - etc/NEWS
Add entry for `display-message-or-buffer'.
[gnu-emacs] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-09-27
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
7
8 \f
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
11 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
12
13 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
14
15 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
16 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
17
18 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
19 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
20 to list them.
21
22 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
23 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
24
25 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
26 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
27
28 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
29 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
30 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions.
31
32 \f
33 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
34
35 +++
36 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
37 to be visited as images.
38
39 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
40 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
41
42 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs header-line
43 (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window), so that it
44 remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled. This behavior
45 may be disabled by customizing the option `Info-use-header-line'.
46
47 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
48 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
49
50 +++
51 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
52 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
53
54 ** Gnus changes.
55
56 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
57 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
58 internationalization and mail-fetching.
59
60 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
61 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
62
63 If you used procmail like in
64
65 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
66 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
67 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
68 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
69
70 this now has changed to
71
72 (setq mail-sources
73 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
74 :suffix ".in")))
75
76 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
77 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
78
79 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
80 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
81
82 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
83 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
84 Separate MIME packages like SEMI will not work. There are built-in
85 facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is now just a
86 compatibility layer.
87
88 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
89 called to position point.
90
91 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
92 summary buffers and NOV files.
93
94 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
95 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
96
97 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
98 subtly different manner.
99
100 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
101 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
102 ever-changing layouts.
103
104 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
105
106 *** There is image support.
107
108 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
109 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
110 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
111 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
112 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
113 on.
114
115 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
116 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
117 file that is already visited under a different name.
118
119 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
120 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
121
122 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
123 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
124 signaled.
125
126 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
127 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
128 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
129 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
130 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
131 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
132
133 +++
134 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
135 and displayes information about that.
136
137 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
138 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
139
140 ** Polish and German translations of Emacs' reference card have been
141 added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex' and `de-refcard.tex'.
142 Postscript files are included.
143
144 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
145 `dired-ref.tex'.
146
147 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
148 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
149
150 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
151 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
152 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
153 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
154 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
155 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
156
157 +++
158 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
159 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
160 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
161 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
162
163 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
164 a version-dependent component.
165
166 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
167 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
168 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
169 character is still bound as before.
170
171 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
172 using that menu.
173
174 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
175 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
176
177 +++
178 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
179 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
180 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
181 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
182 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
183 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
184 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
185
186 +++
187 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
188 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
189 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
190 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
191 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
192 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
193 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
194 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
195 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
196
197 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
198 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
199
200 +++
201 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
202 point in a pop-up window.
203
204 +++
205 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
206 displays all characters in that character set.
207
208 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
209 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
210
211 +++
212 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
213 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
214 defined on newcomment.el.
215
216 +++
217 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
218
219 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
220 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
221
222 +++
223 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
224 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
225 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
226 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
227
228 +++
229 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
230 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
231 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
232 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
233
234 +++
235 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
236 on the display using several methods
237
238 +++
239 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
240 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
241 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
242
243 +++
244 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
245 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
246
247 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
248
249 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
250 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
251
252 +++
253 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
254 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
255 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
256 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
257
258 +++
259 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
260 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
261 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
262
263 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
264 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
265
266 +++
267 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
268 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
269 this behavior.
270
271 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
272 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
273 Emacs dump core.
274
275 +++
276 ** New X resources recognized
277
278 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
279 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
280 is useful for debugging X problems.
281
282 Example:
283
284 emacs.synchronous: true
285
286 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
287 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
288 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
289 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
290 visual class names are
291
292 TrueColor
293 PseudoColor
294 DirectColor
295 StaticColor
296 GrayScale
297 StaticGray
298
299 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
300 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
301 meaning.
302
303 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
304 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
305 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
306 visual.
307
308 Example:
309
310 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
311
312 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
313 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
314 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
315 resource values are `true' or `on'.
316
317 Example:
318
319 emacs.privateColormap: true
320
321 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
322 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
323 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
324
325 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
326 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
327 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
328 be customized.
329
330 +++
331 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
332
333 +++
334 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
335 all frames except the selected one.
336
337 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
338 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
339
340 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
341 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
342 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
343 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
344
345 +++
346 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
347 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
348
349 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
350 read mail from the menu etc.
351
352 +++
353 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
354 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
355
356 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
357
358 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
359 macros
360
361 Key binding Macro
362 -------------------------
363 C-c C-c C-s @strong
364 C-c C-c C-e @emph
365 C-c C-c u @url
366 C-c C-c q @quotation
367 C-c C-c m @email
368
369 ** Changes in Outline mode.
370
371 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
372 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
373 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
374
375 ** Changes to Emacs Server
376
377 +++
378 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
379 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
380 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
381 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
382 buffers to kill, as before.
383
384 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
385 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
386 this way.
387
388 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
389
390 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
391 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
392 use. Default is 1000.
393
394 +++
395 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
396 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
397
398 +++
399 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
400 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
401 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
402 buffers.
403
404 +++
405 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
406 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
407 .emacs file.
408
409 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
410 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
411
412 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
413 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
414 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
415
416 ** Faces and frame parameters.
417
418 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
419 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
420 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
421 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
422 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
423 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
424 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
425
426 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
427 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
428 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
429 `default' face and vice versa.
430
431 +++
432 ** New face `menu'.
433
434 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
435 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
436 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
437
438 +++
439 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
440
441 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
442 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
443 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
444 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
445
446 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
447 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
448 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
449
450 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
451 `ScreenGamma'.
452
453 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
454
455 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
456 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
457 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
458 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
459 the text.
460
461 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
462
463 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
464 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
465 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
466 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
467 specify a font.
468
469 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
470 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
471 under Lisp changes, below.
472
473 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
474
475 +++
476 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
477 of its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid;
478 otherwise, it is hollow.
479
480 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
481 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
482 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
483 customizing face `fringe'.
484
485 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
486 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
487
488 ** LessTif support.
489
490 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see <http://www.lesstif.org>).
491 You will need a version 0.88.1 or later.
492
493 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
494
495 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
496 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
497 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
498 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
499 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
500 Emacs.
501
502 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
503 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
504 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
505 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
506 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
507 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
508
509 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
510 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
511 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
512 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
513 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
514 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
515
516 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
517 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
518 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
519 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
520 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
521
522 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
523
524 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
525 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
526 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
527
528 +++
529 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
530
531 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
532 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
533 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
534 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
535 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
536 whitespace.
537
538 +++
539 ** Busy-cursor.
540
541 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
542 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
543
544 +++
545 ** Blinking cursor
546
547 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
548 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
549 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
550 the group `cursor'.
551
552 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
553
554 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
555 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
556 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
557 details.
558
559 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
560 have to do anything to activate it.
561
562 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
563
564 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
565 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
566 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
567 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
568
569 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
570
571 +++
572 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
573
574 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
575
576 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
577 LessTif/Motif one.
578
579 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
580 LessTif and Motif.
581
582 +++
583 ** Hscrolling in C code.
584
585 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
586 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
587 customized.
588
589 ** Tool bar support.
590
591 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
592 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
593 Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is displayed.
594 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
595 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
596
597 +++
598 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
599
600 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
601 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
602 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
603 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
604 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
605
606 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
607
608 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
609 buffers.
610
611 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
612 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
613
614 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
615
616 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
617 `*') toggles the status.
618
619 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
620
621 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
622
623 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
624 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
625 non-nil.
626
627 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
628
629 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
630 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
631 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
632 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
633 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
634 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
635 on terminals.
636
637 ** Sound support
638
639 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
640 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
641 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
642
643 +++
644 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
645 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
646 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
647 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
648 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
649 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
650
651 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
652
653 +++
654 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
655
656 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
657 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
658 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
659
660 +++
661 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
662 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
663
664 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
665 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
666 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
667
668 +++
669 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
670
671 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
672 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
673 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
674 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
675
676 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
677 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
678 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
679 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
680
681 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
682 notably at the end of lines.
683
684 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
685 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
686
687 +++
688 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
689
690 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
691 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
692 after each match to get the replacement text.
693
694 +++
695 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
696 you edit the replacement string.
697
698 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', lets
699 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
700 lisp-complete-symbol.
701
702 +++
703 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
704
705 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
706 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
707 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
708 window size by setting the following variable:
709
710 - User option: max-mini-window-height
711
712 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
713 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
714 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
715
716 Default is 0.25.
717
718 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
719
720 ** Changes to hideshow.el
721
722 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
723 selection and traversal, includes more isearch support, and has more
724 conventional keybindings.
725
726 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
727
728 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
729 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
730 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
731 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
732 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
733 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
734
735 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
736 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
737 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
738 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
739
740 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
741
742 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
743 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
744 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
745 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
746 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
747
748 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
749 something like this in your .emacs.
750
751 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
752 (lambda ()
753 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
754
755 *** New customization var: `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function'
756
757 Normally, `hs-hide-all' hides everything, leaving only the
758 header lines of top-level forms (and comments, unless var
759 `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is non-nil). It does this by
760 moving point to each top-level block beginning and hiding the
761 block there. In some major modes (for example, Java), this
762 behavior results in few blocks left visible, which may not be so
763 useful.
764
765 You can now set var `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' to a
766 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead
767 of the normal block-hiding function. For example, the following
768 code defines a function to hide one level down and move point
769 appropriately, and then tells hideshow to use the new function.
770
771 (defun ttn-hs-hide-level-1 ()
772 (hs-hide-level 1)
773 (forward-sexp 1))
774 (setq hs-hide-all-non-comment-function 'ttn-hs-hide-level-1)
775
776 The name `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' was chosen to
777 emphasize that this function is not called for comment blocks,
778 only for code blocks.
779
780 *** Command deleted: `hs-show-region'
781
782 Historical Note: This command was added to handle "unbalanced
783 parentheses" emergencies back when hideshow.el used selective
784 display for implementation.
785
786 *** Commands rebound to more conventional keys
787
788 The hideshow commands used to be bound to keys of the form "C-c
789 LETTER". This is contrary to the Emacs keybinding convention,
790 which reserves that space for user modification. Here are the
791 new bindings (which includes the addition of `hs-toggle-hiding'):
792
793 hs-hide-block C-c C-h
794 hs-show-block C-c C-s
795 hs-hide-all C-c C-M-h
796 hs-show-all C-c C-M-s
797 hs-hide-level C-c C-l
798 hs-toggle-hiding C-c C-c
799 hs-mouse-toggle-hiding [(shift button-2)]
800
801 These were chosen to roughly imitate those used by Outline mode.
802
803 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
804
805 +++
806 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
807 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
808 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
809
810 +++
811 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
812 current buffer.
813
814 +++
815 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
816 in a log file.
817
818 +++
819 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
820 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
821
822 +++
823 *** Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
824 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
825 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be cutomized.
826 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
827
828 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock
829 highlighting.
830
831 ** Changes in Font Lock
832
833 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
834 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
835 mode.
836
837 ** Comint (subshell) changes
838
839 By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp' to
840 distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which parts of
841 the text were output by the process, and which entered by the user, and
842 attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use this information.
843 Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line, respect field
844 boundaries in a fairly natural manner.
845 To disable this feature, and use the old behavior, set the variable
846 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' to a non-nil value.
847
848 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
849 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
850
851 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
852 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
853 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
854
855 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
856 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
857 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
858
859 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and scheme-interaction-mode
860 now highlight user input and program prompts, and support choosing
861 previous input with mouse-2. To control these feature, see the
862 user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
863
864 ** Changes to Rmail mode
865
866 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
867 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
868 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
869 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
870 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
871 as correspondent.
872
873 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
874 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
875 regexp matching your mail addresses.
876
877 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
878 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
879 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
880 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
881 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
882
883 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
884 like `j'.
885
886 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
887 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
888 digest message.
889
890 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
891 in which folder to put messages automatically.
892
893 ** Changes to TeX mode
894
895 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
896 `latex-mode'.
897
898 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
899
900 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
901 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
902 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
903 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
904 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
905 can be edited from that buffer.
906
907 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
908 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
909 `A' to use all marked entries).
910
911 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
912 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
913
914 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
915 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
916 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
917 been cited.
918
919 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
920 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
921 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
922 in column 1 are always made leaves.
923
924 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
925 has the following new features:
926
927 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
928 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
929 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
930 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
931
932 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
933 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
934 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
935 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
936 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
937 defaults to 1.
938
939 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
940 file names.
941
942 +++
943 ** Tooltips.
944
945 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
946 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
947 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
948
949 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
950 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
951 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
952 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
953
954 +++
955 ** Customize changes
956
957 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
958 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
959 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
960
961 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
962 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
963 default).
964
965 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
966 between custom options. Example:
967
968 (defcustom default-input-method nil
969 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
970 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
971 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
972 :group 'mule
973 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
974 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
975
976 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
977 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
978 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
979
980 ** New features in evaluation commands
981
982 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
983 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
984 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
985 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
986 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
987
988 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
989 code when called with a prefix argument.
990
991 ** Ispell changes
992
993 +++
994 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
995 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
996 spell-checks the current buffer.
997
998 +++
999 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
1000 added.
1001
1002 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
1003 correction is made and re-checked.
1004
1005 *** An Italian and a Portuguese dictionary definition has been added.
1006
1007 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
1008 cases.
1009
1010 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
1011 on syntax errors.
1012
1013 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
1014 end of the buffer.
1015
1016 ** Dired changes
1017
1018 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
1019 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
1020 is, delete only empty directories.
1021
1022 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
1023 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
1024 copy directories recursively.
1025
1026 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
1027 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
1028 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
1029
1030 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
1031 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
1032 directory.
1033
1034 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
1035 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
1036 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
1037 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
1038 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
1039
1040 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
1041 from ls switches.
1042
1043 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
1044 use the -f option when sending mail.
1045
1046 ** CC mode changes.
1047
1048 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
1049 current user setups (although it's believed that these
1050 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
1051 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
1052 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
1053 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
1054 release.
1055
1056 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
1057 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
1058 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
1059 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
1060 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
1061 have to bother.
1062
1063 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
1064 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
1065 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
1066 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
1067 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
1068 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
1069
1070 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
1071 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
1072 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
1073 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
1074 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
1075 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
1076 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
1077 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
1078
1079 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
1080 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
1081 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
1082 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
1083 above.
1084
1085 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
1086 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
1087 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
1088 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
1089 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
1090 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
1091 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
1092 function documentation for more info.
1093
1094 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
1095 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
1096 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
1097 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
1098 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
1099 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
1100 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
1101 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
1102
1103 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
1104
1105 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
1106 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
1107
1108 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
1109 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
1110 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
1111 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
1112 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
1113 style system.
1114
1115 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
1116 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
1117 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
1118 as far as possible.
1119
1120 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
1121 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
1122 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
1123 chapter about this in the manual.
1124
1125 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
1126 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
1127 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
1128 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
1129 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
1130
1131 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
1132 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
1133 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
1134
1135 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
1136 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
1137
1138 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
1139 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
1140 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
1141 inside CC Mode.
1142
1143 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
1144 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
1145 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
1146 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
1147 cc-mode/).
1148
1149 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
1150 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
1151 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
1152 literals.
1153
1154 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
1155 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
1156 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
1157 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
1158 this function.
1159
1160 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
1161 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1162 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1163 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1164 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1165
1166 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1167 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1168 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1169
1170 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1171
1172 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1173 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1174 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1175 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1176
1177 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1178 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1179 the column specified by comment-column.
1180
1181 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1182 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1183 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1184 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1185 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1186 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1187
1188 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1189 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1190 arguments.
1191
1192 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1193
1194 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1195 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1196 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1197 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1198 Provan).
1199
1200 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1201
1202 ** Makefile mode changes
1203
1204 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1205
1206 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
1207 Fontlock mode is active.
1208
1209 ** Isearch changes
1210
1211 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1212 so that searches can be resumed.
1213
1214 *** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
1215 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1216 that started the search.
1217
1218 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1219 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1220
1221 +++
1222 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1223
1224 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1225 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1226 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1227 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1228 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1229 `secondary-selection'.
1230
1231 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1232 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1233 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1234 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1235 usual snappy response.
1236
1237 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1238 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1239 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1240 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1241
1242 +++
1243 ** Changes in sort.el
1244
1245 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
1246 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
1247 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
1248 numeric base.
1249
1250 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
1251
1252 +++
1253 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
1254 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1255 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1256
1257 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1258 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1259
1260 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1261 output ^M at the end of lines.
1262
1263 ** Shell script mode changes.
1264
1265 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1266 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
1267 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1268
1269 ** Etags changes.
1270
1271 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1272
1273 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
1274 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1275 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1276 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1277 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
1278
1279 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1280 declarations when given the --declarations option.
1281
1282 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
1283 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
1284
1285 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1286 types.
1287
1288 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
1289
1290 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1291
1292 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1293 are now tagged.
1294
1295 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1296 variables are tagged.
1297
1298 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1299
1300 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1301 for PSWrap.
1302
1303 +++
1304 ** Changes in etags.el
1305
1306 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1307 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1308 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1309
1310 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1311 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1312
1313 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1314 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1315 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1316 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1317
1318 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1319
1320 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1321 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1322
1323 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1324
1325 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1326 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1327 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1328
1329 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1330 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1331
1332 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1333 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1334
1335 +++
1336 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1337 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1338 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1339
1340 +++
1341 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1342 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1343 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1344 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet; there are basic 8859-14 and
1345 8859-15 fonts at <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> and recent X
1346 releases have 8859-15. There are new Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix
1347 (only) and Polish slash input methods in Leim.
1348
1349 +++
1350 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1351 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1352 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1353
1354 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1355
1356 +++
1357 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1358
1359 +++
1360 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
1361 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1362 expression from that list, are not checked.
1363
1364 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1365 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1366 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1367 the buffer, just like for the local files.
1368
1369 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
1370
1371 +++
1372 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
1373 displays local abbrevs, only.
1374
1375 ** VC Changes
1376
1377 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
1378 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
1379 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
1380 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
1381 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
1382 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of atoms that identify
1383 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
1384 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
1385 file is registered in that backend.
1386
1387 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
1388 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
1389 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
1390 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
1391 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
1392 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
1393
1394 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
1395 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
1396 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
1397 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
1398 where it doesn't make sense.)
1399
1400 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
1401 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
1402 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
1403
1404 *** General Changes
1405
1406 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
1407 checks are always done now.
1408
1409 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
1410 operations.
1411
1412 *** Changes for CVS
1413
1414 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
1415 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
1416 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
1417 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
1418 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
1419 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
1420 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
1421
1422 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
1423 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
1424 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
1425 commit, you can either use C-u C-x v m to perform an update on the
1426 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
1427 entire directory tree.
1428
1429 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
1430 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
1431 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
1432 "watched" by other developers.)
1433
1434 *** Lisp Changes in VC
1435
1436 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
1437 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
1438 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
1439 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
1440 a version system named FOO, you write a library named vc-foo.el, which
1441 provides a number of functions vc-foo-... (see commentary at the end
1442 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
1443 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the atom
1444 `FOO' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
1445
1446 ** New modes and packages
1447
1448 +++
1449 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1450 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1451 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1452 on certain projects.
1453
1454 +++
1455 *** The new package hi-lock.el, text matching interactively entered
1456 regexp's can be highlighted. For example,
1457
1458 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
1459
1460 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1461 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1462 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1463 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1464 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1465 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1466 corresponding file is read.
1467
1468 +++
1469 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
1470 Emacs is idle.
1471
1472 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1473 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1474
1475 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1476 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1477 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1478
1479 +++
1480 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1481 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1482 separate Texinfo file.
1483
1484 +++
1485 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
1486 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1487 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
1488 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
1489 enter checkin log messages.
1490
1491 +++
1492 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1493 without invoking external programs.
1494
1495 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1496 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1497 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1498 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1499 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1500
1501 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1502 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1503
1504 +++
1505 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1506 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1507
1508 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1509 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1510 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1511 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1512 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1513 single step.
1514
1515 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1516 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1517 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1518 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1519
1520 +++
1521 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1522 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1523 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1524
1525 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1526 PostScript.
1527
1528 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1529
1530 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1531
1532 ; comment (until end of line)
1533 A non-terminal
1534 "C" terminal
1535 ?C? special
1536 $A default non-terminal
1537 $"C" default terminal
1538 $?C? default special
1539 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1540 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1541 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1542 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1543 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1544 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1545 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1546 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1547 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1548 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1549 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1550 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1551 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1552 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1553 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1554
1555 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1556
1557 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1558 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1559 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1560 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1561 equal signs of assignments.
1562
1563 +++
1564 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1565 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1566
1567 +++
1568 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1569 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1570 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1571 customize the package.
1572
1573 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1574
1575 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1576 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1577 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1578 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1579 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1580 which answers different needs.
1581
1582 +++
1583 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1584 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1585 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1586 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1587 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1588 to be enabled.
1589
1590 +++
1591 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1592 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1593
1594 +++
1595 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1596
1597 +++
1598 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1599
1600 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1601
1602 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-shell-mode' and
1603 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
1604 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
1605 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
1606 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
1607 and background colors.
1608
1609 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1610 Pascal) language.
1611
1612 +++
1613 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1614 the text at point.
1615
1616 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1617
1618 +++
1619 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1620
1621 *** whitespace.el ???
1622
1623 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1624 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1625 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1626 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1627 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1628 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1629 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1630
1631 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1632
1633 Here is an example of columns:
1634
1635 horse apple bus
1636 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1637 porcupine strawberry airplane
1638
1639 Doing the following settings:
1640
1641 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1642 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1643 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1644 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1645
1646
1647 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1648
1649 M-x delimit-columns-region
1650
1651 It results:
1652
1653 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1654 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1655 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1656
1657 delim-col has the following options:
1658
1659 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1660 before all columns.
1661
1662 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1663 between each column.
1664
1665 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1666 after all columns.
1667
1668 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1669 each column.
1670
1671 delim-col has the following commands:
1672
1673 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1674 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1675
1676 +++
1677 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1678 were operated on recently.
1679
1680 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1681
1682 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1683 recentf at Emacs startup.
1684
1685 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1686 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1687 file list can be displayed:
1688
1689 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1690 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1691 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1692
1693 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1694 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1695
1696 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1697 text.
1698
1699 +++
1700 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1701 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1702 specific to Message mode.
1703
1704 +++
1705 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1706 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1707 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1708
1709 +++
1710 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1711 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1712 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1713
1714 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1715 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1716
1717 +++
1718 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1719
1720 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1721 minibuffer with completion.
1722
1723 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1724 with the diary features.
1725
1726 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1727 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1728
1729 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1730 Fill mode.
1731
1732 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
1733 Gnus facilities.
1734
1735 ** Withdrawn packages
1736
1737 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1738 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1739
1740 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1741
1742 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1743
1744 \f
1745 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1746 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1747
1748 +++
1749 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
1750 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
1751 message.
1752
1753 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
1754 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
1755
1756 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
1757 with the more general `:mask' property.
1758
1759 ** Image specifications accept more `:algorithm's.
1760
1761 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
1762 backslash.
1763
1764 +++
1765 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
1766 is running in batch mode. For example,
1767
1768 (message "%s" (read t))
1769
1770 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
1771 to standard output.
1772
1773 +++
1774 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
1775 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
1776
1777 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
1778 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
1779 frame or window.
1780
1781 +++
1782 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
1783 were added
1784
1785 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
1786
1787 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
1788 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
1789
1790 - Function: remq ELT LIST
1791
1792 Return a copy of LIST with all occurences of ELT removed. The
1793 comparison is done with `eq'.
1794
1795 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
1796
1797 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
1798 has been changed.
1799
1800 +++
1801 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1802 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1803 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1804
1805 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1806 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1807
1808 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1809 function was declared obsolete.
1810
1811 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
1812 retained as an alias).
1813
1814 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1815 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1816 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1817
1818 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1819
1820 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1821
1822 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1823 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1824
1825 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1826
1827 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1828
1829 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1830
1831 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1832 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1833 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1834 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1835 returned.
1836
1837 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1838 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1839 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1840 minibuffer even if it is active.
1841
1842 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1843 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1844 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1845 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1846 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1847 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1848
1849 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1850 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1851 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1852 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1853 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1854 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1855 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1856
1857 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
1858 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
1859 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
1860
1861 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1862 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1863 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1864 Default value is nil.
1865
1866 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
1867 meaning no limit.
1868
1869 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
1870 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1871 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1872
1873 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1874 of a primitive.
1875
1876 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1877 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1878 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1879 than replacing the local map.
1880
1881 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1882 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1883
1884 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1885
1886 +++
1887 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1888 promised long ago.
1889
1890 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
1891 \f
1892 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1893
1894 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1895 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1896 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1897 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1898
1899 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
1900 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
1901 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
1902 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
1903
1904 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1905 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1906 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1907 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1908
1909 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1910 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1911 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1912
1913 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1914 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1915 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1916 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1917 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1918 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1919 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1920 eight-bit-graphic.
1921
1922 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1923
1924 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1925 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1926 character set as previously.
1927
1928 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1929 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1930 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1931
1932 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1933 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1934 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1935 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1936
1937 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1938 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1939
1940 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1941 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1942 "fontset-default".
1943
1944 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1945 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1946
1947 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1948 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1949 buffers and strings.
1950
1951 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1952 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1953 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1954 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1955 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1956 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1957 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1958 also been deleted.
1959
1960 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1961 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1962 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1963
1964 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1965 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1966 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1967 may differ between buffer and string text.
1968
1969 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1970 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1971
1972 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1973 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1974 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1975 `composition' from STRING.
1976
1977 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1978 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1979
1980 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1981 obsolete.
1982
1983 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1984 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1985 character set is not used.
1986
1987 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1988 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1989 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1990
1991 +++
1992 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1993 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1994 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1995
1996 +++
1997 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1998 that offset in the file before writing.
1999
2000 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
2001 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
2002
2003 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
2004 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
2005 from which the command was issued.
2006
2007 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
2008 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
2009 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
2010 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
2011 operate on.
2012
2013 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
2014 to `window-buffer-height'.
2015
2016 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
2017
2018 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
2019 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
2020 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
2021
2022 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
2023 respectively.
2024
2025 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
2026 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
2027
2028 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
2029 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
2030 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
2031
2032 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
2033 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
2034 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
2035 is currently displayed in some window.
2036
2037 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
2038 argument function's results.
2039
2040 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
2041 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
2042
2043 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
2044 header in the list of headers passed to it.
2045
2046 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
2047 ignores differences in case and text representation.
2048
2049 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
2050 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
2051 as follows:
2052
2053 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
2054 nil don't display a cursor
2055 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
2056 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
2057 others display a box cursor.
2058
2059 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
2060 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
2061 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
2062 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
2063
2064 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
2065 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
2066 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
2067 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
2068
2069 Example:
2070
2071 (string-to-syntax "()")
2072 => (4 . 41)
2073
2074 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
2075 other than 10.
2076
2077 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
2078 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
2079
2080 #b1111
2081 => 15
2082 #b-1111
2083 => -15
2084
2085 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
2086
2087 #o666
2088 => 438
2089
2090 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
2091
2092 #xbeef
2093 => 48815
2094
2095 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
2096
2097 #2R-111
2098 => -7
2099 #25rah
2100 => 267
2101
2102 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
2103 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
2104 and isn't a string.
2105
2106 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
2107 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
2108 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
2109 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
2110
2111 +++
2112 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
2113
2114 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
2115 for a regexp in a string.
2116
2117 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
2118 `mouse-position-function'.
2119
2120 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
2121 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
2122
2123 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
2124 Keywords are now always considered constants.
2125
2126 +++
2127 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
2128 returns it.
2129
2130 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
2131 returned by function `recent-keys'.
2132
2133 +++
2134 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
2135 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
2136 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
2137 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
2138 mode.
2139
2140 +++
2141 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
2142 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
2143
2144 +++
2145 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
2146 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
2147 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
2148 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
2149 been performed."
2150
2151 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
2152 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
2153 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
2154 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
2155
2156 +++
2157 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
2158 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
2159 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
2160
2161 +++
2162 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
2163 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
2164 specified table.
2165
2166 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
2167
2168 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
2169 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
2170 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
2171 what BODY returns.
2172
2173 +++
2174 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
2175 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
2176
2177 +++
2178 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
2179 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
2180
2181 +++
2182 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
2183 instead of being optional.
2184
2185 +++
2186 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
2187 modify read-only text.
2188
2189 +++
2190 ** New functions and variables for locales.
2191
2192 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
2193 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
2194 time functions like strftime. The new variables
2195 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
2196 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
2197
2198 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
2199 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
2200 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
2201 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
2202 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
2203 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
2204 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
2205
2206 +++
2207 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
2208 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
2209 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
2210 start sequences.
2211
2212 +++
2213 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
2214 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
2215
2216 +++
2217 ** New function `propertize'
2218
2219 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
2220 strings with text properties.
2221
2222 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
2223
2224 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
2225 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
2226 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
2227 specified value of that property. Example:
2228
2229 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
2230
2231 +++
2232 ** push and pop macros.
2233
2234 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
2235 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
2236 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
2237
2238 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
2239 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
2240 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
2241
2242 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
2243
2244 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
2245 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
2246
2247 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
2248 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
2249 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
2250 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2251
2252 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
2253 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
2254 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
2255 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2256
2257 +++
2258 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
2259 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
2260
2261 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
2262 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
2263 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
2264 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
2265 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
2266 space, and DEL.
2267 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
2268 and DEL.
2269 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
2270 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2271 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2272 [:alpha:] matches letters.
2273 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2274 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2275 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
2276 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
2277 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
2278 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
2279 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2280 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
2281 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
2282 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
2283 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
2284
2285 +++
2286 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
2287
2288 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
2289
2290 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
2291
2292 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
2293 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
2294
2295 :test TEST
2296
2297 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
2298 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
2299 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
2300
2301 :size SIZE
2302
2303 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
2304 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
2305
2306 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
2307
2308 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
2309 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
2310 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
2311 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
2312 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
2313
2314 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
2315
2316 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
2317 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
2318 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
2319
2320 :weakness WEAK
2321
2322 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
2323 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
2324 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
2325 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
2326 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
2327
2328 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
2329
2330 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
2331
2332 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
2333
2334 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
2335
2336 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
2337
2338 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
2339 values are shared.
2340
2341 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
2342
2343 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
2344
2345 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2346
2347 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
2348
2349 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
2350
2351 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
2352
2353 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2354
2355 Returns the size of TABLE.
2356
2357 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
2358
2359 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
2360
2361 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
2362
2363 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
2364
2365 - Function: clrhash TABLE
2366
2367 Clear TABLE.
2368
2369 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
2370
2371 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
2372 not found.
2373
2374 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
2375
2376 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
2377 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
2378
2379 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
2380
2381 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
2382
2383 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
2384
2385 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
2386 arguments KEY and VALUE.
2387
2388 - Function: sxhash OBJ
2389
2390 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
2391
2392 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
2393
2394 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
2395 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
2396 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
2397 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
2398 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
2399
2400 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
2401
2402 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
2403 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
2404 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
2405
2406 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
2407 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2408
2409 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2410 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2411
2412 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2413 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2414
2415 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
2416 'case-fold-string-hash))
2417
2418 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2419
2420 +++
2421 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
2422
2423 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
2424 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
2425 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
2426
2427 +++
2428 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
2429
2430 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
2431 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
2432
2433 +++
2434 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
2435 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
2436 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
2437 is too short to reach that column.
2438
2439 +++
2440 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
2441 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
2442 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
2443 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
2444
2445 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
2446 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
2447 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
2448
2449 +++
2450 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
2451 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
2452
2453 +++
2454 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
2455 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
2456
2457 +++
2458 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
2459 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
2460 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
2461 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
2462 temporary-file-directory instead.
2463
2464 +++
2465 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
2466 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
2467 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
2468 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
2469
2470 +++
2471 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
2472 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
2473
2474 +++
2475 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
2476
2477 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
2478 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
2479 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
2480
2481 +++
2482 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
2483
2484 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
2485 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
2486 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
2487 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
2488 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
2489 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
2490
2491 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
2492 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
2493 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
2494 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2495
2496 +++
2497 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2498
2499 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2500 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2501 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2502 result string.
2503
2504 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2505 string where arguments appear in the result string.
2506
2507 Example:
2508
2509 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2510 (s2 "world"))
2511 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2512 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
2513 (format s1 s2))
2514
2515 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2516
2517 +++
2518 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2519
2520 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2521 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2522 argument in it.
2523
2524 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2525 (arg "world"))
2526 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2527 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2528 (message msg arg))
2529
2530 +++
2531 ** Sound support
2532
2533 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2534 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2535
2536 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2537 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2538 to enable sound support.
2539
2540 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2541 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2542 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2543 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2544 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2545
2546 The following sound properties are supported:
2547
2548 - `:file FILE'
2549
2550 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2551 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2552
2553 - `:data DATA'
2554
2555 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2556 may be present, but not both.
2557
2558 - `:volume VOLUME'
2559
2560 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2561 0..1. This property is optional.
2562
2563 Other properties are ignored.
2564
2565 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2566
2567 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2568 a keyword symbol.
2569
2570 ** Changes to garbage collection
2571
2572 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2573 of live and free strings.
2574
2575 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2576 strings that have been consed so far.
2577
2578 \f
2579 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2580 Lisp Manual
2581
2582 *** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
2583
2584 +++
2585 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2586
2587 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2588 image.
2589
2590 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2591
2592 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2593
2594 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2595 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2596 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2597 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2598 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2599
2600 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
2601 has a mask bitmap.
2602
2603 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
2604
2605 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
2606 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
2607 or omitted means use the selected frame.
2608
2609 +++
2610 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2611 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2612
2613 +++
2614 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2615 optional.
2616
2617 +++
2618 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
2619 below).
2620
2621 \f
2622 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2623
2624 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2625 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2626 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2627 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2628
2629 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2630 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2631
2632 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2633 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2634 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2635 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2636 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2637 just display it black instead.
2638
2639 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2640 a line like
2641
2642 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2643
2644 in your `.emacs'.
2645
2646 ** New face implementation.
2647
2648 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2649 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2650
2651 +++
2652 *** New faces.
2653
2654 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2655
2656 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2657
2658 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2659 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2660
2661 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2662
2663 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2664
2665 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2666
2667 6. Foreground color.
2668
2669 7. Background color.
2670
2671 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2672
2673 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2674
2675 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2676
2677 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2678
2679 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2680 color.
2681
2682 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2683 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2684
2685 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2686 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2687 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2688 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2689 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2690 attributes mentioned above.
2691
2692 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2693 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2694 created frames.
2695
2696 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2697 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2698 `fully-specified'.
2699
2700 +++
2701 *** Face merging.
2702
2703 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2704 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2705 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2706 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2707 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2708 results in a fully-specified face.
2709
2710 +++
2711 *** Face realization.
2712
2713 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2714 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2715 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2716 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2717 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2718 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2719
2720 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2721 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2722 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2723 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2724
2725 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2726 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2727 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2728 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2729 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2730
2731 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2732 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2733 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2734 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2735 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2736 Emacs.
2737
2738 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2739 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2740 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2741 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2742
2743 ++++
2744 **** Clearing face caches.
2745
2746 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2747 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2748 unused fonts.
2749
2750 +++
2751 *** Font selection.
2752
2753 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2754 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2755 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2756
2757 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2758 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2759 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2760 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2761 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2762
2763 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2764 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2765 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2766
2767 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2768
2769 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2770 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2771 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2772 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2773 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2774 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2775 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2776
2777 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2778 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2779 face doesn't exist.
2780
2781 +++
2782 **** Scalable fonts
2783
2784 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2785 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2786 servers.
2787
2788 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2789 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2790 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2791 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2792 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2793 that list. Example:
2794
2795 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2796
2797 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2798
2799 +++
2800 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2801
2802 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2803
2804 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2805 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2806 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2807
2808 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2809 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2810 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2811 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2812 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2813 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2814 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2815 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2816 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2817 of the face font sort order.
2818
2819 - Function: x-font-family-list
2820
2821 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2822 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2823 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2824 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2825
2826 - Variable: font-list-limit
2827
2828 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2829 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2830 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2831
2832 +++
2833 *** Setting face attributes.
2834
2835 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2836 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2837 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2838 `face-attribute'.
2839
2840 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2841 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2842
2843 The following attributes are recognized:
2844
2845 `:family'
2846
2847 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2848 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2849 and `?' are allowed.
2850
2851 `:width'
2852
2853 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2854 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2855 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2856 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2857
2858 `:height'
2859
2860 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
2861 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
2862 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
2863 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
2864
2865 `:weight'
2866
2867 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2868 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2869 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2870
2871 `:slant'
2872
2873 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2874 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2875 `reverse-oblique'.
2876
2877 `:foreground', `:background'
2878
2879 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2880
2881 `:underline'
2882
2883 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2884 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2885 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2886 don't underline.
2887
2888 `:overline'
2889
2890 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2891 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2892 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2893 overline.
2894
2895 `:strike-through'
2896
2897 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2898 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2899 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2900 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2901
2902 `:box'
2903
2904 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2905 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2906 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2907 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2908 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2909 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2910 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2911 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2912 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2913 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2914 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2915 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2916 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2917 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2918 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2919 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2920 box.
2921
2922 `:inverse-video'
2923
2924 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2925 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2926
2927 `:stipple'
2928
2929 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2930 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2931 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2932 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2933 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2934 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2935
2936 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2937 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2938
2939 `:font'
2940
2941 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2942 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2943 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2944 versions of Emacs.
2945
2946 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2947 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2948 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2949
2950 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2951 `defface'.
2952
2953 `:inherit'
2954
2955 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
2956 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
2957 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
2958
2959 *** Face attributes and X resources
2960
2961 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2962 from X resources:
2963
2964 Face attribute X resource class
2965 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2966 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2967 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2968 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2969 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2970 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2971 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2972 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2973 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2974 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2975 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2976 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2977 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2978 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2979 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2980 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2981 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2982 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2983 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2984 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2985
2986 +++
2987 *** Text property `face'.
2988
2989 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2990 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2991 specification can be
2992
2993 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2994
2995 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2996 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2997 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2998 for face attribute names.
2999
3000 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
3001 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
3002 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
3003
3004 +++
3005 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
3006
3007 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
3008 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
3009 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
3010 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
3011 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
3012 used to clear the mapping table.
3013
3014 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
3015
3016 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
3017 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
3018 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
3019 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
3020 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
3021 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
3022 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
3023 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
3024 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
3025 modify their color-related behavior.
3026
3027 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
3028 any frame type.
3029
3030 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
3031
3032 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
3033 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
3034 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
3035 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
3036 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
3037 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
3038 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
3039 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
3040 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
3041
3042 +++
3043 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
3044
3045 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
3046
3047 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
3048 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
3049 Otherwise, it returns zero.
3050
3051 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
3052
3053 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
3054 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
3055 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
3056
3057 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
3058 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
3059 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
3060 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
3061 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
3062 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
3063 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
3064 functions.
3065
3066 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
3067 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
3068 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
3069
3070 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
3071
3072 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
3073
3074 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
3075
3076 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3077 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
3078 constrained position if that is is different.
3079
3080 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
3081 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
3082 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
3083 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
3084 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3085 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
3086 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
3087 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
3088 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
3089
3090 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
3091 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
3092 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
3093 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
3094 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
3095
3096 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
3097 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
3098
3099 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
3100
3101 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
3102
3103 Delete the field surrounding POS.
3104 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3105 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3106
3107 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3108
3109 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
3110 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3111 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3112 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
3113 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
3114
3115 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3116
3117 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
3118 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3119 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3120 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
3121 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
3122
3123 - Function: field-string &optional POS
3124
3125 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
3126 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3127 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3128
3129 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
3130
3131 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
3132 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3133 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3134
3135 +++
3136 ** Image support.
3137
3138 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
3139 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
3140 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
3141 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
3142
3143 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
3144 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
3145 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
3146 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
3147 area.
3148
3149 IMAGE is an image specification.
3150
3151 *** Image specifications
3152
3153 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
3154 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
3155 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
3156 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
3157 described below are ignored.
3158
3159 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
3160
3161 `:ascent ASCENT'
3162
3163 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
3164 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
3165 to use for its ascent.
3166
3167 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
3168 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
3169
3170 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
3171 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
3172 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
3173 overlays that apply to the image.
3174
3175 `:margin MARGIN'
3176
3177 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
3178 margin around the image. Default is 0.
3179
3180 `:relief RELIEF'
3181
3182 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
3183 around an image.
3184
3185 `:algorithm ALGO'
3186
3187 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
3188
3189 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
3190 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
3191
3192 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
3193 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
3194 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
3195 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
3196 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
3197 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
3198 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
3199 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
3200 below.
3201
3202 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
3203 x-1/y x/y x+1/y
3204 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
3205
3206 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
3207 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
3208 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
3209 of the factors' absolute values.
3210
3211 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
3212
3213 (1 0 0
3214 0 0 0
3215 9 9 -1)
3216
3217 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
3218
3219 ( 2 -1 0
3220 -1 0 1
3221 0 1 -2)
3222
3223 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
3224 ``disabled''.
3225
3226 `:mask MASK'
3227
3228 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
3229 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
3230 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
3231 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
3232 image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from the corners is
3233 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
3234 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
3235 image.
3236
3237 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
3238 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
3239 `:mask nil'.
3240
3241 `:file FILE'
3242
3243 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
3244 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
3245 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
3246 may be present in the image specification.
3247
3248 `:data DATA'
3249
3250 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
3251 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
3252 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
3253 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
3254
3255 *** Supported image types
3256
3257 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
3258
3259 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
3260 properties supported are
3261
3262 `:foreground FG'
3263
3264 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
3265 is the frame's foreground.
3266
3267 `:background FG'
3268
3269 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
3270 the frame's background color.
3271
3272 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
3273 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
3274 instead of a `:file' property.
3275
3276 `:width WIDTH'
3277
3278 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
3279
3280 `:height HEIGHT'
3281
3282 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
3283
3284 `:data DATA'
3285
3286 DATA must be either
3287
3288 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
3289 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
3290
3291 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
3292
3293 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
3294 bitmap.
3295
3296 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
3297 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
3298 in the file.
3299
3300 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
3301
3302 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
3303 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
3304 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
3305 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
3306
3307 Additional image properties supported are:
3308
3309 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
3310
3311 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
3312 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
3313 name.
3314
3315 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
3316 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
3317
3318 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
3319 to display compressed images.
3320
3321 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
3322
3323 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
3324 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
3325 defined.
3326
3327 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
3328
3329 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3330 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
3331 are:
3332
3333 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
3334
3335 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
3336 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3337 properties defined.
3338
3339 **** GIF, image type `gif'
3340
3341 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
3342 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
3343
3344 Additional image properties supported are:
3345
3346 `:index INDEX'
3347
3348 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
3349 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
3350
3351 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
3352 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
3353 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
3354 every 0.1 seconds.
3355
3356 (defun show-anim (file max)
3357 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
3358 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
3359
3360 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
3361 (when (= idx max)
3362 (setq idx 0))
3363 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
3364 (save-excursion
3365 (set-buffer buffer)
3366 (goto-char (point-min))
3367 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
3368 (insert-image img "x"))
3369 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
3370
3371 **** PNG, image type `png'
3372
3373 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
3374 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3375 properties defined.
3376
3377 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
3378
3379 Additional image properties supported are:
3380
3381 `:pt-width WIDTH'
3382
3383 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
3384 integer. This is a required property.
3385
3386 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
3387
3388 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
3389 must be a integer. This is an required property.
3390
3391 `:bounding-box BOX'
3392
3393 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
3394 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
3395 files. This is an required property.
3396
3397 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
3398 lisp/gs.el.
3399
3400 *** Lisp interface.
3401
3402 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
3403 which are supported in the current configuration.
3404
3405 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
3406 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
3407 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
3408 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
3409 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
3410
3411 *** Simplified image API, image.el
3412
3413 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
3414 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
3415 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
3416 define an image based on available image types. The functions
3417 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
3418 buffer.
3419
3420 +++
3421 ** Display margins.
3422
3423 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
3424 and images.
3425
3426 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
3427 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
3428 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
3429 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
3430 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3431 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3432 of the display margins.
3433
3434 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
3435 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
3436 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
3437 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
3438 in this file).
3439
3440 +++
3441 ** Help display
3442
3443 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
3444 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
3445 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
3446 that have a `help-echo' property.
3447
3448 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
3449 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
3450 the window in which the help was found.
3451
3452 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
3453 `help-echo' text property was found.
3454
3455 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
3456 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
3457
3458 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
3459 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
3460 mouse.
3461
3462 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
3463 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
3464
3465 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
3466 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
3467 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
3468 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
3469 used as help string.
3470
3471 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
3472 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
3473 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
3474
3475 +++
3476 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
3477
3478 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
3479 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
3480
3481 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
3482 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
3483 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
3484 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
3485 used.
3486
3487 (global-set-key [A-down]
3488 #'(lambda ()
3489 (interactive)
3490 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3491 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
3492 (global-set-key [A-up]
3493 #'(lambda ()
3494 (interactive)
3495 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3496 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
3497
3498 +++
3499 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
3500
3501 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
3502 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
3503 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
3504 is called with one argument, POS.
3505
3506 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
3507 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
3508 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
3509 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
3510 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
3511
3512 +++
3513 ** Tool bar support.
3514
3515 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
3516 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
3517 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
3518 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
3519 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
3520 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
3521
3522 *** Tool bar item definitions
3523
3524 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3525 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
3526 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
3527
3528 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
3529 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
3530 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
3531 property (see below).
3532
3533 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
3534 binding are currently ignored.
3535
3536 The following properties are recognized:
3537
3538 `:enable FORM'.
3539
3540 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
3541 or disabled.
3542
3543 `:visible FORM'
3544
3545 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
3546
3547 `:filter FUNCTION'
3548
3549 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
3550 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
3551 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
3552
3553 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
3554
3555 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
3556 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
3557
3558 `:image IMAGES'
3559
3560 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3561 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3562 meaning of each of the four elements:
3563
3564 Index Use when item is
3565 ----------------------------------------
3566 0 enabled and selected
3567 1 enabled and deselected
3568 2 disabled and selected
3569 3 disabled and deselected
3570
3571 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3572 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3573
3574 `:help HELP-STRING'.
3575
3576 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3577 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3578
3579 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
3580 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
3581 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
3582 menu bar.
3583
3584 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
3585
3586 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3587 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3588 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3589
3590 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3591 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3592
3593 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3594 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3595 pixels. Default is 1.
3596
3597 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3598 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3599
3600 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3601
3602 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3603 a tool bar item. If
3604
3605 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3606 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3607 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3608
3609 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3610
3611 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3612
3613 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3614 item.
3615
3616 ** Mode line changes.
3617
3618 +++
3619 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3620
3621 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3622 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3623 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3624
3625 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3626 a `local-map' text property.
3627
3628 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3629 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3630
3631 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3632 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3633 `local-map' property.
3634
3635 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3636 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3637 example.
3638
3639 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3640 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3641
3642 +++
3643 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3644 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3645
3646 +++
3647 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3648
3649 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3650 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3651 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3652 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3653 line.
3654
3655 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3656 `header-line'.
3657
3658 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3659 position in the header-line.
3660
3661 +++
3662 ** Text property `display'
3663
3664 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
3665 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
3666 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
3667 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3668 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3669
3670 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
3671
3672 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
3673 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
3674
3675 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
3676 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
3677 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
3678 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3679 simpler form STRING as property value.
3680
3681 *** Variable width and height spaces
3682
3683 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3684 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3685 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3686 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3687 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3688 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3689 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3690
3691 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3692 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3693 properties described below.
3694
3695 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3696 characters having the `display' property.
3697
3698 - :width WIDTH
3699
3700 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3701 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3702
3703 - :relative-width FACTOR
3704
3705 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3706 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3707 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3708 width of that character by FACTOR.
3709
3710 - :align-to HPOS
3711
3712 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3713 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3714
3715 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3716
3717 - :height HEIGHT
3718
3719 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3720 normal line height.
3721
3722 - :relative-height FACTOR
3723
3724 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3725 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3726
3727 - :ascent ASCENT
3728
3729 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3730 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3731 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3732 equal to 100.
3733
3734 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3735
3736 *** Images
3737
3738 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3739 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3740 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3741 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3742 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3743 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3744 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3745 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3746 as display specification.
3747
3748 *** Other display properties
3749
3750 - :space-width FACTOR
3751
3752 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3753 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3754 integer or float.
3755
3756 - :height HEIGHT
3757
3758 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3759
3760 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3761 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3762 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3763 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3764 a font is available counts as a step.
3765
3766 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3767 as tall as the frame's default font.
3768
3769 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3770 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3771
3772 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3773 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3774
3775 - :raise FACTOR
3776
3777 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3778 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3779 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3780 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3781 `:height' subproperty.
3782
3783 *** Conditional display properties
3784
3785 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3786 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3787 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3788 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3789 the text having the `display' property.
3790
3791 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3792 `(:when t SPEC)'.
3793
3794 +++
3795 ** New menu separator types.
3796
3797 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3798 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3799 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3800 to specify other menu separator types.
3801
3802 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3803
3804 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3805 separator occurs.
3806
3807 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3808
3809 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3810
3811 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3812
3813 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3814
3815 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3816
3817 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3818
3819 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3820
3821 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3822
3823 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3824
3825 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3826 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3827
3828 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3829
3830 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3831
3832 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3833
3834 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3835
3836 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3837
3838 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3839
3840 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3841
3842 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3843
3844 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3845
3846 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3847
3848 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3849
3850 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3851
3852 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3853
3854 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3855
3856 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3857 the corresponding single-line separators.
3858
3859 +++
3860 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3861
3862 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3863 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3864 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3865 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3866 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3867 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3868 default foreground is black.
3869
3870 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3871 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3872 `ScrollBarBackground').
3873
3874 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3875 settings for scroll bar colors.
3876
3877 +++
3878 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3879 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3880
3881 ---
3882 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3883 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3884 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3885 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3886 the original window start.
3887
3888 ---
3889 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3890 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3891 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3892
3893 +++
3894 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3895
3896 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3897 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3898 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3899 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3900
3901 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3902 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3903
3904 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3905
3906 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3907 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3908 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3909 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3910 temporarily to nil, for example
3911
3912 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3913 (enlarge-window 10))
3914
3915 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3916 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3917
3918 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3919 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3920 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3921 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3922 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3923 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3924
3925
3926 ^L
3927 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3928
3929 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3930 input.
3931
3932 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3933
3934 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3935
3936 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3937 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3938 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3939 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3940 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3941
3942 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3943 been added.
3944
3945 ^L
3946 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3947
3948 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3949
3950 ^L
3951 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3952
3953 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3954 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3955 \f
3956 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3957
3958 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3959
3960 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3961 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3962 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3963
3964 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3965 is the one that is used.
3966
3967 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3968 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3969 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3970 separate from the command's regular output.
3971 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3972 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3973 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3974 the buffer name.
3975
3976 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3977 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3978 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3979 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3980
3981 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3982 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3983 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3984 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3985
3986 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3987 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3988 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3989 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3990
3991 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3992 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3993 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3994 they never ignore case.
3995
3996 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3997 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3998 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3999 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
4000 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
4001 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
4002 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
4003
4004 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
4005 the same format that was used in the file before.
4006
4007 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
4008 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
4009
4010 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
4011 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
4012 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
4013
4014 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
4015 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
4016 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
4017 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
4018 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
4019 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
4020 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
4021
4022 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
4023 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
4024 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
4025 format. You can now customize these variables.
4026
4027 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
4028 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
4029 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
4030 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
4031
4032 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
4033 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
4034 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
4035
4036 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
4037 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
4038 doesn't have any effect.
4039
4040 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
4041 not one per buffer.
4042
4043 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
4044 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
4045 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
4046
4047 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
4048 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
4049 `auto-show-mode' command.
4050
4051 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
4052 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
4053 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
4054 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
4055 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
4056
4057 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
4058 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
4059
4060 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
4061 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
4062 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
4063
4064 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
4065 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
4066 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
4067 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
4068
4069 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
4070
4071 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
4072 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
4073 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
4074 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
4075 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
4076
4077 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
4078 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
4079
4080 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
4081 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
4082 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
4083 `?' on other systems.
4084
4085 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
4086 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
4087 Unix.
4088
4089 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
4090 current codepage when it starts.
4091
4092 ** Mail changes
4093
4094 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
4095 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
4096 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
4097 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
4098 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
4099 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
4100 latin-1:
4101
4102 MIME-version: 1.0
4103 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
4104 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
4105
4106 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
4107 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
4108 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
4109 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
4110 buffer-file-coding-system.
4111
4112 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
4113 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
4114 mail.
4115
4116 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
4117 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
4118 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
4119 list of possible coding systems.
4120
4121 ** CC Mode changes
4122
4123 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
4124 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
4125 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
4126 docstring for details.
4127
4128 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
4129 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
4130 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
4131 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
4132 lineup functions use this feature currently.
4133
4134 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
4135 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
4136
4137 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
4138 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
4139
4140 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
4141 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
4142 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
4143 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
4144 anonymous classes.
4145
4146 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
4147 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
4148
4149 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
4150 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
4151 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
4152 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
4153
4154 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
4155 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
4156 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
4157 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
4158 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
4159
4160 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
4161
4162 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
4163
4164 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
4165 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
4166
4167 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
4168
4169 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
4170 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
4171 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
4172 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
4173 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
4174
4175 ** Gnus changes.
4176
4177 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
4178 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
4179 Gnus manual for the full story.
4180
4181 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
4182 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
4183 group, which is created automatically.
4184
4185 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
4186 values.
4187
4188 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
4189
4190 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
4191 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
4192
4193 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
4194 `C-u C-c C-c'.
4195
4196 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
4197
4198 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
4199 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
4200
4201 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
4202
4203 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
4204 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
4205
4206 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
4207 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
4208
4209 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
4210 control over simplification.
4211
4212 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
4213
4214 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
4215 limit.
4216
4217 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
4218
4219 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
4220
4221 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
4222 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
4223 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
4224
4225 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
4226 `a' forces normal posting method.
4227
4228 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
4229 -- `W d'.
4230
4231 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
4232 to a non-nil value.
4233
4234 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
4235 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
4236
4237 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
4238 has been added.
4239
4240 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
4241
4242 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
4243
4244 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
4245 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
4246
4247 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
4248 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
4249
4250 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
4251
4252 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
4253 been added.
4254
4255 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
4256 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
4257
4258 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
4259 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
4260
4261 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
4262
4263 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
4264
4265 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
4266
4267 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
4268
4269 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
4270 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
4271 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
4272
4273 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
4274 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
4275 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
4276 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
4277 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
4278
4279 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
4280 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
4281 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
4282 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
4283
4284 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
4285 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
4286 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
4287 mismatch.
4288
4289 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4290
4291 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
4292 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
4293
4294 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
4295 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
4296 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
4297 removed from the label.
4298
4299 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
4300 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
4301
4302 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
4303 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
4304
4305 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
4306 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
4307 expressions.
4308
4309 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
4310
4311 ** New/deleted modes and packages
4312
4313 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
4314 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
4315
4316 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
4317 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
4318 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
4319
4320 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
4321 changes with a special face.
4322
4323 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
4324 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
4325 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
4326 \f
4327 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
4328
4329 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
4330 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
4331 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
4332 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
4333 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
4334
4335 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
4336 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
4337 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
4338
4339 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
4340 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
4341 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
4342 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
4343 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
4344 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
4345 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
4346 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
4347 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
4348
4349 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
4350 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
4351 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
4352 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
4353 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
4354 program.
4355
4356 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
4357 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
4358 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
4359 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
4360 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
4361 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
4362
4363 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
4364 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
4365 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
4366 was not documented clearly before.
4367
4368 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
4369 This includes Tetris and Snake.
4370 \f
4371 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
4372
4373 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
4374 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
4375 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
4376 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
4377
4378 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
4379 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
4380 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
4381
4382 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
4383
4384 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
4385 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
4386
4387 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
4388 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
4389 integers.
4390
4391 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
4392 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
4393 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
4394 file names and attributes are returned.
4395
4396 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
4397 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
4398 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
4399 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
4400 returns the result.
4401
4402 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
4403 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
4404
4405 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
4406
4407 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
4408 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
4409 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
4410 optionally.
4411
4412 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
4413 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
4414
4415 **
4416 The new function process-running-child-p
4417 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
4418 terminal to its own child process.
4419
4420 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
4421 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
4422 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
4423 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
4424
4425 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
4426 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
4427
4428 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
4429 :included is an alias for :visible.
4430
4431 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
4432 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
4433 to move or copy menu entries.
4434
4435 ** Multibyte editing changes
4436
4437 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
4438 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
4439 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
4440 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
4441 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
4442 (setq char (sref str idx)
4443 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
4444 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
4445
4446 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
4447 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
4448 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
4449
4450 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
4451 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
4452 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
4453
4454 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
4455
4456 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
4457 across the boundary.
4458
4459 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
4460 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
4461 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
4462 contains 8-bit characters.
4463 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
4464 contains invalid characters.
4465
4466 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
4467 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
4468 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
4469 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
4470 way.
4471
4472 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
4473 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
4474 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
4475 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
4476
4477 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
4478 compose Thai characters in a string.
4479
4480 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
4481 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
4482 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
4483 menus should always use the third argument.
4484
4485 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
4486 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
4487 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
4488 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
4489
4490 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
4491 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
4492 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
4493 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
4494
4495 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
4496 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
4497 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
4498 echo area contents.
4499
4500 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
4501
4502 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
4503 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
4504 requested feature cannot be loaded.
4505
4506 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
4507 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
4508 means to clear out that attribute.
4509
4510 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
4511 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
4512
4513 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
4514 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
4515 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
4516 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
4517
4518 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
4519 the gap of the current buffer.
4520
4521 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
4522 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
4523 current buffer.
4524
4525 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
4526 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
4527 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
4528 it back in after any modifications have been made.
4529 \f
4530 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
4531
4532 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
4533 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
4534 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
4535 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
4536 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
4537
4538 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
4539 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
4540 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
4541 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
4542 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
4543
4544 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
4545 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
4546 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
4547
4548 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
4549 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
4550 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
4551 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
4552 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
4553 results.
4554
4555 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
4556 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
4557 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
4558 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
4559 \f
4560 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
4561
4562 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
4563 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
4564 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
4565 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
4566
4567 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
4568 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
4569 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
4570 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
4571 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
4572 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
4573 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
4574 region.
4575
4576 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
4577 selective undo.
4578
4579 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
4580 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
4581 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
4582 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
4583 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
4584
4585 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
4586 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
4587 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
4588 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
4589
4590 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
4591 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
4592 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
4593 something that most users not do.
4594
4595 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
4596 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
4597 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
4598 applications.
4599
4600 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4601 pasting operations.
4602
4603 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4604 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4605 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4606 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4607 `ps-printer-name'.
4608
4609 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4610 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4611 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4612 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4613 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4614 hits a new word.
4615
4616 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4617 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4618 to be confused by TeX commands.
4619
4620 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4621 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4622 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4623 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4624
4625 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4626 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4627 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4628 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4629 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4630
4631 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4632 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4633
4634 ** Changes in input method usage.
4635
4636 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4637 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4638 respectively.
4639
4640 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4641
4642 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4643 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4644
4645 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4646 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4647
4648 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4649
4650 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4651
4652 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4653 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4654
4655 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4656 given in the following case:
4657 o When you are using a complex input method.
4658 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4659
4660 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4661 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4662 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4663 setting it to t is helpful.
4664
4665 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4666
4667 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4668 keys:
4669 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4670 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4671 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4672 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4673 environment.
4674
4675 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4676 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4677 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4678 get
4679
4680 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4681
4682 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4683
4684 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4685 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4686
4687 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4688 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4689 its owner and group.
4690
4691 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4692 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4693
4694 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4695 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4696
4697 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4698 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4699 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4700 by the left edge of the rectangle.
4701
4702 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4703 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4704 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4705 for writing keyboard macros.
4706
4707 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4708 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4709 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4710 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4711 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4712 info.
4713
4714 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4715
4716 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4717 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4718 contents only.
4719
4720 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4721 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4722 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4723 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4724
4725 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4726 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4727 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4728
4729 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4730 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4731 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4732 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4733
4734 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4735 failure if the command produces no output.
4736
4737 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4738 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4739 the mouse.
4740
4741 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4742 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4743 function and variable names.
4744
4745 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4746 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4747 file-coding-system-alist.
4748
4749 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4750 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4751 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4752 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4753 according to the current fontset.
4754
4755 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4756
4757 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4758 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4759 nonascii-insert-offset.
4760
4761 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4762 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4763 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4764 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4765
4766 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4767 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4768
4769 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4770 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4771
4772 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4773 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4774 command keys.
4775
4776 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4777 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4778
4779 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4780 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4781 all variables that have documentation.
4782
4783 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4784 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4785 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4786 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4787 it should show; the default is 20.
4788
4789 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4790 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4791 of your input.
4792
4793 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4794 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4795 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4796 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4797 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4798 Newly added options are included as well.
4799
4800 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4801 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4802 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4803
4804 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4805 Customize menu.
4806
4807 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4808 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4809
4810 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4811 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4812 invoked.
4813
4814 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4815 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4816 The default is 1.
4817
4818 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4819 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4820 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4821 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4822 sensibly.
4823
4824 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4825
4826 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4827 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4828 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4829
4830 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4831 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4832 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4833 every night.
4834
4835 ** Desktop changes
4836
4837 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4838 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4839
4840 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4841 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4842
4843 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4844 read and post multi-lingual articles.
4845
4846 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4847 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4848 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4849 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4850 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4851 made invisible again.
4852
4853 ** Mail reading and sending changes
4854
4855 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4856 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4857 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4858 toggle.
4859
4860 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4861 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4862 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4863 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4864 rmail-default-body-file.
4865
4866 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4867 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4868 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4869
4870 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4871 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4872 is evaluated to insert the signature.
4873
4874 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4875 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4876 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4877 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4878 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4879 especially interested in trying feedmail.
4880
4881 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4882 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4883 provided by feedmail are:
4884
4885 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4886 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4887 there is also a queue for draft messages
4888
4889 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4890 be prompted for confirmation
4891
4892 **** does smart filling of address headers
4893
4894 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4895 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4896 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4897
4898 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4899 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4900 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4901 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4902
4903 ** Dired changes
4904
4905 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4906 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4907
4908 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4909 run Dired on the directory name at point.
4910
4911 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4912 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4913 for a specified regexp.
4914
4915 ** VC Changes
4916
4917 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4918 conveniently.
4919
4920 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4921 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4922 Dired.
4923
4924 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4925 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4926 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4927 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4928
4929 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4930 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4931 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4932 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4933 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4934
4935 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4936 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4937 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4938 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4939 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4940
4941 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4942 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4943 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4944 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4945
4946 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4947 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4948 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4949
4950 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4951 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4952 session to resolve them.
4953
4954 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4955 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4956 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4957 uses as well).
4958
4959 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4960 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4961 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4962 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4963 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4964 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4965 using ediff.
4966
4967 ** Changes in Font Lock
4968
4969 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4970 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4971 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4972 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4973 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4974
4975 ** Frame name display changes
4976
4977 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4978 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4979 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4980 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4981
4982 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4983 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4984 menu.
4985
4986 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4987
4988 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4989 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4990 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4991
4992 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4993
4994 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4995 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4996 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4997
4998 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4999 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
5000 the following line.
5001
5002 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
5003 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
5004 previously sent input.
5005
5006 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
5007 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
5008 as the search string.
5009
5010 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
5011 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
5012
5013 ** C mode changes
5014
5015 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
5016 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
5017 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
5018 definition.
5019
5020 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
5021 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
5022 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
5023 style is still the default however.
5024
5025 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
5026
5027 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
5028 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
5029 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
5030
5031 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
5032 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
5033
5034 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
5035 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
5036
5037 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
5038 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
5039
5040 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
5041 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
5042
5043 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
5044 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
5045 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
5046 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
5047
5048 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
5049
5050 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
5051 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
5052 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
5053
5054 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
5055 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
5056 expanding dynamically.
5057
5058 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
5059 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
5060
5061 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
5062 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
5063 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
5064 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
5065
5066 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
5067
5068 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
5069
5070 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
5071 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
5072 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
5073 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
5074 against the first word in the title.
5075
5076 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
5077 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
5078 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
5079 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
5080 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
5081 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
5082
5083 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
5084 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
5085 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
5086 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
5087
5088 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
5089
5090 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
5091 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
5092 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
5093 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
5094 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
5095 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
5096
5097 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
5098 Editing group once the package is loaded.
5099
5100 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
5101 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
5102 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
5103
5104 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
5105 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
5106
5107 ** Ispell changes.
5108
5109 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
5110 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
5111 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
5112
5113 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
5114 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
5115 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
5116 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
5117 include:
5118
5119 o URLs are automatically skipped
5120 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
5121
5122 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
5123
5124 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5125
5126 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
5127 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
5128 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
5129 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
5130
5131 *** New recursive parser.
5132
5133 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
5134 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
5135 recursive parser scans the individual files.
5136
5137 *** Parsing only part of a document.
5138
5139 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
5140 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
5141 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
5142
5143 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
5144
5145 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
5146
5147 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
5148
5149 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
5150
5151 *** Using multiple selection buffers
5152
5153 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
5154 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
5155
5156 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
5157
5158 *** References to external documents.
5159
5160 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
5161 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
5162 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
5163 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
5164 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
5165 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
5166 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
5167
5168 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
5169
5170 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
5171 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
5172
5173 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
5174 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
5175
5176 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
5177
5178 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
5179 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
5180
5181 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
5182
5183 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
5184 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
5185 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
5186 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
5187 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
5188 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
5189 more.
5190
5191 *** Support for the varioref package
5192
5193 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
5194
5195 *** New hooks
5196
5197 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
5198 and citations are created. These hooks are
5199 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
5200 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
5201
5202 *** Citations outside LaTeX
5203
5204 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
5205 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
5206
5207 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
5208
5209 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
5210 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
5211 fontified, use
5212
5213 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
5214
5215 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
5216 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
5217 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
5218 directories that contain the same file name.
5219
5220 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
5221 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
5222 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
5223 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
5224 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
5225 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
5226 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
5227 directory.
5228
5229 ** New modes and packages
5230
5231 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
5232 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
5233 it, but some do not.
5234
5235 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
5236 code.
5237
5238 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
5239 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
5240 around in a buffer.
5241
5242 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
5243
5244 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
5245 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
5246 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
5247 established system of notation similar to Chess.
5248
5249 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
5250 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
5251 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
5252
5253 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
5254 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
5255 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
5256 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
5257 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
5258 the like.
5259
5260 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
5261 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
5262
5263 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
5264 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
5265 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
5266 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
5267
5268 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
5269
5270 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
5271 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
5272 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
5273 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
5274 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
5275 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
5276 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
5277 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
5278 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
5279 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
5280 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
5281
5282 Platform-specific modes:
5283
5284 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
5285 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
5286 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
5287 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
5288 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
5289 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
5290 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
5291 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
5292 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
5293 \f
5294 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5295
5296 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
5297 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
5298 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
5299 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
5300
5301 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
5302 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
5303 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
5304
5305 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
5306 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
5307 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
5308 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
5309
5310 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
5311 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
5312 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
5313 environment.
5314
5315 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
5316 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
5317 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
5318 current input method for reading this one event.
5319
5320 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
5321 now control whether to output certain characters as
5322 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
5323 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
5324 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
5325 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
5326 \f
5327 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5328
5329 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
5330 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
5331
5332 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
5333 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
5334 always increases point by 1.
5335
5336 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
5337 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
5338
5339 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
5340
5341 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
5342 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
5343 default value changed. For example,
5344
5345 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
5346 :type 'integer
5347 :group 'foo
5348 :version "20.3")
5349
5350 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
5351 :version "20.3")
5352
5353 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
5354 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
5355 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
5356 `:version' in the top level group.
5357
5358 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
5359
5360 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
5361 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
5362
5363 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
5364 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
5365 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
5366 to themselves.
5367
5368 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
5369 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
5370 values whatever.
5371
5372 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
5373 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
5374 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
5375
5376 ** Frame-local variables.
5377
5378 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
5379 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
5380 local bindings for that variable.
5381
5382 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
5383 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
5384 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
5385 parameter name.
5386
5387 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
5388 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
5389 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
5390 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
5391
5392 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
5393 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
5394 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
5395 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
5396
5397 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
5398 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
5399 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
5400 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
5401 See the documentation in sregex.el.
5402
5403 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
5404 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
5405 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
5406 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
5407
5408 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
5409 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
5410
5411 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
5412 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
5413 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
5414
5415 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
5416 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
5417 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
5418 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
5419
5420 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
5421 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
5422 empty input.
5423
5424 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
5425 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
5426 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
5427 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
5428 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
5429
5430 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
5431 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
5432 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
5433 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
5434
5435 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
5436 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
5437 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
5438 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
5439 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
5440
5441 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
5442 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
5443 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
5444 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
5445
5446 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
5447 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
5448 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
5449
5450 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
5451 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
5452 was directed to display this buffer.
5453
5454 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
5455 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
5456 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
5457 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
5458 set-window-configuration.
5459
5460 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
5461 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
5462 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
5463 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
5464
5465 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
5466 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
5467 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
5468
5469 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
5470 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
5471 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
5472
5473 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
5474 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
5475
5476 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
5477 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
5478
5479 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
5480 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
5481 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
5482
5483 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
5484 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
5485 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
5486 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
5487
5488 ** Menu changes
5489
5490 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
5491 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
5492 better supported.
5493
5494 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
5495 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
5496 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
5497 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
5498 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
5499
5500 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
5501
5502 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
5503 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
5504 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
5505 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
5506
5507 The format is:
5508 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
5509 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
5510 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
5511 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
5512 The supported properties include
5513
5514 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5515 item is enabled.
5516 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5517 item should appear in the menu.
5518 :filter FILTER-FN
5519 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
5520 which will be REAL-BINDING.
5521 It should return a binding to use instead.
5522 :keys DESCRIPTION
5523 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
5524 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
5525 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
5526 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
5527 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
5528 keyboard binding.
5529 :key-sequence nil
5530 This means that the command normally has no
5531 keyboard equivalent.
5532 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
5533 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
5534 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
5535 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
5536 value says whether this button is currently selected.
5537
5538 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
5539 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
5540
5541 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
5542
5543 ** New event types
5544
5545 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
5546 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
5547 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
5548 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
5549
5550 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
5551
5552 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5553 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
5554 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
5555 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
5556 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
5557 forward, away from the user.
5558
5559 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5560
5561 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
5562 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
5563 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
5564 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
5565 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
5566
5567 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
5568
5569 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5570 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
5571 that were dragged and dropped.
5572
5573 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5574
5575 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
5576
5577 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
5578 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
5579 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
5580
5581 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
5582 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
5583 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
5584
5585 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
5586 in Emacs 19 and before.
5587
5588 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
5589 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
5590
5591 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
5592 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
5593 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
5594 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
5595
5596 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
5597 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
5598 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
5599 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
5600 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
5601
5602 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5603 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5604 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5605 consistent with the new representation.
5606
5607 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5608 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5609 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5610 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5611
5612 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5613 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5614 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5615
5616 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5617 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5618 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5619
5620 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5621 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5622 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5623
5624 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5625 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5626
5627 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5628 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5629
5630 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5631 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5632 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5633 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5634
5635 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5636 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5637
5638 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5639 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5640 buffer or string being searched.
5641
5642 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5643 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5644 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5645 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5646 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5647 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5648 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5649
5650 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5651
5652 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5653 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5654 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5655 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5656 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5657 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5658 define-coding-system-alias.
5659
5660 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5661 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5662 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5663 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5664 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5665 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5666 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5667 `iso-8859-1'.
5668
5669 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5670 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5671 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5672 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5673
5674 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5675 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5676 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5677 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5678
5679 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5680 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5681 This function requires a user interaction.
5682
5683 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5684 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5685 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5686 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5687 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5688 select-safe-coding-system.
5689
5690 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5691 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5692 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5693 was done.
5694
5695 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5696 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5697 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5698
5699 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5700 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5701 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5702 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5703
5704 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5705 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5706 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5707 converted.
5708
5709 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5710 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5711
5712 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5713 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5714 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5715 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5716 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5717 range of characters.
5718
5719 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5720 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5721
5722 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5723 in the current buffer at position POS.
5724
5725 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5726 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5727 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5728 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5729 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5730 binding input-method-function to nil.
5731
5732 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5733 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5734 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5735 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5736 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5737
5738 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5739 subsequent events of a key sequence.
5740
5741 *** You can customize any language environment by using
5742 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5743
5744 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5745 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5746 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5747 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5748 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5749 \f
5750 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
5751
5752 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5753 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5754 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5755 tree structure.
5756
5757 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5758 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5759
5760 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5761 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5762 in your .emacs file.)
5763
5764 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5765 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5766
5767 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5768 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5769
5770 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5771 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5772 kills the region.
5773
5774 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5775 delete the character before point, as usual.
5776
5777 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5778 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5779 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5780
5781 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5782 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5783 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5784 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5785 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5786 past.)
5787
5788 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5789 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5790 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5791 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5792 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5793
5794 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5795 and is an alias for it.
5796
5797 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5798 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5799
5800 ** Scrolling changes
5801
5802 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5803 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5804
5805 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5806 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5807 where it started.
5808
5809 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5810 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5811 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5812 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5813
5814 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5815 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5816 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5817 recenters the window.
5818
5819 ** International character set support (MULE)
5820
5821 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5822 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5823 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5824 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5825 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5826 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5827
5828 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5829 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5830 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5831 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5832 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5833
5834 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5835 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5836 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5837 language, to make it possible to type them.
5838
5839 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5840 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5841
5842 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5843 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5844
5845 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5846
5847 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5848
5849 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5850 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5851 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5852 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5853 characters for their work until they want to change.
5854
5855 *** Input methods
5856
5857 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5858 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5859 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5860 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5861 support several input methods.
5862
5863 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5864 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5865 work.
5866
5867 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5868 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5869 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5870 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5871 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5872 letter.
5873
5874 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5875 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5876 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5877 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5878 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5879
5880 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5881 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5882 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5883 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5884
5885 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5886 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5887 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5888 the first guess is wrong.
5889
5890 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5891 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5892
5893 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5894 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5895 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5896 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5897
5898 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5899 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5900 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5901 translate automatically to and from either one.
5902
5903 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5904
5905 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5906 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5907 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5908 what you want.
5909
5910 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5911 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5912 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5913 multibyte characters in that buffer.
5914
5915 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5916 character conversion as well.
5917
5918 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5919
5920 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5921 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5922 requires using many fonts.
5923
5924 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5925 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5926
5927 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5928 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5929 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5930 you would use a font.
5931
5932 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5933 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5934 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5935
5936 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5937 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5938 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5939 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5940 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5941
5942 *** Defining fontsets.
5943
5944 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5945 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5946 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5947
5948 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5949 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5950 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5951 standard fontset are created automatically.
5952
5953 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5954 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5955 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5956 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5957 name is `fontset-startup'.
5958
5959 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5960 The resource value should have this form:
5961 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5962 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5963 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5964 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5965 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5966 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5967 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5968 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5969 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5970
5971 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5972 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5973 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5974
5975 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5976 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5977 following resource,
5978 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5979 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5980 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5981 Here is the substitution rule:
5982 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5983 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5984 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5985 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5986 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5987
5988 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5989 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5990 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5991
5992 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5993 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5994 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5995 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5996 fontsets.
5997
5998 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5999 defaults for a particular choice of language.
6000
6001 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
6002 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
6003 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
6004 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
6005 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
6006 system for new files that you create.
6007
6008 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
6009 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
6010 whole Emacs session.
6011
6012 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
6013 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
6014 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
6015
6016 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
6017 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
6018 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
6019 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
6020 coding systems that Emacs supports.
6021
6022 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
6023 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
6024 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
6025 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
6026 is used for *the immediately following command*.
6027
6028 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
6029 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
6030
6031 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
6032 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
6033
6034 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
6035 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
6036
6037 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
6038 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
6039 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
6040 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
6041 of the file.
6042
6043 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
6044 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
6045 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
6046 translated into that character code.
6047
6048 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
6049 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
6050
6051 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
6052
6053 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
6054 the coding system for keyboard input.
6055
6056 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
6057 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
6058 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
6059
6060 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
6061
6062 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
6063 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
6064 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
6065 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
6066 designed to work with terminals.
6067
6068 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
6069 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
6070 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
6071 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
6072 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
6073 in the corresponding buffer.
6074
6075 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
6076
6077 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
6078 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
6079 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
6080
6081 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
6082 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
6083 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
6084 want to use.
6085
6086 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
6087 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
6088
6089 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
6090 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
6091 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
6092 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
6093
6094 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
6095 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
6096 related information.
6097
6098 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
6099 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
6100 scripts.
6101
6102 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
6103 information about the support for a particular language.
6104 You specify the language as an argument.
6105
6106 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
6107 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
6108 first dash.
6109
6110 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
6111 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
6112 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
6113 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
6114
6115 A alternativnyj (Russian)
6116 B big5 (Chinese)
6117 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
6118 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
6119 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
6120 E euc-japan (Japanese)
6121 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
6122 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
6123 K euc-korea (Korean)
6124 R koi8 (Russian)
6125 Q tibetan
6126 S shift_jis (Japanese)
6127 T lao
6128 T tis620 (Thai)
6129 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
6130 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
6131 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
6132 v viqr (Vietnamese)
6133 z hz (Chinese)
6134
6135 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
6136 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
6137 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
6138 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
6139
6140 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
6141 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
6142
6143 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
6144 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
6145 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
6146 Rmail files themselves.
6147
6148 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
6149 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
6150
6151 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
6152 for sending mail:
6153
6154 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
6155 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
6156 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
6157 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
6158 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
6159
6160 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
6161 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
6162 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
6163 translations.
6164
6165 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
6166 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
6167 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
6168 without any conversion.
6169
6170 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
6171 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
6172 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
6173 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
6174
6175 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
6176 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
6177
6178 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
6179 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
6180
6181 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
6182 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
6183
6184 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
6185 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
6186 in the buffer before point.
6187
6188 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
6189 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
6190 you are using.
6191
6192 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
6193 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
6194
6195 ** File locking works with NFS now.
6196
6197 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
6198 in the same directory as FILENAME.
6199
6200 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
6201 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
6202 can become a bottleneck.
6203
6204 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
6205 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
6206 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
6207 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
6208 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
6209 so useful that the change is worth while.
6210
6211 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
6212 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
6213 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
6214 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
6215
6216 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
6217 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
6218 show-paren-mode.
6219
6220 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
6221 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
6222 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
6223
6224 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
6225 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
6226 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
6227
6228 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
6229 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
6230 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
6231
6232 ** Changes in View mode.
6233
6234 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
6235 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
6236
6237 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
6238 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
6239
6240 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
6241 previous state.
6242
6243 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
6244 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
6245
6246 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
6247 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
6248 not just the selected window.
6249
6250 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
6251 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
6252 turns View mode on or off.
6253
6254 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
6255 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
6256 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
6257
6258 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
6259 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
6260
6261 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
6262 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
6263 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
6264 which version to compare with.
6265
6266 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
6267 blocks if a match is inside the block.
6268
6269 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
6270 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
6271 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
6272 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
6273
6274 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
6275 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
6276 blocks, all of them or none.
6277
6278 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
6279 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
6280 confirmation first.
6281
6282 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
6283 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
6284 However, the mode will not be changed if
6285 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
6286 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
6287 not suitable for ordinary files, or
6288 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
6289
6290 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
6291
6292 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
6293 these commands do not change the major mode.
6294
6295 ** M-x occur changes.
6296
6297 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
6298 it performs a case-sensitive search.
6299
6300 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
6301 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
6302 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
6303
6304 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
6305 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
6306 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
6307 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
6308 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
6309
6310 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
6311 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
6312 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
6313 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
6314
6315 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6316 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
6317 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
6318
6319 ** Outline mode changes.
6320
6321 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
6322
6323 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
6324
6325 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
6326 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
6327 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
6328 was already active.
6329
6330 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
6331 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
6332 get confused by it.
6333
6334 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
6335 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
6336
6337 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
6338
6339 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6340 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
6341 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
6342 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
6343
6344 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
6345 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
6346 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
6347
6348 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
6349 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
6350 values.
6351
6352 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
6353 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
6354 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
6355 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
6356
6357 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
6358 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
6359 can be. The default value is 30.
6360
6361 ** Changes in Mail mode.
6362
6363 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
6364 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
6365 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
6366 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
6367 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
6368 behavior.
6369
6370 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
6371 compose-mail-other-frame.
6372
6373 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
6374 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
6375 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
6376 buffer that shows the original message.
6377
6378 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
6379 with separator lines around the contents.
6380
6381 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
6382 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
6383 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
6384 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
6385
6386 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
6387
6388 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
6389 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
6390 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
6391 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
6392
6393 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
6394 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
6395 /etc/passwd.
6396
6397 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
6398 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
6399 /etc/passwd.
6400
6401 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
6402 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
6403 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
6404 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
6405
6406 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
6407 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
6408 be taken to be magic.
6409
6410 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
6411 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
6412 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
6413
6414 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
6415 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
6416
6417 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
6418 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
6419
6420 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
6421
6422 new key dired.el binding old key
6423 ------- ---------------- -------
6424 * c dired-change-marks c
6425 * m dired-mark m
6426 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
6427 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
6428 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
6429 * u dired-unmark u
6430 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
6431 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
6432 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
6433 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
6434 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
6435 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
6436
6437 ** Rmail changes.
6438
6439 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
6440 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
6441 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
6442 each time you run it.
6443
6444 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
6445 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
6446
6447 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
6448 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
6449 means to move in the opposite direction.
6450
6451 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
6452 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
6453
6454 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
6455 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
6456 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
6457 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
6458 for output.
6459
6460 ** Gnus changes.
6461
6462 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
6463
6464 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
6465 Gnus.
6466
6467 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
6468 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
6469
6470 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
6471 article mode line.
6472
6473 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
6474
6475 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
6476
6477 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
6478
6479 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
6480 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
6481 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
6482
6483 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
6484
6485 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
6486
6487 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
6488 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
6489
6490 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
6491 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
6492 used to pick articles.
6493
6494 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
6495 another have been added.
6496
6497 `M-x gnus-change-server'
6498
6499 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
6500 generating lines in buffers.
6501
6502 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
6503 `M-C-_'.
6504
6505 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
6506
6507 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
6508
6509 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
6510
6511 *** Scores can be decayed.
6512
6513 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
6514
6515 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
6516 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
6517
6518 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
6519 the native server.
6520
6521 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
6522
6523 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
6524 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
6525
6526 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
6527
6528 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
6529 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
6530
6531 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
6532 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
6533
6534 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
6535 a group.
6536
6537 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
6538 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
6539
6540 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
6541
6542 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
6543
6544 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
6545
6546 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
6547
6548 Use the `Y c' command.
6549
6550 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
6551
6552 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
6553
6554 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
6555
6556 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
6557 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
6558
6559 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
6560
6561 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
6562
6563 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
6564 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
6565
6566 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
6567
6568 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
6569 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
6570 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
6571 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
6572 this issue.)
6573
6574 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
6575 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
6576 particular news group. This can be done by:
6577
6578 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
6579
6580 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
6581 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
6582 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
6583 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
6584 for reading and posting).
6585
6586 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
6587 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
6588 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
6589 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
6590 there.
6591
6592 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
6593 default. Here are some of these default settings:
6594
6595 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
6596 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
6597 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
6598 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
6599 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
6600
6601 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
6602 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6603
6604 ** CC mode changes.
6605
6606 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6607 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6608 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6609 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6610 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6611 loaded.
6612
6613 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6614 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6615 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6616 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6617 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6618 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6619
6620 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6621 of the current buffer.
6622
6623 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6624 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6625 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6626
6627 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6628 style that the Python developers like.
6629
6630 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6631 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6632 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6633
6634 ** VC Changes [new]
6635
6636 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6637 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6638 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6639
6640 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6641 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6642 developers.
6643
6644 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6645 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6646
6647 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6648 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6649 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6650 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6651
6652 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6653 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6654
6655 ** Calendar changes.
6656
6657 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6658 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6659 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6660
6661 ** ps-print changes
6662
6663 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6664
6665 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6666
6667 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6668 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6669 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6670 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6671 It defaults to `letter'.
6672 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6673
6674 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6675 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6676 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6677
6678 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6679 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6680 It defaults to 1.
6681
6682 *** Horizontal layout
6683
6684 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6685 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6686 All are measured in points.
6687
6688 *** Vertical layout
6689
6690 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6691 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6692 All are measured in points.
6693
6694 *** Headers
6695
6696 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6697 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6698 margin above the text.
6699
6700 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6701 framing box is printed around the header.
6702
6703 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6704 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6705
6706 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6707 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6708 `ps-header-font-size'.
6709
6710 *** Font managing
6711
6712 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6713 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6714 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6715 elements to this alist.
6716
6717 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6718 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6719
6720 ** hideshow changes.
6721
6722 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6723 C++, ; for lisp).
6724
6725 *** Support for java-mode added.
6726
6727 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6728 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6729
6730 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6731 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6732 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6733
6734 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6735 robust and a lot faster.
6736
6737 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6738
6739 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6740 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6741 documentation for more details.
6742
6743 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
6744
6745 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6746 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6747 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6748 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6749 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6750
6751 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6752 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6753 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6754 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6755
6756 ** Font Lock mode
6757
6758 *** Custom support
6759
6760 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6761 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6762 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6763 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6764 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6765 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6766
6767 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6768
6769 *** Maximum decoration
6770
6771 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6772 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6773 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6774 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6775 to get the old behavior.
6776
6777 *** New support
6778
6779 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6780
6781 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6782 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6783
6784 *** Configurable support
6785
6786 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6787 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6788 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6789 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6790 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6791 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6792 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6793
6794 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6795 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6796 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6797
6798 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6799
6800 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6801 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6802 for any mode.
6803
6804 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6805
6806 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6807
6808 in your ~/.emacs.
6809
6810 *** New faces
6811
6812 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6813 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6814 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6815 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6816
6817 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6818
6819 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6820 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6821 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6822
6823 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6824
6825 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6826 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6827 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6828 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6829 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6830 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6831 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6832
6833 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6834 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6835 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6836 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6837 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6838 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6839
6840 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6841
6842 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6843 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6844 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6845 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6846
6847 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6848 settings.
6849
6850 ** Ada mode changes.
6851
6852 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6853 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6854 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6855 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6856 stubs.
6857
6858 *** There are two new commands:
6859 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6860 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6861
6862 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6863 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6864 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6865
6866 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6867 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6868 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6869
6870 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6871 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6872 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6873 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6874
6875 ** Scheme mode changes.
6876
6877 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6878 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6879 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6880 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6881 have any effect.
6882
6883 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6884 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6885 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6886 variables as buffer-local variables.
6887
6888 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6889 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
6890
6891 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
6892
6893 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6894 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6895 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6896 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6897
6898 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6899 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6900 buffer in Emacs.
6901
6902 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6903 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6904 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6905 option takes precedence.
6906
6907 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6908 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6909 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6910
6911 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6912 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6913 the current defun.
6914
6915 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6916 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6917
6918 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6919 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6920 necessary).
6921
6922 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6923 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6924 these register values no longer become completely useless.
6925 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6926 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6927 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6928
6929 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6930 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6931 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6932 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6933
6934 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6935 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6936 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6937 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6938 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6939
6940 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6941 since it applies only to the current frame.
6942
6943 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6944 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6945 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6946
6947 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6948 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6949 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6950 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6951 instead of just the file you are editing.
6952
6953 ** RefTeX mode
6954
6955 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6956 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6957 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6958 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6959 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6960
6961 C-c ( reftex-label
6962 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6963 knows which kind of label is needed.
6964
6965 C-c ) reftex-reference
6966 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6967 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6968
6969 C-c [ reftex-citation
6970 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6971 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6972
6973 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6974 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6975
6976 C-c = reftex-toc
6977 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6978 can quickly jump to every section.
6979
6980 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6981 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6982 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6983 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6984 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6985
6986 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6987
6988 *** Info documentation is now available.
6989
6990 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6991 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6992
6993 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6994 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6995
6996 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6997 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6998
6999 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
7000 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
7001 appropriate functions.
7002
7003 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
7004 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
7005
7006 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
7007 been cleaned.
7008
7009 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
7010 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
7011
7012 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
7013 shall be delimited.
7014
7015 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
7016 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
7017 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
7018
7019 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
7020 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
7021 prefixed with `ALT'.
7022
7023 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
7024 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
7025 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
7026 documentation).
7027
7028 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
7029 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
7030 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
7031
7032 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
7033 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
7034
7035 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
7036 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
7037 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
7038
7039 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
7040
7041 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
7042
7043 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
7044 from alien sources.
7045
7046 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
7047 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
7048 crossref entries.
7049
7050 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
7051 region.
7052
7053 *** Added support for imenu.
7054
7055 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
7056 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
7057 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
7058 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
7059
7060 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
7061 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
7062
7063 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
7064
7065 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
7066
7067 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
7068 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
7069 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
7070 as an argument.
7071
7072 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
7073 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
7074
7075 ** browse-url changes
7076
7077 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
7078 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
7079 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
7080 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
7081 customization variables.
7082
7083 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
7084
7085 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
7086 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
7087 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
7088
7089 ** Changes in Ediff
7090
7091 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
7092 pops up the Info file for this command.
7093
7094 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
7095 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
7096 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
7097 directories).
7098
7099 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
7100 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
7101 files in the same directory.
7102
7103 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
7104 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
7105 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
7106
7107 ** Changes in Viper
7108
7109 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
7110 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
7111 instead of vip-.
7112 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
7113 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
7114 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
7115 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
7116 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
7117 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
7118 color when Viper is in insert state.
7119 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
7120 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
7121 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
7122
7123 ** Etags changes.
7124
7125 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
7126 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
7127 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
7128 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
7129 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
7130
7131 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
7132
7133 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
7134 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
7135
7136 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
7137 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
7138 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
7139
7140 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
7141 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
7142 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
7143 methods and protocols.
7144
7145 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
7146 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
7147 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
7148 paragraph name.
7149
7150 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
7151 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
7152 at least M times and as many as N times.
7153
7154 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
7155 in files has changed slightly.
7156
7157 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
7158 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
7159 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
7160 with old time-stamp-format values.
7161
7162 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
7163 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
7164 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
7165 reasons.
7166
7167 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
7168 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
7169 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
7170 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
7171 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
7172 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
7173
7174 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
7175 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
7176 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
7177
7178 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
7179 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
7180 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
7181 recommended now will continue to work then.
7182
7183 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
7184 details.
7185
7186 ** There are some additional major modes:
7187
7188 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
7189 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
7190 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
7191
7192 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
7193 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
7194 into Emacs.
7195
7196 ** New Lisp packages include:
7197
7198 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
7199
7200 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
7201 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
7202
7203 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
7204
7205 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
7206 in shell buffers.
7207
7208 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
7209 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
7210 and `elint-defun'.
7211
7212 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
7213 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
7214 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
7215 strings or comments.
7216
7217 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
7218 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
7219 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
7220 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
7221 at these points.
7222
7223 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
7224 can visit them by short forms of their names.
7225
7226 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
7227 Emacs Lisp function at point.
7228
7229 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
7230
7231 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
7232 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
7233
7234 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
7235
7236 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
7237
7238 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
7239
7240 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
7241 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
7242
7243 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
7244 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
7245 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
7246 original place after inserting the copy.
7247
7248 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
7249 on the buffer.
7250
7251 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
7252 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
7253 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
7254
7255 Enable mouse-drag with:
7256 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
7257 -or-
7258 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
7259
7260 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
7261 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
7262
7263 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
7264 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
7265
7266 *** ogonek
7267
7268 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
7269 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
7270 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
7271 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
7272 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
7273 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
7274 instance) and vice versa.
7275
7276 To use this package load it using
7277 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
7278 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
7279 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
7280 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
7281 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
7282 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
7283
7284 *** Interface to ph.
7285
7286 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
7287
7288 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
7289 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
7290 these servers.
7291
7292 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
7293
7294 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
7295 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
7296 while the real cursor does not move.
7297
7298 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
7299 for visiting your favorite web sites.
7300
7301 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
7302 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
7303
7304 ** movemail change
7305
7306 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
7307 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
7308 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
7309 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
7310
7311 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
7312 \f
7313 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
7314
7315 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
7316
7317 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
7318 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
7319 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
7320 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
7321 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
7322
7323 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
7324 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
7325 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
7326 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
7327 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
7328 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
7329 \f
7330 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
7331
7332 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
7333 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
7334 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
7335 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
7336
7337 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
7338 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
7339
7340 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
7341 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
7342 "win".
7343
7344 ** Basic Lisp changes
7345
7346 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
7347 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
7348
7349 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
7350 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
7351 or by the user.
7352
7353 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
7354
7355 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
7356
7357 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
7358 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
7359
7360 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
7361 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
7362 its argument.
7363
7364 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
7365
7366 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
7367
7368 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
7369
7370 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
7371 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
7372 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
7373 `format' function.
7374
7375 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
7376 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
7377 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
7378
7379 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
7380 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
7381 adding one of these suffixes.
7382
7383 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
7384 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
7385 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
7386
7387 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
7388 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
7389
7390 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
7391
7392 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
7393 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
7394
7395 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
7396 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
7397
7398 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
7399
7400 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
7401 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
7402
7403 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
7404 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
7405 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
7406 works using `save-current-buffer'.
7407
7408 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
7409 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
7410 of the last form.
7411
7412 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
7413 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
7414 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
7415 as the last form.
7416
7417 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
7418 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
7419 matches.
7420
7421 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
7422
7423 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
7424 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
7425 Then it returns that string.
7426
7427 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
7428
7429 (with-output-to-string
7430 (princ "The buffer is ")
7431 (princ (buffer-name)))
7432
7433 returns "The buffer is foo".
7434
7435 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
7436 is non-nil.
7437
7438 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
7439 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
7440 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
7441
7442 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
7443 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
7444
7445 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
7446 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
7447 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
7448 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
7449 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
7450 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
7451
7452 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
7453 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
7454 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
7455 characters".
7456
7457 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
7458 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
7459 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
7460 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
7461 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
7462
7463 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
7464 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
7465 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
7466 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
7467
7468 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
7469 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
7470
7471 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
7472
7473 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
7474 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
7475 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
7476 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
7477 guaranteed.
7478
7479 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
7480 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
7481 character).
7482
7483 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
7484
7485 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
7486 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
7487 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
7488 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
7489 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
7490
7491 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
7492
7493 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
7494 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
7495 more than the number of characters.
7496
7497 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
7498 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
7499 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
7500 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
7501 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
7502 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
7503
7504 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
7505 and returns a string containing those characters.
7506
7507 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
7508 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
7509 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
7510 character, sref signals an error.
7511
7512 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
7513 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
7514 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7515
7516 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
7517 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
7518 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7519
7520 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
7521 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
7522 to a vector of the characters in it.
7523
7524 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
7525 of a string. You call it as follows:
7526
7527 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
7528
7529 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
7530 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
7531 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
7532 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
7533 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
7534
7535 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
7536 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7537
7538 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
7539 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7540
7541 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
7542 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
7543 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
7544 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
7545
7546 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
7547
7548 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
7549
7550 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
7551 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
7552 are not included in the resulting value.
7553
7554 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
7555 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
7556 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
7557 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
7558
7559 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
7560 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
7561 character extends across that column), then the padding character
7562 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
7563 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
7564 column START-COLUMN.
7565
7566 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
7567 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
7568 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
7569 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
7570 changed text, before the change.
7571
7572 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
7573 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
7574 one character set for each script, not for each language.
7575
7576 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
7577
7578 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
7579
7580 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
7581 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
7582
7583 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
7584 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
7585 which identify the character within that character set.
7586
7587 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
7588 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
7589 opposite of split-char.
7590
7591 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
7592 of all the characters between BEG and END.
7593
7594 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
7595 of all the characters in a string.
7596
7597 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
7598 and specifying coding systems.
7599
7600 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
7601 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
7602 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7603 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7604 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7605 as what to do about code conversion.)
7606
7607 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7608 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7609
7610 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7611 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7612 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7613
7614 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7615 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7616 to match against a file name.
7617
7618 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7619 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7620 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7621 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7622 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7623 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7624
7625 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7626 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7627
7628 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7629 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7630
7631 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7632 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7633 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7634 service names.
7635
7636 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7637 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7638 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7639 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7640 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7641 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7642
7643 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7644 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7645
7646 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7647 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7648 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7649 start the subprocess.
7650
7651 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7652 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7653 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7654 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7655 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7656
7657 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7658 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7659 subprocess.
7660
7661 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7662 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7663 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7664 connection permanently or until overridden.
7665
7666 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7667 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7668 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7669 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7670 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7671 system for one operation at a time.
7672
7673 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7674 files, subprocesses or network connections.
7675
7676 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7677 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7678 The value is a cons cell,
7679 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7680 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7681 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7682 input to the subprocess.
7683
7684 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7685 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7686
7687 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7688 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7689 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7690
7691 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7692 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7693 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7694 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7695 customization.
7696
7697 Thus, instead of writing
7698
7699 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7700 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7701
7702 you would now write this:
7703
7704 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7705 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7706 :type 'boolean
7707 :group foo)
7708
7709 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7710 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7711 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7712 for a description of them.
7713
7714 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7715 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7716
7717 (defgroup ispell nil
7718 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7719 :group 'processes)
7720
7721 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7722 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7723 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7724 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7725 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7726
7727 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7728 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7729 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7730 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7731 first-level subgroups.
7732
7733 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7734
7735 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7736 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7737
7738 ** easy-mmode
7739
7740 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7741 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7742 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7743 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7744 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7745 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7746
7747 ** Text property changes
7748
7749 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7750 text property.
7751
7752 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7753 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7754 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7755 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7756 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7757
7758 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7759 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7760 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7761 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7762
7763 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7764 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7765 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7766
7767 ** Changes in invisibility features
7768
7769 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7770 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7771 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7772 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7773 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7774 make the overlay visible.
7775
7776 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7777 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7778 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7779 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7780 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7781 t when it should hide it.
7782
7783 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7784
7785 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7786 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7787 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7788 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7789 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7790 Here is an example of how to do this:
7791
7792 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7793 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7794 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7795 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7796
7797 ...
7798 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7799
7800 ...
7801 ;; When done with the overlays:
7802 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7803 ;; Or respectively:
7804 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7805
7806 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
7807
7808 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7809 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7810 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7811 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7812
7813 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7814 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7815 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7816
7817 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7818 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7819
7820 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7821 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7822
7823 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7824 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7825 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7826
7827 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7828 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7829 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7830 determine the syntax type of the character.
7831
7832 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7833 of the current buffer.
7834
7835 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7836 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7837 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7838
7839 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7840 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7841 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7842 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7843 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7844
7845 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7846 text property.
7847
7848 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7849 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7850 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7851
7852 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7853 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7854 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7855 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7856 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7857
7858 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7859 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7860 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7861
7862 ** Changes in face features
7863
7864 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7865 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7866
7867 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7868 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7869
7870 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7871 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7872
7873 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7874 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7875
7876 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7877 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7878 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7879 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7880 overlay property).
7881
7882 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7883 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7884
7885 ** Changes in file-handling functions
7886
7887 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7888 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7889 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7890 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7891
7892 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7893 begins with ~.
7894
7895 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7896 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7897
7898 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7899 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7900
7901 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7902 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7903
7904 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7905 character code conversion as well as other things.
7906
7907 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7908 (formerly it did not).
7909
7910 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7911 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7912
7913 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7914 instead of constant strings.
7915
7916 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7917 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7918 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7919
7920 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7921 in the same way as before.
7922
7923 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7924 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7925 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7926
7927 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7928 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7929 else, and returns nil.
7930
7931 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7932 directory cannot be listed.
7933
7934 ** Changes in minibuffer input
7935
7936 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7937 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7938 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7939 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7940 ways:
7941
7942 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7943 It is available through the history command M-n.
7944
7945 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7946 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7947 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7948 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7949 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7950
7951 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7952 argument in this way.
7953
7954 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7955 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7956 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7957
7958 ** Echo area features
7959
7960 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7961 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7962 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7963 after the echo area is cleared.
7964
7965 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7966 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7967
7968 ** Keyboard input features
7969
7970 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7971 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7972
7973 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7974 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7975 by keyboard macros.
7976
7977 ** Frame-related changes
7978
7979 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7980 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7981 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7982
7983 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7984 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7985 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7986
7987 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7988 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7989 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7990 in the selected frame.
7991
7992 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7993 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7994 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7995
7996 ** X Windows features
7997
7998 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7999 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
8000 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
8001
8002 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
8003 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
8004
8005 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
8006 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
8007 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
8008
8009 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
8010 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
8011
8012 ** Subprocess features
8013
8014 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
8015 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
8016 automatically.
8017
8018 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
8019 and returns the output from the command as a string.
8020
8021 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
8022 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
8023
8024 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
8025 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
8026
8027 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
8028 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
8029 goes after the other menu items.
8030
8031 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
8032 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
8033 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
8034 are in use.
8035
8036 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
8037 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
8038
8039 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
8040 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
8041 form.
8042
8043 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
8044 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
8045 but its hook is still run.
8046
8047 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
8048 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
8049
8050 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
8051 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
8052 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
8053
8054 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
8055 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
8056 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
8057 warned.
8058
8059 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
8060 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
8061
8062 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
8063 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
8064 functions like display-time.
8065
8066 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
8067 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
8068
8069 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
8070 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
8071 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
8072
8073 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
8074 if there is an error in compilation.
8075
8076 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
8077 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
8078 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
8079 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
8080
8081 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
8082 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
8083 the *scratch* buffer.
8084
8085 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
8086 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
8087 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
8088 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
8089
8090 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
8091 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
8092 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
8093
8094 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
8095 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
8096 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
8097 and compose-mail-other-frame.
8098
8099 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
8100 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
8101 full name of the specified user will be returned.
8102
8103 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
8104 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
8105 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
8106 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
8107 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
8108 files at all.
8109
8110 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
8111 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
8112 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
8113 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
8114
8115 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
8116 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
8117 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
8118 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
8119
8120 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
8121
8122 ** imenu.el changes.
8123
8124 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
8125 item from menu created by imenu.
8126
8127 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
8128 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
8129 select one of those items.
8130 \f
8131 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
8132 \f
8133 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
8134
8135 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
8136 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
8137
8138 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
8139 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
8140 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
8141 \f
8142 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
8143
8144 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
8145 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
8146
8147 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
8148 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
8149 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
8150 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
8151 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
8152 all caps.
8153
8154 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
8155 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
8156
8157 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
8158 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
8159 as in previous Emacs versions.
8160
8161 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
8162 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
8163 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
8164 frames.
8165
8166 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
8167 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
8168 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
8169 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
8170 accident.
8171
8172 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
8173 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
8174 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
8175 line and then executing the macro.
8176
8177 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
8178
8179 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
8180 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
8181 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
8182 characters.
8183
8184 ** Font Lock mode
8185
8186 *** Font Lock support modes
8187
8188 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
8189 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
8190 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
8191 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
8192 Font Lock mode is enabled.
8193
8194 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
8195
8196 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
8197
8198 in your ~/.emacs.
8199
8200 *** lazy-lock
8201
8202 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
8203 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
8204 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
8205 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
8206 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
8207 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
8208 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
8209
8210 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
8211
8212 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
8213
8214 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
8215
8216 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8217
8218 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
8219 paren and key.
8220
8221 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
8222 supported.
8223
8224 ** Gnus changes.
8225
8226 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
8227 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
8228 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
8229 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
8230
8231 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
8232 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
8233
8234 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
8235 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
8236 obsolete.
8237
8238 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
8239 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
8240
8241 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
8242
8243 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
8244
8245 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
8246
8247 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
8248 referred.
8249
8250 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
8251
8252 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
8253
8254 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
8255
8256 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
8257
8258 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
8259 buffers.
8260
8261 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
8262
8263 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
8264
8265 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
8266
8267 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
8268
8269 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
8270
8271 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
8272
8273 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
8274
8275 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
8276 is possible.
8277
8278 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
8279
8280 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
8281 groups of groups.
8282
8283 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
8284
8285 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
8286 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
8287
8288 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
8289
8290 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
8291
8292 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
8293
8294 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
8295
8296 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
8297 expiration times.
8298
8299 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
8300
8301 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
8302 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
8303
8304 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
8305 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
8306 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
8307
8308 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
8309 articles with the `*' command.
8310
8311 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
8312
8313 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
8314
8315 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
8316
8317 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
8318
8319 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
8320 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
8321
8322 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
8323 buffer.
8324
8325 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
8326
8327 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
8328
8329 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
8330
8331 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
8332
8333 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
8334
8335 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
8336
8337 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
8338
8339 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
8340
8341 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
8342
8343 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
8344 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
8345
8346 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
8347 refetching.
8348
8349 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
8350
8351 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
8352 buffer to allow easier treatment.
8353
8354 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
8355
8356 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
8357
8358 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
8359
8360 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
8361 articles.
8362
8363 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
8364
8365 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
8366
8367 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
8368 cited text to hide is now customizable.
8369
8370 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
8371
8372 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
8373
8374 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
8375
8376 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
8377
8378 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
8379
8380 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
8381 in greater detail.
8382 \f
8383 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
8384
8385 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
8386 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
8387 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
8388 exists.
8389
8390 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
8391 as well as lists.
8392
8393 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
8394 of a given keymap.
8395
8396 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
8397 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
8398 keymap or nil.
8399
8400 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
8401 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
8402 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
8403 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
8404 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
8405 alias.
8406 \f
8407 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
8408
8409 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
8410
8411 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
8412 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
8413 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
8414 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
8415 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
8416
8417 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
8418 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
8419 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
8420
8421 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
8422
8423 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
8424 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
8425 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
8426 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
8427 chapter of the manual for details.
8428
8429 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
8430 customization variables take effect.
8431
8432 ** Marking with the mouse.
8433
8434 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
8435 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
8436 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
8437
8438 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
8439
8440 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
8441
8442 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
8443 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
8444
8445 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
8446 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
8447 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
8448 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
8449 applications, these problems are significant.
8450
8451 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
8452 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
8453 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
8454 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
8455 other DOS application as a subprocess.
8456
8457 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
8458 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
8459
8460 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
8461 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
8462 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
8463 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
8464 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
8465 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
8466
8467 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
8468
8469 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
8470 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
8471 minibuffer contains.
8472
8473 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
8474
8475 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
8476 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
8477 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
8478 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
8479
8480 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
8481 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
8482 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
8483 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
8484
8485 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
8486 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
8487
8488 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
8489 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
8490 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
8491
8492 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
8493 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
8494 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
8495 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
8496
8497 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
8498
8499 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
8500 to replace the characters it "deletes".
8501
8502 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
8503
8504 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
8505 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
8506 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
8507 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
8508 immediately after the selected one.
8509
8510 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
8511 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
8512
8513 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
8514
8515 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
8516 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
8517 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
8518 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
8519 recover-session.
8520
8521 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
8522 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
8523 will not work.
8524
8525 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
8526 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
8527 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
8528 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
8529 now that the bug is fixed.
8530
8531 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
8532
8533 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
8534 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
8535 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
8536 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
8537
8538 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
8539 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
8540 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
8541 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
8542
8543 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
8544 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
8545 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
8546
8547 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
8548 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
8549 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
8550 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
8551 remain normal.
8552
8553 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
8554 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
8555
8556 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
8557 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
8558 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
8559 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
8560
8561 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
8562 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
8563 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
8564 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
8565 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
8566 `mail-directory-stream'.)
8567
8568 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
8569 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
8570 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
8571 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
8572
8573 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
8574 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
8575 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
8576
8577 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
8578 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
8579 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
8580 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
8581 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
8582 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
8583 to a limitation in font-lock).
8584
8585 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
8586
8587 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
8588 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
8589 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
8590 this example:
8591
8592 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
8593 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
8594
8595 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8596
8597 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
8598
8599 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
8600
8601 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8602
8603 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8604 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8605 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8606 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8607 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8608 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8609
8610 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8611 does the same job.
8612
8613 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8614 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8615
8616 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8617 text.
8618
8619 ** Font Lock mode
8620
8621 *** Global Font Lock mode
8622
8623 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8624 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8625 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8626 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8627 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8628
8629 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8630
8631 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8632
8633 in your ~/.emacs.
8634
8635 *** Local Refontification
8636
8637 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8638 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8639 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8640 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8641
8642 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8643 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8644 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8645 above and below point.
8646
8647 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8648
8649 ** Follow mode
8650
8651 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8652 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8653 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8654 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8655 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8656 follow-mode.
8657
8658 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8659
8660 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8661 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8662
8663 ** hide-show changes.
8664
8665 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8666 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8667 normal hooks.
8668
8669 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8670 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8671
8672 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8673 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8674 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8675
8676 ** MSDOS Changes
8677
8678 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8679 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8680
8681 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8682 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8683
8684 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8685
8686 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8687 pressing both mouse buttons.
8688
8689 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8690 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8691 are:
8692
8693 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8694 now works.
8695
8696 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8697
8698 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8699 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8700
8701 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8702
8703 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8704
8705 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
8706
8707 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8708
8709 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8710 \f
8711 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8712
8713 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8714 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8715 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8716 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8717 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8718
8719 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8720
8721 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8722 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8723 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8724 be different.
8725
8726 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8727 than `system-type'.
8728
8729 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8730
8731 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8732 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8733
8734 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8735 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8736
8737 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8738 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8739 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8740
8741 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8742 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8743 like this:
8744
8745 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8746
8747 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8748 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8749 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8750
8751 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8752 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8753 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8754
8755 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8756 up if too much time passes.
8757
8758 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8759
8760 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8761 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8762 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8763 form in BODY.
8764
8765 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8766 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8767 call looks like this:
8768
8769 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8770
8771 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8772 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8773 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8774 ARGS.
8775
8776 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8777 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8778 command.
8779
8780 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8781 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8782 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8783 each time Emacs becomes idle.
8784
8785 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8786 idle for SECS seconds.
8787
8788 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8789 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8790 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8791 instead.
8792
8793 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8794 there is no answer within a certain time.
8795
8796 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8797
8798 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8799 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8800 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8801
8802 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8803 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8804 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8805 arguments in between are ignored.
8806
8807 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8808 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8809
8810 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8811 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8812 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8813 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8814 version.
8815
8816 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8817 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8818 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8819 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8820 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8821 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8822
8823 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8824 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8825 systems with limited file name syntax.
8826
8827 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8828 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8829 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8830 completions.el:
8831
8832 (defvar save-completions-file-name
8833 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8834 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8835
8836 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8837 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8838 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8839 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8840 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8841
8842 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8843 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8844 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8845
8846 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8847 marker from its buffer position.
8848
8849 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8850 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8851 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8852
8853 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8854 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8855 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8856 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8857 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8858 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8859
8860 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8861 errors that happen often during editing.
8862
8863 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8864 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8865 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8866
8867 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8868 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8869
8870 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8871 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8872 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8873 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8874 and not get-buffer-window.
8875
8876 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8877 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8878 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8879
8880 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8881 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8882 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8883 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8884 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8885 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8886 over and over for the same text.
8887
8888 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8889
8890 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8891 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8892
8893 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
8894 ;; $HEADER: text $
8895
8896 in addition to the normal
8897
8898 ;; HEADER: text
8899
8900 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8901 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8902 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8903
8904
8905 \f
8906 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
8907
8908 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8909 Copyright information:
8910
8911 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8912
8913 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8914 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8915 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8916 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8917
8918 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8919 of this document, or of portions of it,
8920 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8921 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8922 \f
8923 Local variables:
8924 mode: outline
8925 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
8926 end: