1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
3 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 For older news, see the file ONEWS
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9 `view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
12 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
13 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
14 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
15 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
18 * Installation Changes in Emacs 22.1
21 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
22 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
26 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
29 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
30 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.4 or newer. This port
31 provides a way to display multilingual text in menus (with some caveats).
34 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with Lisp code.
37 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
38 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
39 place for game scores to be stored. You can control this with the
40 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
41 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
42 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
43 in each user's home directory.
46 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
47 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
51 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
53 The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual in Info format is built as part of the
54 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
55 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
56 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
59 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
62 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
63 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
64 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
65 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
68 ** New translations of the Emacs Tutorial are available in the
69 following languages: Brasilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Chinese (both
70 with simplified and traditional characters), French, and Italian.
71 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose one of them in case your language setup
72 doesn't automatically select the right one.
75 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
78 ** Emacs now includes support for loading image libraries on demand.
79 (Currently this feature is only used on MS Windows.) You can configure
80 the supported image types and their associated dynamic libraries by
81 setting the variable `image-library-alist'.
84 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
87 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
90 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
93 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
94 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
97 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
100 ** Mac OS 9 port now uses the Carbon API by default. You can also
101 create non-Carbon build by specifying `NonCarbon' as a target. See
102 the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
105 ** Building with -DENABLE_CHECKING does not automatically build with union
106 types any more. Add -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE if you want union types.
109 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
110 much pure storage it will approximately need.
112 ** The script etc/emacs-buffer.gdb can be used with gdb to retrieve the
113 contents of buffers from a core dump and save them to files easily, should
117 ** The Emacs terminal emulation in term.el uses a different terminfo name.
118 The Emacs terminal emulation in term.el now uses "eterm-color" as its
119 terminfo name, since term.el now supports color.
122 ** Emacs Lisp source files are compressed by default if `gzip' is available.
125 * Startup Changes in Emacs 22.1
128 ** New command line option -Q or --quick.
129 This is like using -q --no-site-file, but in addition it also disables
130 the fancy startup screen.
133 ** New command line option -D or --basic-display.
134 Disables the menu-bar, the tool-bar, the scroll-bars, tool tips, and
138 ** New command line option -nbc or --no-blinking-cursor disables
139 the blinking cursor on graphical terminals.
142 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
143 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
144 can start with this line:
146 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
149 ** The option --directory DIR now modifies `load-path' immediately.
150 Directories are added to the front of `load-path' in the order they
151 appear on the command line. For example, with this command line:
153 emacs -batch -L .. -L /tmp --eval "(require 'foo)"
155 Emacs looks for library `foo' in the parent directory, then in /tmp, then
156 in the other directories in `load-path'. (-L is short for --directory.)
159 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
160 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
163 ** The -f option, used from the command line to call a function,
164 now reads arguments for the function interactively if it is
165 an interactively callable function.
168 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
169 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
170 affects the initial frame.
173 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
174 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
175 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
176 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
177 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
180 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
181 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
182 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
183 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
184 `inhibit-splash-screen').
187 ** The default is now to use a bitmap as the icon, so the command-line options
188 --icon-type, -i has been replaced with options --no-bitmap-icon, -nbi to turn
192 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
193 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
194 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
198 If the init file ~/.emacs does not exist, Emacs will try
199 ~/.emacs.d/init.el or ~/.emacs.d/init.elc. You can also put the shell
200 init file .emacs_SHELL under ~/.emacs.d.
203 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
204 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
205 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
206 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
207 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
209 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 22.1
212 ** M-g is now a prefix key.
213 M-g g and M-g M-g run goto-line.
214 M-g n and M-g M-n run next-error (like C-x `).
215 M-g p and M-g M-p run previous-error.
218 ** C-u M-g M-g switches to the most recent previous buffer,
219 and goes to the specified line in that buffer.
221 When goto-line starts to execute, if there's a number in the buffer at
222 point then it acts as the default argument for the minibuffer.
225 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
226 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
227 the operating system or your X server.
230 ** line-move-ignore-invisible now defaults to t.
233 ** When the undo information of the current command gets really large
234 (beyond the value of `undo-outer-limit'), Emacs discards it and warns
238 ** `apply-macro-to-region-lines' now operates on all lines that begin
239 in the region, rather than on all complete lines in the region.
242 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
243 previous mark if you set `set-mark-command-repeat-pop' to t. I.e. C-u
244 C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... cycles through the mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC
245 to set the mark immediately after a jump.
248 ** The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
249 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
252 ** In incremental search, C-w is changed. M-%, C-M-w and C-M-y are special.
254 See below under "incremental search changes".
257 ** C-x C-f RET, typing nothing in the minibuffer, is no longer a special case.
259 Since the default input is the current directory, this has the effect
260 of specifying the current directory. Normally that means to visit the
261 directory with Dired.
263 You can get the old behavior by typing C-x C-f M-n RET, which fetches
264 the actual file name into the minibuffer.
267 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
268 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
269 it remains unchanged.
272 ** When Emacs prompts for file names, SPC no longer completes the file name.
273 This is so filenames with embedded spaces could be input without the
274 need to quote the space with a C-q. The underlying changes in the
275 keymaps that are active in the minibuffer are described below under
276 "New keymaps for typing file names".
279 ** M-o now is the prefix key for setting text properties;
280 M-o M-o requests refontification.
283 ** You can now follow links by clicking Mouse-1 on the link.
285 See below for more details.
288 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
289 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
290 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
291 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
292 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
293 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
295 * Editing Changes in Emacs 22.1
298 ** !MEM FULL! at the start of the mode line indicates that Emacs
299 cannot get any more memory for Lisp data. This often means it could
300 crash soon if you do things that use more memory. On most systems,
301 killing buffers will get out of this state. If killing buffers does
302 not make !MEM FULL! disappear, you should save your work and start
306 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
307 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
310 ** You can now switch buffers in a cyclic order with C-x C-left
311 (previous-buffer) and C-x C-right (next-buffer). C-x left and
312 C-x right can be used as well. The functions keep a different buffer
313 cycle for each frame, using the frame-local buffer list.
316 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
319 ** M-SPC (just-one-space) when given a numeric argument N
320 converts whitespace around point to N spaces.
323 ** New commands to operate on pairs of open and close characters:
324 `insert-pair', `delete-pair', `raise-sexp'.
327 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
328 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
331 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
332 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
333 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
334 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
337 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
338 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
339 in Indented-Text mode.
342 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variable references.
344 Substrings of the form `$foo' and `${foo}' in the specified new value
345 now refer to the value of environment variable foo. To include a `$'
346 in the value, use `$$'.
349 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
350 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
354 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
357 ** The command `list-faces-display' now accepts a prefix arg.
358 When passed, the function prompts for a regular expression and lists
359 only faces matching this regexp.
361 ** Mark command changes:
364 *** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
365 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... cycles through the
366 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
369 *** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times.
371 If you type C-M-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h
372 (mark-paragraph), or C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region
373 extends each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC
374 M-C-SPC, for example. This feature also works for
375 mark-end-of-sentence, if you bind that to a key. It also extends the
376 region when the mark is active in Transient Mark mode, regardless of
377 the last command. To start a new region with one of marking commands
378 in Transient Mark mode, you can deactivate the active region with C-g,
379 or set the new mark with C-SPC.
382 *** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
384 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
385 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
389 *** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
390 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
391 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
392 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
393 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
396 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
397 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
398 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
401 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
402 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
403 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
407 *** Movement commands `beginning-of-buffer', `end-of-buffer',
408 `beginning-of-defun', `end-of-defun' do not set the mark if the mark
409 is already active in Transient Mark mode.
411 ** Help command changes:
414 *** Changes in C-h bindings:
416 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
418 C-h d runs apropos-documentation.
420 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
423 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
424 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
426 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
427 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
429 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
430 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
431 run by the key sequence.
432 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
433 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
436 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
437 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
438 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
439 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
440 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
441 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
442 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
443 new-kill-line is on C-k
446 *** Help commands `describe-function' and `describe-key' now show function
447 arguments in lowercase italics on displays that support it. To change the
448 default, customize face `help-argument-name' or redefine the function
449 `help-default-arg-highlight'.
452 *** C-h v and C-h f commands now include a hyperlink to the C source for
453 variables and functions defined in C (if the C source is available).
456 *** Help mode now only makes hyperlinks for faces when the face name is
457 preceded or followed by the word `face'. It no longer makes
458 hyperlinks for variables without variable documentation, unless
459 preceded by one of the words `variable' or `option'. It now makes
460 hyperlinks to Info anchors (or nodes) if the anchor (or node) name is
461 enclosed in single quotes and preceded by `info anchor' or `Info
462 anchor' (in addition to earlier `info node' and `Info node'). In
463 addition, it now makes hyperlinks to URLs as well if the URL is
464 enclosed in single quotes and preceded by `URL'.
467 *** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
468 description various information about a character, including its
469 encodings and syntax, its text properties, how to input, overlays, and
470 widgets at point. You can get more information about some of them, by
471 clicking on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
474 *** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
475 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
478 *** New command `display-local-help' displays any local help at point
479 in the echo area. It is bound to `C-h .'. It normally displays the
480 same string that would be displayed on mouse-over using the
481 `help-echo' property, but, in certain cases, it can display a more
482 keyboard oriented alternative.
485 *** New user option `help-at-pt-display-when-idle' allows to
486 automatically show the help provided by `display-local-help' on
487 point-over, after suitable idle time. The amount of idle time is
488 determined by the user option `help-at-pt-timer-delay' and defaults
489 to one second. This feature is turned off by default.
492 *** The apropos commands now accept a list of words to match.
493 When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
494 be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
498 *** The new option `apropos-sort-by-scores' causes the matching items
499 to be sorted according to their score. The score for an item is a
500 number calculated to indicate how well the item matches the words or
501 regular expression that you entered to the apropos command. The best
502 match is listed first, and the calculated score is shown for each
505 ** Incremental Search changes:
508 *** Vertical scrolling is now possible within incremental search.
509 To enable this feature, customize the new user option
510 `isearch-allow-scroll'. User written commands which satisfy stringent
511 constraints can be marked as "scrolling commands". See the Emacs manual
515 *** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
516 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
517 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
518 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
521 *** C-y in incremental search now grabs the next line if point is already
522 at the end of a line.
525 *** C-M-w deletes and C-M-y grabs a character in isearch mode.
526 Another method to grab a character is to enter the minibuffer by `M-e'
527 and to type `C-f' at the end of the search string in the minibuffer.
530 *** M-% typed in isearch mode invokes `query-replace' or
531 `query-replace-regexp' (depending on search mode) with the current
532 search string used as the string to replace.
535 *** Isearch no longer adds `isearch-resume' commands to the command
536 history by default. To enable this feature, customize the new
537 user option `isearch-resume-in-command-history'.
539 ** Replace command changes:
542 *** New user option `query-replace-skip-read-only': when non-nil,
543 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
544 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
547 *** When used interactively, the commands `query-replace-regexp' and
548 `replace-regexp' allow \,expr to be used in a replacement string,
549 where expr is an arbitrary Lisp expression evaluated at replacement
550 time. In many cases, this will be more convenient than using
551 `query-replace-regexp-eval'. `\#' in a replacement string now refers
552 to the count of replacements already made by the replacement command.
553 All regular expression replacement commands now allow `\?' in the
554 replacement string to specify a position where the replacement string
555 can be edited for each replacement.
558 *** query-replace uses isearch lazy highlighting when the new user option
559 `query-replace-lazy-highlight' is non-nil.
562 *** The current match in query-replace is highlighted in new face
563 `query-replace' which by default inherits from isearch face.
565 ** File operation changes:
568 *** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
569 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
570 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
571 is only rarely needed.
574 *** In processing a local variables list, Emacs strips the prefix and
575 suffix from every line before processing all the lines.
578 *** If the local variables list contains any variable-value pairs that
579 are not known to be safe, Emacs shows a prompt asking whether to apply
580 the local variables list as a whole. In earlier versions, a prompt
581 was only issued for variables explicitly marked as risky (for the
582 definition of risky variables, see `risky-local-variable-p').
584 At the prompt, the user can choose to save the contents of this local
585 variables list to `safe-local-variable-values'. This new customizable
586 option is a list of variable-value pairs that are known to be safe.
587 Variables can also be marked as safe with the existing
588 `safe-local-variable' property (see `safe-local-variable-p').
589 However, risky variables will not be added to
590 `safe-local-variable-values' in this way.
593 *** find-file-read-only visits multiple files in read-only mode,
594 when the file name contains wildcard characters.
597 *** find-alternate-file replaces the current file with multiple files,
598 when the file name contains wildcard characters.
601 *** Auto Compression mode is now enabled by default.
604 *** C-x C-f RET, typing nothing in the minibuffer, is no longer a special case.
606 Since the default input is the current directory, this has the effect
607 of specifying the current directory. Normally that means to visit the
608 directory with Dired.
611 *** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
612 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
613 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you can in fact alter the
617 *** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
618 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
621 *** The commands copy-file, rename-file, make-symbolic-link and
622 add-name-to-file, when given a directory as the "new name" argument,
623 convert it to a file name by merging in the within-directory part of
624 the existing file's name. (This is the same convention that shell
625 commands cp, mv, and ln follow.) Thus, M-x copy-file RET ~/foo RET
626 /tmp RET copies ~/foo to /tmp/foo.
629 *** When used interactively, `format-write-file' now asks for confirmation
630 before overwriting an existing file, unless a prefix argument is
631 supplied. This behavior is analogous to `write-file'.
634 *** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
635 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
636 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
639 *** The new option `write-region-inhibit-fsync' disables calls to fsync
640 in `write-region'. This can be useful on laptops to avoid spinning up
641 the hard drive upon each file save. Enabling this variable may result
642 in data loss, use with care.
645 *** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
646 Emacs asks for confirmation.
649 *** require-final-newline now has two new possible values:
651 `visit' means add a newline (as an undoable change) if it's needed
652 when visiting the file.
654 `visit-save' means add a newline (as an undoable change) if it's
655 needed when visiting the file, and also add a newline if it's needed
656 when saving the file.
659 *** The new option mode-require-final-newline controls how certain
660 major modes enable require-final-newline. Any major mode that's
661 designed for a kind of file that should normally end in a newline
662 sets require-final-newline based on mode-require-final-newline.
663 So you can customize mode-require-final-newline to control what these
666 ** Minibuffer changes:
669 *** The new file-name-shadow-mode is turned ON by default, so that when
670 entering a file name, any prefix which Emacs will ignore is dimmed.
673 *** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
674 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
675 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
679 *** Enhanced visual feedback in `*Completions*' buffer.
681 Completions lists use faces to highlight what all completions
682 have in common and where they begin to differ.
684 The common prefix shared by all possible completions uses the face
685 `completions-common-part', while the first character that isn't the
686 same uses the face `completions-first-difference'. By default,
687 `completions-common-part' inherits from `default', and
688 `completions-first-difference' inherits from `bold'. The idea of
689 `completions-common-part' is that you can use it to make the common
690 parts less visible than normal, so that the rest of the differing
691 parts is, by contrast, slightly highlighted.
693 Above fontification is always done when listing completions is
694 triggered at minibuffer. If you want to fontify completions whose
695 listing is triggered at the other normal buffer, you have to pass
696 the common prefix of completions to `display-completion-list' as
700 *** File-name completion can now ignore specified directories.
701 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
702 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
703 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
704 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
705 candidate is a directory.
708 *** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
709 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
710 it remains unchanged.
713 *** New user option `history-delete-duplicates'.
714 If set to t when adding a new history element, all previous identical
715 elements are deleted.
717 ** Redisplay changes:
720 *** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
721 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
722 appears between the position information and the major mode.
725 *** New face `escape-glyph' highlights control characters and escape glyphs.
728 *** Non-breaking space and hyphens are now displayed with a special
729 face, either nobreak-space or escape-glyph. You can turn this off or
730 specify a different mode by setting the variable `nobreak-char-display'.
733 *** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
734 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
735 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
736 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
738 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
739 hscrolling scrolls the window when point gets too close to the
740 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
741 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
742 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
743 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
745 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
746 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
749 *** Moving or scrolling through images (and other lines) taller than
750 the window now works sensibly, by automatically adjusting the window's
754 *** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
755 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
756 the mode line of the currently selected window.
758 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
759 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
762 *** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
763 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
764 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
765 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
769 *** Angle icons in the fringes can indicate the buffer boundaries. In
770 addition, up and down arrow bitmaps in the fringe indicate which ways
771 the window can be scrolled.
773 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
774 `indicate-buffer-boundaries' to a non-nil value. The default value of
775 this variable is found in `default-indicate-buffer-boundaries'.
777 If value is `left' or `right', both angle and arrow bitmaps are
778 displayed in the left or right fringe, resp.
780 The value can also be an alist which specifies the presence and
781 position of each bitmap individually.
783 For example, ((top . left) (t . right)) places the top angle bitmap
784 in left fringe, the bottom angle bitmap in right fringe, and both
785 arrow bitmaps in right fringe. To show just the angle bitmaps in the
786 left fringe, but no arrow bitmaps, use ((top . left) (bottom . left)).
789 *** On window systems, lines which are exactly as wide as the window
790 (not counting the final newline character) are no longer broken into
791 two lines on the display (with just the newline on the second line).
792 Instead, the newline now "overflows" into the right fringe, and the
793 cursor will be displayed in the fringe when positioned on that newline.
795 The new user option 'overflow-newline-into-fringe' can be set to nil to
796 revert to the old behavior of continuing such lines.
799 *** When a window has display margin areas, the fringes are now
800 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
801 outside those margins.
804 *** A window can now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
805 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
807 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
808 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
809 or when the frame is resized.
811 ** Cursor display changes:
814 *** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
815 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
818 *** The X resource cursorBlink can be used to turn off cursor blinking.
821 *** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
822 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
823 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
827 *** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
828 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
832 *** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
833 of the recognized cursor types.
836 *** On text terminals, the variable `visible-cursor' controls whether Emacs
837 uses the "very visible" cursor (the default) or the normal cursor.
842 *** `mode-line-highlight' is the standard face indicating mouse sensitive
843 elements on mode-line (and header-line) like `highlight' face on text
846 *** `mode-line-buffer-id' is the standard face for buffer identification
847 parts of the mode line.
850 *** `shadow' face defines the appearance of the "shadowed" text, i.e.
851 the text which should be less noticeable than the surrounding text.
852 This can be achieved by using shades of grey in contrast with either
853 black or white default foreground color. This generic shadow face
854 allows customization of the appearance of shadowed text in one place,
855 so package-specific faces can inherit from it.
858 *** `vertical-border' face is used for the vertical divider between windows.
860 ** Font-Lock changes:
863 *** M-o now is the prefix key for setting text properties;
864 M-o M-o requests refontification.
867 *** All modes now support using M-x font-lock-mode to toggle
868 fontification, even those such as Occur, Info, and comint-derived
869 modes that do their own fontification in a special way.
871 The variable `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable
872 fontification in Info, remove `turn-on-font-lock' from
876 *** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
877 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
878 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
879 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
880 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
883 *** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
886 *** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-comment-delimiter-face'.
889 *** Easy to overlook single character negation can now be font-locked.
890 You can use the new variable `font-lock-negation-char-face' and the face of
891 the same name to customize this. Currently the cc-modes, sh-script-mode,
892 cperl-mode and make-mode support this.
895 *** The default settings for JIT stealth lock parameters are changed.
896 The default value for the user option jit-lock-stealth-time is now 16
897 instead of 3, and the default value of jit-lock-stealth-nice is now
898 0.5 instead of 0.125. The new defaults should lower the CPU usage
899 when Emacs is fontifying in the background.
902 *** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
904 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
905 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
906 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
907 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
910 *** contextual refontification is now separate from stealth fontification.
912 jit-lock-defer-contextually is renamed jit-lock-contextually and
913 jit-lock-context-time determines the delay after which contextual
914 refontification takes place.
919 *** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
920 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
921 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
922 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
923 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
924 current date and time, current line and column number in the mode-line.
927 *** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
930 *** You can exit dialog windows and menus by typing C-g.
933 *** The menu item "Open File..." has been split into two items, "New File..."
934 and "Open File...". "Open File..." now opens only existing files. This is
935 to support existing GUI file selection dialogs better.
938 *** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, Mac, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
939 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
942 *** The pop up menus for Lucid now stay up if you do a fast click and can
943 be navigated with the arrow keys (like Gtk+, Mac and W32).
946 *** The Lucid menus can display multilingual text in your locale. You have
947 to explicitly specify a fontSet resource for this to work, for example
948 `-xrm "Emacs*fontSet: -*-helvetica-medium-r-*--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*,*"'.
951 *** Dialogs for Lucid/Athena and Lesstif/Motif now pops down when pressing
952 ESC, like they do for Gtk+, Mac and W32.
955 *** For the Gtk+ version, you can make Emacs use the old file dialog
956 by setting the variable `x-use-old-gtk-file-dialog' to t. Default is to use
962 *** If you set the new variable `mouse-autoselect-window' to a non-nil
963 value, windows are automatically selected as you move the mouse from
964 one Emacs window to another, even within a frame. A minibuffer window
965 can be selected only when it is active.
968 *** On X, when the window manager requires that you click on a frame to
969 select it (give it focus), the selected window and cursor position
970 normally changes according to the mouse click position. If you set
971 the variable x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position to t, the selected
972 window and cursor position do not change when you click on a frame
976 *** You can now follow links by clicking Mouse-1 on the link.
978 Traditionally, Emacs uses a Mouse-1 click to set point and a Mouse-2
979 click to follow a link, whereas most other applications use a Mouse-1
980 click for both purposes, depending on whether you click outside or
981 inside a link. Now the behavior of a Mouse-1 click has been changed
982 to match this context-sentitive dual behavior. (If you prefer the old
983 behavior, set the user option `mouse-1-click-follows-link' to nil.)
985 Depending on the current mode, a Mouse-2 click in Emacs can do much
986 more than just follow a link, so the new Mouse-1 behavior is only
987 activated for modes which explicitly mark a clickable text as a "link"
988 (see the new function `mouse-on-link-p' for details). The Lisp
989 packages that are included in release 22.1 have been adapted to do
990 this, but external packages may not yet support this. However, there
991 is no risk in using such packages, as the worst thing that could
992 happen is that you get the original Mouse-1 behavior when you click
993 on a link, which typically means that you set point where you click.
995 If you want to get the original Mouse-1 action also inside a link, you
996 just need to press the Mouse-1 button a little longer than a normal
997 click (i.e. press and hold the Mouse-1 button for half a second before
1000 Dragging the Mouse-1 inside a link still performs the original
1001 drag-mouse-1 action, typically copy the text.
1003 You can customize the new Mouse-1 behavior via the new user options
1004 `mouse-1-click-follows-link' and `mouse-1-click-in-non-selected-windows'.
1007 *** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
1008 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
1009 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
1010 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
1011 also disable mouse highlighting.
1014 *** You can now customize if selecting a region by dragging the mouse
1015 shall not copy the selected text to the kill-ring by setting the new
1016 variable mouse-drag-copy-region to nil.
1019 *** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
1020 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
1023 *** Emacs ignores mouse-2 clicks while the mouse wheel is being moved.
1025 People tend to push the mouse wheel (which counts as a mouse-2 click)
1026 unintentionally while turning the wheel, so these clicks are now
1027 ignored. You can customize this with the mouse-wheel-click-event and
1028 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
1031 *** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
1033 ** Multilingual Environment (Mule) changes:
1036 *** Language environment and various default coding systems are setup
1037 more correctly according to the current locale name. If the locale
1038 name doesn't specify a charset, the default is what glibc defines.
1039 This change can result in using the different coding systems as
1040 default in some locale (e.g. vi_VN).
1043 *** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
1044 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
1045 can mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
1046 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
1047 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
1048 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
1049 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
1050 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
1053 *** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
1054 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
1057 *** New command `recode-region' decodes the region again by a specified
1061 *** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
1065 *** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
1069 *** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
1070 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
1071 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
1075 *** New command quail-show-key shows what key (or key sequence) to type
1076 in the current input method to input a character at point.
1079 *** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
1080 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
1081 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
1082 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
1083 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
1084 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
1085 mule-unicode-... ones.
1087 By default this translation happens automatically on encoding.
1088 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
1089 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
1092 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
1093 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
1094 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
1095 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
1096 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
1099 *** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
1100 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
1101 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
1102 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
1105 *** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Tajik,
1106 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
1107 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
1108 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
1109 automatically according to the locale.)
1112 *** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
1113 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
1114 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
1115 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
1116 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
1120 *** New input method chinese-sisheng for inputting Chinese Pinyin
1124 *** Improved Thai support. A new minor mode `thai-word-mode' (which is
1125 automatically activated if you select Thai as a language
1126 environment) changes key bindings of most word-oriented commands to
1127 versions which recognize Thai words. Affected commands are
1131 M-DEL (backward-kill-word)
1132 M-t (transpose-words)
1133 M-q (fill-paragraph)
1136 *** Indian support has been updated.
1137 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
1138 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
1139 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
1143 *** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
1146 *** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
1147 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences are simply composed into
1148 single quasi-characters. User option `utf-translate-cjk-mode' (it is
1149 turned on by default) arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK character
1150 sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the Mule-UCS
1151 system. As this loads a fairly big data on demand, people who are not
1152 interested in CJK characters may want to customize it to nil.
1153 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
1154 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
1155 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
1156 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
1157 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
1160 *** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
1161 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
1162 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
1165 *** Many new coding systems are available in the `code-pages' library.
1166 These include complete versions of most of those in codepage.el, based
1167 on Unicode mappings. `codepage-setup' is now obsolete and is used
1168 only in the MS-DOS port of Emacs. All coding systems defined in
1169 `code-pages' are auto-loaded.
1172 *** New variable `utf-translate-cjk-unicode-range' controls which
1173 Unicode characters to translate in `utf-translate-cjk-mode'.
1176 *** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
1177 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
1178 fontset appropriately.
1180 ** Customize changes:
1183 *** Custom themes are collections of customize options. Create a
1184 custom theme with M-x customize-create-theme. Use M-x load-theme to
1185 load and enable a theme, and M-x disable-theme to disable it. Use M-x
1186 enable-theme to renable a disabled theme.
1189 *** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
1190 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
1191 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
1195 *** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
1196 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
1197 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
1198 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
1199 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
1200 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
1201 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
1204 *** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
1205 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
1206 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
1207 under the "[State]" button.
1209 ** Buffer Menu changes:
1212 *** New command `Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only' toggles display of file
1213 buffers only in the Buffer Menu. It is bound to T in Buffer Menu
1217 *** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
1218 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
1219 whose names begin with space are omitted.
1222 *** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
1223 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
1224 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
1226 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
1227 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
1228 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories are
1229 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
1230 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
1232 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
1233 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
1234 t, and the status is shown.
1236 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
1237 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
1242 *** New faces dired-header, dired-mark, dired-marked, dired-flagged,
1243 dired-ignored, dired-directory, dired-symlink, dired-warning
1244 introduced for Dired mode instead of font-lock faces.
1247 *** New Dired command `dired-compare-directories' marks files
1248 with different file attributes in two dired buffers.
1251 *** New Dired command `dired-do-touch' (bound to T) changes timestamps
1252 of marked files with the value entered in the minibuffer.
1255 *** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
1256 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
1257 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
1258 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
1259 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
1260 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
1263 *** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
1264 into the kill ring. With a zero prefix arg, copies absolute file names.
1267 *** In Dired-x, Omitting files is now a minor mode, dired-omit-mode.
1269 The mode toggling command is bound to M-o. A new command
1270 dired-mark-omitted, bound to * O, marks omitted files. The variable
1271 dired-omit-files-p is obsoleted, use the mode toggling function
1275 *** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
1276 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
1277 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
1278 directory listing into a buffer.
1283 *** The comint prompt can now be made read-only, using the new user
1284 option `comint-prompt-read-only'. This is not enabled by default,
1285 except in IELM buffers. The read-only status of IELM prompts can be
1286 controlled with the new user option `ielm-prompt-read-only', which
1287 overrides `comint-prompt-read-only'.
1289 The new commands `comint-kill-whole-line' and `comint-kill-region'
1290 support editing comint buffers with read-only prompts.
1292 `comint-kill-whole-line' is like `kill-whole-line', but ignores both
1293 read-only and field properties. Hence, it always kill entire
1294 lines, including any prompts.
1296 `comint-kill-region' is like `kill-region', except that it ignores
1297 read-only properties, if it is safe to do so. This means that if any
1298 part of a prompt is deleted, then the entire prompt must be deleted
1299 and that all prompts must stay at the beginning of a line. If this is
1300 not the case, then `comint-kill-region' behaves just like
1301 `kill-region' if read-only properties are involved: it copies the text
1302 to the kill-ring, but does not delete it.
1305 *** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
1306 modes (shell-mode, etc.) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
1307 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
1308 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
1311 *** `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' has been renamed
1312 `comint-use-prompt-regexp'. The old name has been kept as an alias,
1313 but declared obsolete.
1315 ** M-x Compile changes:
1318 *** M-x compile has become more robust and reliable
1320 Quite a few more kinds of messages are recognized. Messages that are
1321 recognized as warnings or informational come in orange or green, instead of
1322 red. Informational messages are by default skipped with `next-error'
1323 (controlled by `compilation-skip-threshold').
1325 Location data is collected on the fly as the *compilation* buffer changes.
1326 This means you could modify messages to make them point to different files.
1327 This also means you can not go to locations of messages you may have deleted.
1329 The variable `compilation-error-regexp-alist' has now become customizable. If
1330 you had added your own regexps to this, you'll probably need to include a
1331 leading `^', otherwise they'll match anywhere on a line. There is now also a
1332 `compilation-mode-font-lock-keywords' and it nicely handles all the checks
1333 that configure outputs and -o options so you see at a glance where you are.
1335 The new file etc/compilation.txt gives examples of each type of message.
1338 *** New user option `compilation-environment'.
1339 This option allows you to specify environment variables for inferior
1340 compilation processes without affecting the environment that all
1341 subprocesses inherit.
1344 *** New user option `compilation-disable-input'.
1345 If this is non-nil, send end-of-file as compilation process input.
1348 *** New options `next-error-highlight' and `next-error-highlight-no-select'
1349 specify the method of highlighting of the corresponding source line
1350 in new face `next-error'.
1353 *** A new minor mode `next-error-follow-minor-mode' can be used in
1354 compilation-mode, grep-mode, occur-mode, and diff-mode (i.e. all the
1355 modes that can use `next-error'). In this mode, cursor motion in the
1356 buffer causes automatic display in another window of the corresponding
1357 matches, compilation errors, etc. This minor mode can be toggled with
1361 *** When the left fringe is displayed, an arrow points to current message in
1362 the compilation buffer.
1365 *** The new variable `compilation-context-lines' controls lines of leading
1366 context before the current message. If nil and the left fringe is displayed,
1367 it doesn't scroll the compilation output window. If there is no left fringe,
1368 no arrow is displayed and a value of nil means display the message at the top
1371 ** Occur mode changes:
1374 *** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
1375 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
1379 *** You can now use next-error (C-x `) and previous-error to advance to
1380 the next/previous matching line found by M-x occur.
1383 *** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
1384 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
1385 `multi-occur-in-matching-buffers' which allows you to specify the
1386 buffers to search by their filenames or buffer names. Internally,
1387 Occur mode has been rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other
1393 *** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
1395 There's a new separate package grep.el, with its own submenu and
1396 customization group.
1399 *** M-x grep provides highlighting support.
1401 Hits are fontified in green, and hits in binary files in orange. Grep buffers
1402 can be saved and automatically revisited.
1405 *** `grep-find' is now also available under the name `find-grep' where
1406 people knowing `find-grep-dired' would probably expect it.
1409 *** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
1410 `grep-scroll-output' override the corresponding compilation mode
1411 settings, for grep commands only.
1414 *** New option `grep-highlight-matches' highlightes matches in *grep*
1415 buffer. It uses a special feature of some grep programs which accept
1416 --color option to output markers around matches. When going to the next
1417 match with `next-error' the exact match is highlighted in the source
1418 buffer. Otherwise, if `grep-highlight-matches' is nil, the whole
1419 source line is highlighted.
1422 *** New key bindings in grep output window:
1423 SPC and DEL scrolls window up and down. C-n and C-p moves to next and
1424 previous match in the grep window. RET jumps to the source line of
1425 the current match. `n' and `p' shows next and previous match in
1426 other window, but does not switch buffer. `{' and `}' jumps to the
1427 previous or next file in the grep output. TAB also jumps to the next
1431 *** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
1432 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep automatically
1433 detects whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
1434 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
1435 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
1436 command lines to be used than was possible before.
1438 ** X Windows Support:
1441 *** Emacs now supports drag and drop for X. Dropping a file on a window
1442 opens it, dropping text inserts the text. Dropping a file on a dired
1443 buffer copies or moves the file to that directory.
1446 *** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
1447 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
1448 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
1449 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
1451 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
1452 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
1455 *** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which can
1456 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
1458 If the configure option `--without-xim' was used to turn off use of
1459 XIM by default, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn it on.
1462 *** The new variable `x-select-request-type' controls how Emacs
1463 requests X selection. The default value is nil, which means that
1464 Emacs requests X selection with types COMPOUND_TEXT and UTF8_STRING,
1465 and use the more appropriately result.
1468 *** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
1469 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
1470 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
1475 *** If you enable Xterm Mouse mode, Emacs will respond to mouse clicks
1476 on the mode line, header line and display margin, when run in an xterm.
1479 *** Improved key bindings support when running in an xterm.
1480 When emacs is running in an xterm more key bindings are available. The
1481 following should work:
1482 {C,S,C-S,A}-{right,left,up,down,prior,next,delete,insert,F1-12}.
1483 These key bindings work on xterm from X.org 6.8, they might not work on
1484 some older versions of xterm, or on some proprietary versions.
1486 ** Character terminal color support changes:
1489 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
1490 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
1491 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
1492 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
1493 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
1494 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
1495 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
1496 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
1497 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
1500 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
1501 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
1502 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
1503 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
1504 all of these colors.
1507 *** Emacs now uses the full range of available colors for the default
1508 faces when running on a color terminal, including 16-, 88-, and
1509 256-color xterms. This means that when you run "emacs -nw" on an
1510 88-color or 256-color xterm, you will see essentially the same face
1514 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
1516 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 22.1
1518 ** ERC is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1520 ERC is a powerful, modular, and extensible IRC client for Emacs.
1522 To see what modules are available, type
1523 M-x customize-option erc-modules RET.
1525 To start an IRC session, type M-x erc-select, and follow the prompts
1526 for server, port, and nick.
1529 ** Rcirc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1531 Rcirc is an Internet relay chat (IRC) client. It supports
1532 simultaneous connections to multiple IRC servers. Each discussion
1533 takes place in its own buffer. For each connection you can join
1534 several channels (many-to-many) and participate in private
1535 (one-to-one) chats. Both channel and private chats are contained in
1538 To start an IRC session, type M-x irc, and follow the prompts for
1539 server, port, nick and initial channels.
1542 ** Newsticker is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1544 Newsticker asynchronously retrieves headlines (RSS) from a list of news
1545 sites, prepares these headlines for reading, and allows for loading the
1546 corresponding articles in a web browser. Its documentation is in a
1550 ** savehist saves minibuffer histories between sessions.
1551 To use this feature, turn on savehist-mode in your `.emacs' file.
1554 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
1555 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
1556 program files that include other program files.
1558 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
1559 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
1563 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1565 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
1566 Emacs Lisp. The prefix for Calc has been changed to `C-x *' and Calc
1567 can be started with `C-x * *'. The Calc manual is separate from the
1568 Emacs manual; within Emacs, type "C-h i m calc RET" to read the
1569 manual. A reference card is available in `etc/calccard.tex' and
1573 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
1574 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
1577 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1579 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
1580 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
1581 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
1582 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
1585 ** Image files are normally visited in Image mode, which lets you toggle
1586 between viewing the image and viewing the text using C-c C-c.
1589 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1591 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
1592 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
1593 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
1594 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
1595 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
1596 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
1598 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
1599 rectangle highlighting: Use C-return to start a rectangle, extend it
1600 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
1601 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
1603 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
1604 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
1605 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
1606 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
1607 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
1608 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
1609 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
1611 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
1612 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
1613 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
1615 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
1616 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
1618 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
1619 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
1620 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
1621 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
1623 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
1624 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
1625 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you can customize the
1626 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
1628 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
1629 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
1630 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
1631 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
1634 ** Org mode is now part of the Emacs distribution
1636 Org mode is a mode for keeping notes, maintaining ToDo lists, and
1637 doing project planning with a fast and effective plain-text system.
1638 It also contains a plain-text table editor with spreadsheet-like
1641 The Org mode table editor can be integrated into any major mode by
1642 activating the minor Orgtbl-mode.
1644 The documentation for org-mode is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
1645 type "C-h i m org RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
1646 available in `etc/orgcard.tex' and `etc/orgcard.ps'.
1649 ** The new package dns-mode.el add syntax highlight of DNS master files.
1650 The key binding C-c C-s (`dns-mode-soa-increment-serial') can be used
1651 to increment the SOA serial.
1654 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
1655 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
1656 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
1657 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
1658 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method can
1659 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
1662 ** The new package flymake.el does on-the-fly syntax checking of program
1663 source files. See the Flymake's Info manual for more details.
1666 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
1667 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
1668 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
1669 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
1670 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
1672 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
1673 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
1674 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
1675 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
1676 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
1677 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
1679 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
1680 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
1681 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
1682 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
1683 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
1684 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
1685 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
1686 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
1687 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
1691 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
1692 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
1694 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
1695 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
1696 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
1697 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
1699 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
1702 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
1703 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
1704 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
1705 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
1706 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
1709 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
1710 the keyboard macro ring.
1712 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
1713 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
1715 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
1716 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
1717 this behavior via the variables kmacro-call-repeat-key and
1718 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
1720 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
1721 C-x C-k SPC steps through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
1722 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
1725 ** New minor mode, Visible mode, toggles invisibility in the current buffer.
1726 When enabled, it makes all invisible text visible. When disabled, it
1727 restores the previous value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
1730 ** The wdired.el package allows you to use normal editing commands on Dired
1731 buffers to change filenames, permissions, etc...
1734 ** The new package longlines.el provides a minor mode for editing text
1735 files composed of long lines, based on the `use-hard-newlines'
1736 mechanism. The long lines are broken up by inserting soft newlines,
1737 which are automatically removed when saving the file to disk or
1738 copying into the kill ring, clipboard, etc. By default, Longlines
1739 mode inserts soft newlines automatically during editing, a behavior
1740 referred to as "soft word wrap" in other text editors. This is
1741 similar to Refill mode, but more reliable. To turn the word wrap
1742 feature off, set `longlines-auto-wrap' to nil.
1745 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1747 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
1748 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
1749 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
1750 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
1751 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
1752 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
1755 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
1756 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
1757 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
1758 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
1760 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
1763 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
1764 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
1765 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
1769 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
1770 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
1771 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
1772 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
1775 ** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
1776 shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
1779 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
1780 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
1781 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
1782 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
1783 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
1784 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
1786 ** The tumme.el package allows you to easily view, tag and in other ways
1787 manipulate image files and their thumbnails, using dired as the main interface.
1788 Tumme provides functionality to generate simple image galleries.
1791 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
1793 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
1794 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
1795 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
1796 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
1797 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
1798 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
1799 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
1800 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
1801 `rsync' to do the copying).
1803 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
1804 `su' and `sudo'. Ange-FTP is still supported via the `ftp' method.
1806 If you want to disable Tramp you should set
1808 (setq tramp-default-method "ftp")
1810 Removing Tramp, and re-enabling Ange-FTP, can be achieved by M-x
1814 ** The URL package (which had been part of W3) is now part of Emacs.
1817 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
1818 configuration files.
1821 ** The new package conf-mode.el handles thousands of configuration files, with
1822 varying syntaxes for comments (;, #, //, /* */ or !), assignment (var = value,
1823 var : value, var value or keyword var value) and sections ([section] or
1824 section { }). Many files under /etc/, or with suffixes like .cf through
1825 .config, .properties (Java), .desktop (KDE/Gnome), .ini and many others are
1829 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
1832 ** The new python.el package is used to edit Python and Jython programs.
1835 ** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
1836 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
1838 ** The new package scroll-lock.el provides the Scroll Lock minor mode
1839 for pager-like scrolling. Keys which normally move point by line or
1840 paragraph will scroll the buffer by the respective amount of lines
1841 instead and point will be kept vertically fixed relative to window
1842 boundaries during scrolling.
1844 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 22.1:
1847 *** Bindings for Tumme added
1848 Several new keybindings, all starting with the C-t prefix, have been
1849 added to Dired. They are all bound to commands in Tumme. As a starting
1850 point, mark some image files in a dired buffer and do C-t d to display
1851 thumbnails of them in a separate buffer.
1852 ** Changes in Hi Lock:
1855 *** hi-lock-mode now only affects a single buffer, and a new function
1856 `global-hi-lock-mode' enables Hi Lock in all buffers. By default, if
1857 hi-lock-mode is used in what appears to be the initialization file, a
1858 warning message suggests to use global-hi-lock-mode instead. However,
1859 if the new variable `hi-lock-archaic-interface-deduce' is non-nil,
1860 using hi-lock-mode in an initialization file will turn on Hi Lock in all
1861 buffers and no warning will be issued (for compatibility with the
1862 behavior in older versions of Emacs).
1864 ** Changes in Allout
1866 *** Topic cryptography added, enabling easy gpg topic encryption and
1867 decryption. Per-topic basis enables interspersing encrypted-text and
1868 clear-text within a single file to your heart's content, using symmetric
1869 and/or public key modes. Time-limited key caching, user-provided
1870 symmetric key hinting and consistency verification, auto-encryption of
1871 pending topics on save, and more, make it easy to use encryption in
1874 *** Default command prefix changed to "\C-c " (control-c space), to avoid
1875 intruding on user's keybinding space. Customize the
1876 `allout-command-prefix' variable to your preference.
1878 *** Allout now uses text overlay's `invisible' property (and others) for
1879 concealed text, instead of selective-display. This simplifies the code, in
1880 particularly avoiding the need for kludges for isearch dynamic-display,
1881 discretionary handling of edits of concealed text, undo concerns, etc.
1883 *** Many substantial fixes and refinements, including:
1885 - repaired inhibition of inadvertent edits to concealed text
1886 - repaired retention of topic body hanging indent upon topic depth shifts
1887 - refuse to create "containment discontinuities", where a
1888 topic is shifted deeper than the offspring-depth of its' container
1889 - bulleting variation is simpler and more accommodating, both in the
1890 default behavior and in ability to vary when creating new topics
1891 - many internal fixes and refinements
1892 - many module and function docstring clarifications
1893 - version number incremented to 2.2
1895 ** The variable `woman-topic-at-point' was renamed
1896 to `woman-use-topic-at-point' and behaves differently: if this
1897 variable is non-nil, the `woman' command uses the word at point
1898 automatically, without asking for a confirmation. Otherwise, the word
1899 at point is suggested as default, but not inserted at the prompt.
1902 ** Changes to cmuscheme
1904 *** Emacs now offers to start Scheme if the user tries to
1905 evaluate a Scheme expression but no Scheme subprocess is running.
1907 *** If a file `.emacs_NAME' (where NAME is the name of the Scheme interpreter)
1908 exists in the user's home directory or in ~/.emacs.d, its
1909 contents are sent to the Scheme subprocess upon startup.
1911 *** There are new commands to instruct the Scheme interpreter to trace
1912 procedure calls (`scheme-trace-procedure') and to expand syntactic forms
1913 (`scheme-expand-current-form'). The commands actually sent to the Scheme
1914 subprocess are controlled by the user options `scheme-trace-command',
1915 `scheme-untrace-command' and `scheme-expand-current-form'.
1918 ** Makefile mode has submodes for automake, gmake, makepp, BSD make and imake.
1920 The former two couldn't be differentiated before, and the latter three
1921 are new. Font-locking is robust now and offers new customizable
1925 ** In Outline mode, `hide-body' no longer hides lines at the top
1926 of the file that precede the first header line.
1929 ** Telnet now prompts you for a port number with C-u M-x telnet.
1932 ** The terminal emulation code in term.el has been improved; it can
1933 run most curses applications now.
1936 ** M-x diff uses Diff mode instead of Compilation mode.
1939 ** You can now customize `fill-nobreak-predicate' to control where
1940 filling can break lines. The value is now normally a list of
1941 functions, but it can also be a single function, for compatibility.
1943 Emacs provide two predicates, `fill-single-word-nobreak-p' and
1944 `fill-french-nobreak-p', for use as the value of
1945 `fill-nobreak-predicate'.
1948 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
1949 with special modes such as Tar mode.
1952 ** Commands `winner-redo' and `winner-undo', from winner.el, are now
1953 bound to C-c <left> and C-c <right>, respectively. This is an
1954 incompatible change.
1957 ** `global-whitespace-mode' is a new alias for `whitespace-global-mode'.
1960 ** M-x compare-windows now can automatically skip non-matching text to
1961 resync points in both windows.
1964 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
1966 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry always
1967 starts a new record regardless of when the last record is.
1970 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
1971 when Emacs visits them.
1973 ** Info mode changes:
1976 *** A numeric prefix argument of `info' selects an Info buffer
1977 with the number appended to the `*info*' buffer name (e.g. "*info*<2>").
1980 *** isearch in Info uses Info-search and searches through multiple nodes.
1982 Before leaving the initial Info node isearch fails once with the error
1983 message [initial node], and with subsequent C-s/C-r continues through
1984 other nodes. When isearch fails for the rest of the manual, it wraps
1985 aroung the whole manual to the top/final node. The user option
1986 `Info-isearch-search' controls whether to use Info-search for isearch,
1987 or the default isearch search function that wraps around the current
1991 *** New search commands: `Info-search-case-sensitively' (bound to S),
1992 `Info-search-backward', and `Info-search-next' which repeats the last
1993 search without prompting for a new search string.
1996 *** New command `Info-history-forward' (bound to r and new toolbar icon)
1997 moves forward in history to the node you returned from after using
1998 `Info-history-back' (renamed from `Info-last').
2001 *** New command `Info-history' (bound to L) displays a menu of visited nodes.
2004 *** New command `Info-toc' (bound to T) creates a node with table of contents
2005 from the tree structure of menus of the current Info file.
2008 *** New command `info-apropos' searches the indices of the known
2009 Info files on your system for a string, and builds a menu of the
2013 *** New command `Info-copy-current-node-name' (bound to w) copies
2014 the current Info node name into the kill ring. With a zero prefix
2015 arg, puts the node name inside the `info' function call.
2018 *** New face `info-xref-visited' distinguishes visited nodes from unvisited
2019 and a new option `Info-fontify-visited-nodes' to control this.
2022 *** http and ftp links in Info are now operational: they look like cross
2023 references and following them calls `browse-url'.
2026 *** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
2028 If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
2029 `Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
2032 *** Images in Info pages are supported.
2034 Info pages show embedded images, in Emacs frames with image support.
2035 Info documentation that includes images, processed with makeinfo
2036 version 4.7 or newer, compiles to Info pages with embedded images.
2039 *** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
2042 *** `Info-index' offers completion.
2044 ** Lisp mode changes:
2047 *** Lisp mode now uses `font-lock-doc-face' for doc strings.
2050 *** C-u C-M-q in Emacs Lisp mode pretty-prints the list after point.
2052 *** New features in evaluation commands
2055 **** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) called on defface reinitializes
2056 the face to the value specified in the defface expression.
2059 **** Typing C-x C-e twice prints the value of the integer result
2060 in additional formats (octal, hexadecimal, character) specified
2061 by the new function `eval-expression-print-format'. The same
2062 function also defines the result format for `eval-expression' (M-:),
2063 `eval-print-last-sexp' (C-j) and some edebug evaluation functions.
2068 *** The CC Mode manual has been extensively revised.
2069 The information about using CC Mode has been separated from the larger
2070 and more difficult chapters about configuration.
2072 *** Changes in Key Sequences
2073 **** c-toggle-auto-hungry-state is no longer bound to C-c C-t.
2075 **** c-toggle-hungry-state is no longer bound to C-c C-d.
2076 This binding has been taken over by c-hungry-delete-forwards.
2078 **** c-toggle-auto-state (C-c C-t) has been renamed to c-toggle-auto-newline.
2079 c-toggle-auto-state remains as an alias.
2081 **** The new commands c-hungry-backspace and c-hungry-delete-forwards
2082 have key bindings C-c C-DEL (or C-c DEL, for the benefit of TTYs) and
2083 C-c C-d (or C-c C-<delete> or C-c <delete>) respectively. These
2084 commands delete entire blocks of whitespace with a single
2085 key-sequence. [N.B. "DEL" is the <backspace> key.]
2087 **** The new command c-toggle-electric-mode is bound to C-c C-l.
2089 **** The new command c-subword-mode is bound to C-c C-w.
2091 *** C-c C-s (`c-show-syntactic-information') now highlights the anchor
2095 **** Electric Minor Mode toggles the electric action of non-alphabetic keys.
2096 The new command c-toggle-electric-mode is bound to C-c C-l. Turning the
2097 mode off can be helpful for editing chaotically indented code and for
2098 users new to CC Mode, who sometimes find electric indentation
2099 disconcerting. Its current state is displayed in the mode line with an
2102 **** Subword Minor Mode makes Emacs recognize word boundaries at upper case
2103 letters in StudlyCapsIdentifiers. You enable this feature by C-c C-w. It can
2104 also be used in non-CC Mode buffers. :-) Contributed by Masatake YAMATO.
2108 **** `comment-close-slash'.
2109 With this clean-up, a block (i.e. c-style) comment can be terminated by
2110 typing a slash at the start of a line.
2112 **** `c-one-liner-defun'
2113 This clean-up compresses a short enough defun (for example, an AWK
2114 pattern/action pair) onto a single line. "Short enough" is configurable.
2116 *** Font lock support.
2117 CC Mode now provides font lock support for all its languages. This
2118 supersedes the font lock patterns that have been in the core font lock
2119 package for C, C++, Java and Objective-C. Like indentation, font
2120 locking is done in a uniform way across all languages (except the new
2121 AWK mode - see below). That means that the new font locking will be
2122 different from the old patterns in various details for most languages.
2124 The main goal of the font locking in CC Mode is accuracy, to provide a
2125 dependable aid in recognizing the various constructs. Some, like
2126 strings and comments, are easy to recognize while others like
2127 declarations and types can be very tricky. CC Mode can go to great
2128 lengths to recognize declarations and casts correctly, especially when
2129 the types aren't recognized by standard patterns. This is a fairly
2130 demanding analysis which can be slow on older hardware, and it can
2131 therefore be disabled by choosing a lower decoration level with the
2132 variable font-lock-maximum-decoration.
2134 Note that the most demanding font lock level has been tuned with lazy
2135 fontification in mind; Just-In-Time-Lock mode should be enabled for
2136 the highest font lock level (by default, it is). Fontifying a file
2137 with several thousand lines in one go can take the better part of a
2140 **** The (c|c++|objc|java|idl|pike)-font-lock-extra-types variables
2141 are now used by CC Mode to recognize identifiers that are certain to
2142 be types. (They are also used in cases that aren't related to font
2143 locking.) At the maximum decoration level, types are often recognized
2144 properly anyway, so these variables should be fairly restrictive and
2145 not contain patterns for uncertain types.
2147 **** Support for documentation comments.
2148 There is a "plugin" system to fontify documentation comments like
2149 Javadoc and the markup within them. It's independent of the host
2150 language, so it's possible to e.g. turn on Javadoc font locking in C
2151 buffers. See the variable c-doc-comment-style for details.
2153 Currently three kinds of doc comment styles are recognized: Sun's
2154 Javadoc, Autodoc (which is used in Pike) and GtkDoc (used in C). (The
2155 last was contributed by Masatake YAMATO). This is by no means a
2156 complete list of the most common tools; if your doc comment extractor
2157 of choice is missing then please drop a note to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
2159 **** Better handling of C++ templates.
2160 As a side effect of the more accurate font locking, C++ templates are
2161 now handled much better. The angle brackets that delimit them are
2162 given parenthesis syntax so that they can be navigated like other
2165 This also improves indentation of templates, although there still is
2166 work to be done in that area. E.g. it's required that multiline
2167 template clauses are written in full and then refontified to be
2168 recognized, and the indentation of nested templates is a bit odd and
2169 not as configurable as it ought to be.
2171 **** Improved handling of Objective-C and CORBA IDL.
2172 Especially the support for Objective-C and IDL has gotten an overhaul.
2173 The special "@" declarations in Objective-C are handled correctly.
2174 All the keywords used in CORBA IDL, PSDL, and CIDL are recognized and
2175 handled correctly, also wrt indentation.
2177 *** Support for the AWK language.
2178 Support for the AWK language has been introduced. The implementation is
2179 based around GNU AWK version 3.1, but it should work pretty well with
2180 any AWK. As yet, not all features of CC Mode have been adapted for AWK.
2183 **** Indentation Engine
2184 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
2186 AWK mode handles code formatted in the conventional AWK fashion: `{'s
2187 which start actions, user-defined functions, or compound statements are
2188 placed on the same line as the associated construct; the matching `}'s
2189 are normally placed under the start of the respective pattern, function
2190 definition, or structured statement.
2192 The predefined line-up functions haven't yet been adapted for AWK
2193 mode, though some of them may work serendipitously. There shouldn't
2194 be any problems writing custom indentation functions for AWK mode.
2197 There is a single level of font locking in AWK mode, rather than the
2198 three distinct levels the other modes have. There are several
2199 idiosyncrasies in AWK mode's font-locking due to the peculiarities of
2200 the AWK language itself.
2202 **** Comment and Movement Commands
2203 These commands all work for AWK buffers. The notion of "defun" has
2204 been augmented to include AWK pattern-action pairs - the standard
2205 "defun" commands on key sequences C-M-a, C-M-e, and C-M-h use this
2206 extended definition.
2208 **** "awk" style, Auto-newline Insertion and Clean-ups
2209 A new style, "awk" has been introduced, and this is now the default
2210 style for AWK code. With auto-newline enabled, the clean-up
2211 c-one-liner-defun (see above) is useful.
2213 *** New syntactic symbols in IDL mode.
2214 The top level constructs "module" and "composition" (from CIDL) are
2215 now handled like "namespace" in C++: They are given syntactic symbols
2216 module-open, module-close, inmodule, composition-open,
2217 composition-close, and incomposition.
2219 *** New functions to do hungry delete without enabling hungry delete mode.
2220 The new functions `c-hungry-backspace' and `c-hungry-delete-forward'
2221 provide hungry deletion without having to toggle a mode. They are
2222 bound to C-c C-DEL and C-c C-d (and several variants, for the benefit
2223 of different keyboard setups. See "Changes in key sequences" above).
2225 *** Better control over `require-final-newline'.
2227 The variable `c-require-final-newline' specifies which of the modes
2228 implemented by CC mode should insert final newlines. Its value is a
2229 list of modes, and only those modes should do it. By default the list
2230 includes C, C++ and Objective-C modes.
2232 Whichever modes are in this list will set `require-final-newline'
2233 based on `mode-require-final-newline'.
2235 *** Format change for syntactic context elements.
2237 The elements in the syntactic context returned by `c-guess-basic-syntax'
2238 and stored in `c-syntactic-context' has been changed somewhat to allow
2239 attaching more information. They are now lists instead of single cons
2240 cells. E.g. a line that previously had the syntactic analysis
2242 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
2246 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
2248 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
2251 This change might affect code that calls `c-guess-basic-syntax'
2252 directly, and custom lineup functions if they use
2253 `c-syntactic-context'. However, the argument given to lineup
2254 functions is still a single cons cell with nil or an integer in the
2257 *** API changes for derived modes.
2259 There have been extensive changes "under the hood" which can affect
2260 derived mode writers. Some of these changes are likely to cause
2261 incompatibilities with existing derived modes, but on the other hand
2262 care has now been taken to make it possible to extend and modify CC
2263 Mode with less risk of such problems in the future.
2265 **** New language variable system.
2266 These are variables whose values vary between CC Mode's different
2267 languages. See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
2269 **** New initialization functions.
2270 The initialization procedure has been split up into more functions to
2271 give better control: `c-basic-common-init', `c-font-lock-init', and
2272 `c-init-language-vars'.
2274 *** Changes in analysis of nested syntactic constructs.
2275 The syntactic analysis engine has better handling of cases where
2276 several syntactic constructs appear nested on the same line. They are
2277 now handled as if each construct started on a line of its own.
2279 This means that CC Mode now indents some cases differently, and
2280 although it's more consistent there might be cases where the old way
2281 gave results that's more to one's liking. So if you find a situation
2282 where you think that the indentation has become worse, please report
2283 it to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
2285 **** New syntactic symbol substatement-label.
2286 This symbol is used when a label is inserted between a statement and
2287 its substatement. E.g:
2293 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
2295 **** Syntactic indentation inside macros.
2296 The contents of multiline #define's are now analyzed and indented
2297 syntactically just like other code. This can be disabled by the new
2298 variable `c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros'. A new syntactic symbol
2299 `cpp-define-intro' has been added to control the initial indentation
2302 **** New lineup function `c-lineup-cpp-define'.
2304 Now used by default to line up macro continuation lines. The behavior
2305 of this function closely mimics the indentation one gets if the macro
2306 is indented while the line continuation backslashes are temporarily
2307 removed. If syntactic indentation in macros is turned off, it works
2308 much line `c-lineup-dont-change', which was used earlier, but handles
2309 empty lines within the macro better.
2311 **** Automatically inserted newlines continues the macro if used within one.
2312 This applies to the newlines inserted by the auto-newline mode, and to
2313 `c-context-line-break' and `c-context-open-line'.
2315 **** Better alignment of line continuation backslashes.
2316 `c-backslash-region' tries to adapt to surrounding backslashes. New
2317 variable `c-backslash-max-column' puts a limit on how far out
2318 backslashes can be moved.
2320 **** Automatic alignment of line continuation backslashes.
2321 This is controlled by the new variable `c-auto-align-backslashes'. It
2322 affects `c-context-line-break', `c-context-open-line' and newlines
2323 inserted in Auto-Newline mode.
2325 **** Line indentation works better inside macros.
2326 Regardless whether syntactic indentation and syntactic indentation
2327 inside macros are enabled or not, line indentation now ignores the
2328 line continuation backslashes. This is most noticeable when syntactic
2329 indentation is turned off and there are empty lines (save for the
2330 backslash) in the macro.
2332 *** indent-for-comment is more customizable.
2333 The behavior of M-; (indent-for-comment) is now configurable through
2334 the variable `c-indent-comment-alist'. The indentation behavior is
2335 based on the preceding code on the line, e.g. to get two spaces after
2336 #else and #endif but indentation to `comment-column' in most other
2337 cases (something which was hardcoded earlier).
2339 *** New function `c-context-open-line'.
2340 It's the open-line equivalent of `c-context-line-break'.
2342 *** New lineup functions
2344 **** `c-lineup-string-cont'
2345 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
2348 result = prefix + "A message "
2349 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
2351 **** `c-lineup-cascaded-calls'
2352 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
2354 **** `c-lineup-knr-region-comment'
2355 Gives (what most people think is) better indentation of comments in
2356 the "K&R region" between the function header and its body.
2358 **** `c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg'
2359 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks.
2361 **** `c-lineup-argcont'
2362 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
2364 *** Better caching of the syntactic context.
2365 CC Mode caches the positions of the opening parentheses (of any kind)
2366 of the lists surrounding the point. Those positions are used in many
2367 places as anchor points for various searches. The cache is now
2368 improved so that it can be reused to a large extent when the point is
2369 moved. The less it moves, the less needs to be recalculated.
2371 The effect is that CC Mode should be fast most of the time even when
2372 opening parens are hung (i.e. aren't in column zero). It's typically
2373 only the first time after the point is moved far down in a complex
2374 file that it'll take noticeable time to find out the syntactic
2377 *** Statements are recognized in a more robust way.
2378 Statements are recognized most of the time even when they occur in an
2379 "invalid" context, e.g. in a function argument. In practice that can
2380 happen when macros are involved.
2382 *** Improved the way `c-indent-exp' chooses the block to indent.
2383 It now indents the block for the closest sexp following the point
2384 whose closing paren ends on a different line. This means that the
2385 point doesn't have to be immediately before the block to indent.
2386 Also, only the block and the closing line is indented; the current
2387 line is left untouched.
2389 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
2390 The function `c-toggle-syntactic-indentation' can be used to toggle
2391 syntactic indentation.
2393 ** In sh-script, a continuation line is only indented if the backslash was
2394 preceded by a SPC or a TAB.
2397 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
2400 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
2401 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
2402 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
2403 C-c C-i b, and so on.
2405 ** Fortran mode changes:
2408 *** Fortran mode does more font-locking by default. Use level 3
2409 highlighting for the old default.
2412 *** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
2413 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
2414 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
2417 *** F90 mode and Fortran mode have new navigation commands
2418 `f90-end-of-block', `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block',
2419 `f90-previous-block', `fortran-end-of-block',
2420 `fortran-beginning-of-block'.
2423 *** F90 mode and Fortran mode have support for `hs-minor-mode' (hideshow).
2424 It cannot deal with every code format, but ought to handle a sizeable
2428 *** The new function `f90-backslash-not-special' can be used to change
2429 the syntax of backslashes in F90 buffers.
2432 ** Reftex mode changes
2435 *** Changes to RefTeX's table of contents
2437 The new command keys "<" and ">" in the TOC buffer promote/demote the
2438 section at point or all sections in the current region, with full
2439 support for multifile documents.
2441 The new command `reftex-toc-recenter' (`C-c -') shows the current
2442 section in the TOC buffer without selecting the TOC window.
2443 Recentering can happen automatically in idle time when the option
2444 `reftex-auto-recenter-toc' is turned on. The highlight in the TOC
2445 buffer stays when the focus moves to a different window. A dedicated
2446 frame can show the TOC with the current section always automatically
2447 highlighted. The frame is created and deleted from the toc buffer
2450 The toc window can be split off horizontally instead of vertically.
2451 See new option `reftex-toc-split-windows-horizontally'.
2453 Labels can be renamed globally from the table of contents using the
2456 The new command `reftex-goto-label' jumps directly to a label
2460 *** Changes related to citations and BibTeX database files
2462 Commands that insert a citation now prompt for optional arguments when
2463 called with a prefix argument. Related new options are
2464 `reftex-cite-prompt-optional-args' and `reftex-cite-cleanup-optional-args'.
2466 The new command `reftex-create-bibtex-file' creates a BibTeX database
2467 with all entries referenced in the current document. The keys "e" and
2468 "E" allow to produce a BibTeX database file from entries marked in a
2469 citation selection buffer.
2471 The command `reftex-citation' uses the word in the buffer before the
2472 cursor as a default search string.
2474 The support for chapterbib has been improved. Different chapters can
2475 now use BibTeX or an explicit `thebibliography' environment.
2477 The macros which specify the bibliography file (like \bibliography)
2478 can be configured with the new option `reftex-bibliography-commands'.
2480 Support for jurabib has been added.
2483 *** Global index matched may be verified with a user function
2485 During global indexing, a user function can verify an index match.
2486 See new option `reftex-index-verify-function'.
2489 *** Parsing documents with many labels can be sped up.
2491 Operating in a document with thousands of labels can be sped up
2492 considerably by allowing RefTeX to derive the type of a label directly
2493 from the label prefix like `eq:' or `fig:'. The option
2494 `reftex-trust-label-prefix' needs to be configured in order to enable
2495 this feature. While the speed-up is significant, this may reduce the
2496 quality of the context offered by RefTeX to describe a label.
2499 *** Miscellaneous changes
2501 The macros which input a file in LaTeX (like \input, \include) can be
2502 configured in the new option `reftex-include-file-commands'.
2504 RefTeX supports global incremental search.
2507 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
2508 to support use of font-lock.
2510 ** HTML/SGML changes:
2513 *** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
2517 *** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
2518 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
2519 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
2520 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
2521 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
2522 from the file name or buffer contents.
2525 *** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
2530 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
2533 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
2534 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
2535 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
2536 TeX commands to use at startup.
2539 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
2540 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
2543 *** New major mode Doctex mode, for *.dtx files.
2547 *** The new command `bibtex-url' browses a URL for the BibTeX entry at
2548 point (bound to C-c C-l and mouse-2, RET on clickable fields).
2550 *** The new command `bibtex-entry-update' (bound to C-c C-u) updates
2551 an existing BibTeX entry by inserting fields that may occur but are not
2554 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
2556 *** `bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries' can take values `plain',
2557 `crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
2558 for BibTeX entries. `bibtex-sort-entry-class' controls the sorting
2559 scheme `entry-class'. TAB completion for reference keys and
2560 automatic detection of duplicates does not require anymore that
2561 `bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries' is non-nil.
2563 *** If the new variable `bibtex-parse-keys-fast' is non-nil,
2564 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
2566 *** If the new variable `bibtex-autoadd-commas' is non-nil,
2567 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
2569 *** The new variable `bibtex-autofill-types' contains a list of entry
2570 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
2572 *** The new command `bibtex-complete' completes word fragment before
2573 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
2575 *** The new commands `bibtex-find-entry' and `bibtex-find-crossref'
2576 locate entries and crossref'd entries (bound to C-c C-s and C-c C-x).
2577 Crossref fields are clickable (bound to mouse-2, RET).
2579 *** In BibTeX mode the command `fill-paragraph' (M-q) fills
2580 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
2582 *** The new variables `bibtex-files' and `bibtex-file-path' define a set
2583 of BibTeX files that are searched for entry keys.
2585 *** The new command `bibtex-validate-globally' checks for duplicate keys
2586 in multiple BibTeX files.
2588 *** The new command `bibtex-copy-summary-as-kill' pushes summary
2589 of BibTeX entry to kill ring (bound to C-c C-t).
2591 *** The new variables bibtex-expand-strings and
2592 bibtex-autokey-expand-strings control the expansion of strings when
2593 extracting the content of a BibTeX field.
2596 ** In Enriched mode, `set-left-margin' and `set-right-margin' are now
2597 by default bound to `C-c [' and `C-c ]' instead of the former `C-c C-l'
2603 *** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
2604 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
2607 *** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
2608 and other common debugger commands.
2611 *** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
2612 GDB. You can interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but
2613 there are also further buffers which control the execution and describe the
2614 state of your program. It can separate the input/output of your program from
2615 that of GDB and watches expressions in the speedbar. It also uses features of
2616 Emacs 21/22 such as the toolbar, and bitmaps in the fringe to indicate
2619 Use M-x gdb to start GDB-UI.
2621 *** The variable tooltip-gud-tips-p has been removed. GUD tooltips can now be
2622 toggled independently of normal tooltips with the minor mode
2626 *** In graphical mode, with a C program, GUD Tooltips have been extended to
2627 display the #define directive associated with an identifier when program is
2631 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
2633 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class information.
2634 Fast startup since there is no need to scan all source files up front.
2635 There is also no need to create and maintain lists of source
2636 directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath' and
2637 `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
2639 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
2640 set/clear operations from Java source files under the classpath, stack
2641 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
2644 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
2647 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
2648 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
2649 Set `gud-jdb-use-classpath' to nil.
2651 *** Added Customization Variables
2653 **** `gud-jdb-command-name'. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
2655 **** `gud-jdb-use-classpath'. Allows selection of java source file searching
2656 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan `gud-jdb-directories' for
2657 java sources (previous method).
2659 **** `gud-jdb-directories'. List of directories to scan and search for Java
2660 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
2663 *** Minor Improvements
2665 **** The STARTTLS wrapper (starttls.el) can now use GNUTLS
2666 instead of the OpenSSL based `starttls' tool. For backwards
2667 compatibility, it prefers `starttls', but you can toggle
2668 `starttls-use-gnutls' to switch to GNUTLS (or simply remove the
2671 **** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
2673 ** Auto-Revert changes:
2676 *** You can now use Auto Revert mode to `tail' a file.
2678 If point is at the end of a file buffer before reverting, Auto Revert
2679 mode keeps it at the end after reverting. Similarly if point is
2680 displayed at the end of a file buffer in any window, it stays at
2681 the end of the buffer in that window. This allows to tail a file:
2682 just put point at the end of the buffer and it stays there. This
2683 rule applies to file buffers. For non-file buffers, the behavior can
2686 If you are sure that the file will only change by growing at the end,
2687 then you can tail the file more efficiently by using the new minor
2688 mode Auto Revert Tail mode. The function `auto-revert-tail-mode'
2692 *** Auto Revert mode is now more careful to avoid excessive reverts and
2693 other potential problems when deciding which non-file buffers to
2694 revert. This matters especially if Global Auto Revert mode is enabled
2695 and `global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers' is non-nil. Auto Revert
2696 mode only reverts a non-file buffer if the buffer has a non-nil
2697 `revert-buffer-function' and a non-nil `buffer-stale-function', which
2698 decides whether the buffer should be reverted. Currently, this means
2699 that auto reverting works for Dired buffers (although this may not
2700 work properly on all operating systems) and for the Buffer Menu.
2703 *** If the new user option `auto-revert-check-vc-info' is non-nil, Auto
2704 Revert mode reliably updates version control info (such as the version
2705 control number in the mode line), in all version controlled buffers in
2706 which it is active. If the option is nil, the default, then this info
2707 only gets updated whenever the buffer gets reverted.
2712 The recent file list is now automatically cleaned up when recentf mode is
2713 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
2716 The ten most recent files can be quickly opened by using the shortcut
2717 keys 1 to 9, and 0, when the recent list is displayed in a buffer via
2718 the `recentf-open-files', or `recentf-open-more-files' commands.
2720 The `recentf-keep' option replaces `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p'
2721 and provides a more general mechanism to customize which file names to
2722 keep in the recent list.
2724 With the more advanced option `recentf-filename-handlers', you can
2725 specify functions that successively transform recent file names. For
2726 example, if set to `file-truename' plus `abbreviate-file-name', the
2727 same file will not be in the recent list with different symbolic
2728 links, and the file name will be abbreviated.
2730 To follow naming convention, `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag'
2731 replaces the misnamed option `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The
2732 old name remains available as alias, but has been marked obsolete.
2738 *** Desktop saving is now a minor mode, `desktop-save-mode'.
2741 *** The variable `desktop-enable' is obsolete.
2743 Customize `desktop-save-mode' to enable desktop saving.
2746 *** Buffers are saved in the desktop file in the same order as that in the
2750 *** The desktop package can be customized to restore only some buffers
2751 immediately, remaining buffers are restored lazily (when Emacs is
2756 - desktop-revert reverts to the last loaded desktop.
2757 - desktop-change-dir kills current desktop and loads a new.
2758 - desktop-save-in-desktop-dir saves desktop in the directory from which
2760 - desktop-lazy-complete runs the desktop load to completion.
2761 - desktop-lazy-abort aborts lazy loading of the desktop.
2764 *** New customizable variables:
2765 - desktop-save. Determins whether the desktop should be saved when it is
2767 - desktop-file-name-format. Format in which desktop file names should be saved.
2768 - desktop-path. List of directories in which to lookup the desktop file.
2769 - desktop-locals-to-save. List of local variables to save.
2770 - desktop-globals-to-clear. List of global variables that `desktop-clear' will clear.
2771 - desktop-clear-preserve-buffers-regexp. Regexp identifying buffers that `desktop-clear'
2773 - desktop-restore-eager. Number of buffers to restore immediately. Remaining buffers are
2774 restored lazily (when Emacs is idle).
2775 - desktop-lazy-verbose. Verbose reporting of lazily created buffers.
2776 - desktop-lazy-idle-delay. Idle delay before starting to create buffers.
2779 *** New command line option --no-desktop
2783 - desktop-after-read-hook run after a desktop is loaded.
2784 - desktop-no-desktop-file-hook run when no desktop file is found.
2787 ** The saveplace.el package now filters out unreadable files.
2789 When you exit Emacs, the saved positions in visited files no longer
2790 include files that aren't readable, e.g. files that don't exist.
2791 Customize the new option `save-place-forget-unreadable-files' to nil
2792 to get the old behavior. The new options `save-place-save-skipped'
2793 and `save-place-skip-check-regexp' allow further fine-tuning of this
2799 *** When comparing directories.
2800 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
2801 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
2802 from one directory to another.
2805 *** When comparing files or buffers.
2806 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
2807 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
2808 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
2812 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
2813 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
2814 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
2819 *** New regular expressions features
2821 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
2823 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
2824 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
2825 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
2826 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
2827 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
2828 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
2829 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
2830 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
2831 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
2832 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
2834 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in GCC.
2836 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
2837 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
2840 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
2842 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
2843 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
2844 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
2846 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
2848 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
2849 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
2851 *** New language parsing features
2853 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
2855 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
2857 **** The GCC __attribute__ keyword is now recognized and ignored.
2859 **** New language HTML.
2861 Tags are generated for `title' as well as `h1', `h2', and `h3'. Also,
2862 when `name=' is used inside an anchor and whenever `id=' is used.
2864 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
2866 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
2867 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
2869 **** New language Lua.
2871 All functions are tagged.
2873 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
2875 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
2876 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
2879 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
2881 **** New language PHP.
2883 Functions, classes and defines are tags. If the --members option is
2884 specified to etags, variables are tags also.
2886 **** New default keywords for TeX.
2888 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
2891 *** Honour #line directives.
2893 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
2894 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
2895 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
2896 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
2897 writes tags pointing to the source file.
2899 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
2901 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
2902 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
2903 reads from standard input and marks the produced tags as belonging to
2909 *** The key C-x C-q only changes the read-only state of the buffer
2910 (toggle-read-only). It no longer checks files in or out.
2912 We made this change because we held a poll and found that many users
2913 were unhappy with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this
2914 behavior, you can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your
2917 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
2919 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
2922 *** The new variable `vc-cvs-global-switches' specifies switches that
2923 are passed to any CVS command invoked by VC.
2925 These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which means they
2926 are inserted before the command name. For example, this allows you to
2927 specify a compression level using the `-z#' option for CVS.
2930 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
2933 *** VC-Annotate mode enhancements
2935 In VC-Annotate mode, you can now use the following key bindings for
2936 enhanced functionality to browse the annotations of past revisions, or
2937 to view diffs or log entries directly from vc-annotate-mode:
2939 P: annotates the previous revision
2940 N: annotates the next revision
2941 J: annotates the revision at line
2942 A: annotates the revision previous to line
2943 D: shows the diff of the revision at line with its previous revision
2944 L: shows the log of the revision at line
2945 W: annotates the workfile (most up to date) version
2950 *** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d y' command to view the diffs
2951 between the local version of the file and yesterday's head revision
2955 *** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d r' command to view the changes
2956 anyone has committed to the repository since you last executed
2957 `checkout', `update' or `commit'. That means using cvs diff options
2961 ** The new variable `mail-default-directory' specifies
2962 `default-directory' for mail buffers. This directory is used for
2963 auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to "~/".
2966 ** The mode line can indicate new mail in a directory or file.
2968 See the documentation of the user option
2969 `display-time-mail-directory'.
2974 *** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
2976 *** The new commands rmail-end-of-message and rmail-summary end-of-message,
2977 by default bound to `/', go to the end of the current mail message in
2978 Rmail and Rmail summary buffers.
2981 *** Support for `movemail' from GNU mailutils was added to Rmail.
2983 This version of `movemail' allows to read mail from a wide range of
2984 mailbox formats, including remote POP3 and IMAP4 mailboxes with or
2985 without TLS encryption. If GNU mailutils is installed on the system
2986 and its version of `movemail' can be found in exec-path, it will be
2987 used instead of the native one.
2992 *** Gnus now includes Sieve and PGG
2994 Sieve is a library for managing Sieve scripts. PGG is a library to handle
2998 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
3000 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "Oort Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
3005 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.93. There have been major changes since
3006 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
3008 ** Calendar changes:
3011 *** You can now use < and >, instead of C-x < and C-x >, to scroll
3012 the calendar left or right. (The old key bindings still work too.)
3015 *** There is a new calendar package, icalendar.el, that can be used to
3016 convert Emacs diary entries to/from the iCalendar format.
3019 *** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
3020 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
3021 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic') now take an optional parameter MARK,
3022 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
3023 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
3024 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
3025 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
3026 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
3027 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
3030 *** The new function `calendar-goto-day-of-year' (g D) prompts for a
3031 year and day number, and moves to that date. Negative day numbers
3032 count backward from the end of the year.
3035 *** The new Calendar function `calendar-goto-iso-week' (g w)
3036 prompts for a year and a week number, and moves to the first
3037 day of that ISO week.
3040 *** The new variable `calendar-minimum-window-height' affects the
3041 window generated by the function `generate-calendar-window'.
3044 *** The functions `holiday-easter-etc' and `holiday-advent' now take
3045 optional arguments, in order to only report on the specified holiday
3046 rather than all. This makes customization of variables such as
3047 `christian-holidays' simpler.
3050 *** The function `simple-diary-display' now by default sets a header line.
3051 This can be controlled through the variables `diary-header-line-flag'
3052 and `diary-header-line-format'.
3055 *** The procedure for activating appointment reminders has changed:
3056 use the new function `appt-activate'. The new variable
3057 `appt-display-format' controls how reminders are displayed, replacing
3058 `appt-issue-message', `appt-visible', and `appt-msg-window'.
3061 *** The new functions `diary-from-outlook', `diary-from-outlook-gnus',
3062 and `diary-from-outlook-rmail' can be used to import diary entries
3063 from Outlook-format appointments in mail messages. The variable
3064 `diary-outlook-formats' can be customized to recognize additional
3068 ** Speedbar changes:
3070 *** Speedbar items can now be selected by clicking mouse-1, based on
3071 the `mouse-1-click-follows-link' mechanism.
3073 *** SPC and DEL are no longer bound to scroll up/down in the speedbar
3076 *** The new command `speedbar-toggle-line-expansion', bound to SPC,
3077 contracts or expands the line under the cursor.
3079 *** New command `speedbar-create-directory', bound to `M'.
3081 *** The new commands `speedbar-expand-line-descendants' and
3082 `speedbar-contract-line-descendants', bound to `[' and `]'
3083 respectively, expand and contract the line under cursor with all of
3086 *** The new user option `speedbar-query-confirmation-method' controls
3087 how querying is performed for file operations. A value of 'always
3088 means to always query before file operations; 'none-but-delete means
3089 to not query before any file operations, except before a file
3092 *** The new user option `speedbar-select-frame-method' specifies how
3093 to select a frame for displaying a file opened with the speedbar. A
3094 value of 'attached means to use the attached frame (the frame that
3095 speedbar was started from.) A number such as 1 or -1 means to pass
3096 that number to `other-frame'.
3098 *** The new user option `speedbar-use-tool-tips-flag', if non-nil,
3099 means to display tool-tips for speedbar items.
3101 *** The frame management code in speedbar.el has been split into a new
3102 `dframe' library. Emacs Lisp code that makes use of the speedbar
3103 should use `dframe-attached-frame' instead of
3104 `speedbar-attached-frame', `dframe-timer' instead of `speedbar-timer',
3105 `dframe-close-frame' instead of `speedbar-close-frame', and
3106 `dframe-activity-change-focus-flag' instead of
3107 `speedbar-activity-change-focus-flag'. The variables
3108 `speedbar-update-speed' and `speedbar-navigating-speed' are also
3109 obsolete; use `dframe-update-speed' instead.
3114 *** The variable `sql-product' controls the highlightng of different
3115 SQL dialects. This variable can be set globally via Customize, on a
3116 buffer-specific basis via local variable settings, or for the current
3117 session using the new SQL->Product submenu. (This menu replaces the
3118 SQL->Highlighting submenu.)
3120 The following values are supported:
3122 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
3136 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
3139 The technique of setting `sql-mode-font-lock-defaults' directly in
3140 your `.emacs' will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
3141 `sql-product' to accomplish this.
3143 ANSI keywords are always highlighted.
3145 *** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
3146 font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
3147 all identifiers ending in `_t' under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
3148 you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
3150 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
3151 '(("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face)))
3153 *** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i.
3155 Most SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
3156 highlighted in `font-lock-doc-face'.
3158 *** Microsoft SQLServer support has been significantly improved.
3160 Keyword highlighting for SqlServer 2000 is implemented.
3161 sql-interactive-mode defaults to use osql, rather than isql, because
3162 osql flushes its error stream more frequently. Thus error messages
3163 are displayed when they occur rather than when the session is
3166 If the username and password are not provided to `sql-ms', osql is
3167 called with the `-E' command line argument to use the operating system
3168 credentials to authenticate the user.
3170 *** Postgres support is enhanced.
3171 Keyword highlighting of Postgres 7.3 is implemented. Prompting for
3172 the username and the pgsql `-U' option is added.
3174 *** MySQL support is enhanced.
3175 Keyword higlighting of MySql 4.0 is implemented.
3177 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
3178 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
3181 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
3182 appropriate `sql-interactive-mode' wrapper for the current setting of
3186 *** sql.el supports the SQLite interpreter--call 'sql-sqlite'.
3191 *** New ffap commands and keybindings:
3193 C-x C-r (`ffap-read-only'),
3194 C-x C-v (`ffap-alternate-file'), C-x C-d (`ffap-list-directory'),
3195 C-x 4 r (`ffap-read-only-other-window'), C-x 4 d (`ffap-dired-other-window'),
3196 C-x 5 r (`ffap-read-only-other-frame'), C-x 5 d (`ffap-dired-other-frame').
3199 *** FFAP accepts wildcards in a file name by default.
3201 C-x C-f passes the file name to `find-file' with non-nil WILDCARDS
3202 argument, which visits multiple files, and C-x d passes it to `dired'.
3205 ** In skeleton.el, `-' marks the `skeleton-point' without interregion interaction.
3207 `@' has reverted to only setting `skeleton-positions' and no longer
3208 sets `skeleton-point'. Skeletons which used @ to mark
3209 `skeleton-point' independent of `_' should now use `-' instead. The
3210 updated `skeleton-insert' docstring explains these new features along
3211 with other details of skeleton construction.
3214 ** Hideshow mode changes
3216 *** New variable `hs-set-up-overlay' allows customization of the overlay
3217 used to effect hiding for hideshow minor mode. Integration with isearch
3218 handles the overlay property `display' specially, preserving it during
3219 temporary overlay showing in the course of an isearch operation.
3221 *** New variable `hs-allow-nesting' non-nil means that hiding a block does
3222 not discard the hidden state of any "internal" blocks; when the parent
3223 block is later shown, the internal blocks remain hidden. Default is nil.
3226 ** `hide-ifdef-mode' now uses overlays rather than selective-display
3227 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
3228 changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
3231 ** `partial-completion-mode' now handles partial completion on directory names.
3234 ** The type-break package now allows `type-break-file-name' to be nil
3235 and if so, doesn't store any data across sessions. This is handy if
3236 you don't want the `.type-break' file in your home directory or are
3237 annoyed by the need for interaction when you kill Emacs.
3240 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
3242 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
3243 `ps-print', provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF
3244 fonts. See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
3247 ** New command `strokes-global-set-stroke-string'.
3248 This is like `strokes-global-set-stroke', but it allows you to bind
3249 the stroke directly to a string to insert. This is convenient for
3250 using strokes as an input method.
3252 ** Emacs server changes:
3255 *** You can have several Emacs servers on the same machine.
3257 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "foo")' -f server-start &
3258 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "bar")' -f server-start &
3259 % emacsclient -s foo file1
3260 % emacsclient -s bar file2
3263 *** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
3264 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given Lisp
3265 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
3268 *** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
3271 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
3274 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
3276 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
3277 argument it toggles the mode. Turning off PC-Selection mode restores
3278 the global key bindings that were replaced by turning on the mode.
3281 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
3282 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
3285 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
3287 Emacs still works on terminals that require magic cookies in order to
3288 use standout mode, but they can no longer display mode-lines in
3292 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
3294 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
3295 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
3296 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
3298 ** battery.el changes:
3301 *** display-battery-mode replaces display-battery.
3304 *** battery.el now works on recent versions of OS X.
3307 ** calculator.el now has radix grouping mode.
3309 To enable this, set `calculator-output-radix' non-nil. In this mode a
3310 separator character is used every few digits, making it easier to see
3311 byte boundries etc. For more info, see the documentation of the
3312 variable `calculator-radix-grouping-mode'.
3315 ** fast-lock.el and lazy-lock.el are obsolete. Use jit-lock.el instead.
3318 ** iso-acc.el is now obsolete. Use one of the latin input methods instead.
3321 ** cplus-md.el has been deleted.
3323 * Changes in Emacs 22.1 on non-free operating systems
3326 ** The HOME directory defaults to Application Data under the user profile.
3328 If you used a previous version of Emacs without setting the HOME
3329 environment variable and a `.emacs' was saved, then Emacs will continue
3330 using C:/ as the default HOME. But if you are installing Emacs afresh,
3331 the default location will be the "Application Data" (or similar
3332 localized name) subdirectory of your user profile. A typical location
3333 of this directory is "C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data",
3334 where USERNAME is your user name.
3336 This change means that users can now have their own `.emacs' files on
3337 shared computers, and the default HOME directory is less likely to be
3338 read-only on computers that are administered by someone else.
3341 ** Passing resources on the command line now works on MS Windows.
3343 You can use --xrm to pass resource settings to Emacs, overriding any
3344 existing values. For example:
3346 emacs --xrm "Emacs.Background:red" --xrm "Emacs.Geometry:100x20"
3348 will start up Emacs on an initial frame of 100x20 with red background,
3349 irrespective of geometry or background setting on the Windows registry.
3352 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
3354 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
3355 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
3358 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
3360 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
3363 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
3365 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
3366 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
3367 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
3368 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
3369 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
3370 against. For additional information, see nt/INSTALL.
3373 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
3375 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
3376 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
3377 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
3378 sound support for those formats.
3381 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
3383 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
3386 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
3388 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
3389 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
3390 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
3393 ** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
3395 The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in much
3396 the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now adds these
3397 colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu for the
3398 default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground), and uses
3399 some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
3400 `list-colors-display' shows the list of System color names, in case
3401 you wish to use them in other faces.
3404 ** On MS Windows NT/W2K/XP, Emacs uses Unicode for clipboard operations.
3406 Those systems use Unicode internally, so this allows Emacs to share
3407 multilingual text with other applications. On other versions of
3408 MS Windows, Emacs now uses the appropriate locale coding-system, so
3409 the clipboard should work correctly for your local language without
3413 ** Running in a console window in Windows now uses the console size.
3415 Previous versions of Emacs erred on the side of having a usable Emacs
3416 through telnet, even though that was inconvenient if you use Emacs in
3417 a local console window with a scrollback buffer. The default value of
3418 w32-use-full-screen-buffer is now nil, which favours local console
3419 windows. Recent versions of Windows telnet also work well with this
3420 setting. If you are using an older telnet server then Emacs detects
3421 that the console window dimensions that are reported are not sane, and
3422 defaults to 80x25. If you use such a telnet server regularly at a size
3423 other than 80x25, you can still manually set
3424 w32-use-full-screen-buffer to t.
3427 ** On Mac OS, `keyboard-coding-system' changes based on the keyboard script.
3430 ** The variable `mac-keyboard-text-encoding' and the constants
3431 `kTextEncodingMacRoman', `kTextEncodingISOLatin1', and
3432 `kTextEncodingISOLatin2' are obsolete.
3434 ** The variable `mac-command-key-is-meta' is obsolete. Use
3435 `mac-command-modifier' and `mac-option-modifier' instead.
3437 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 22.1
3440 ** The variables post-command-idle-hook and post-command-idle-delay have
3441 been removed. Use run-with-idle-timer instead.
3444 ** `suppress-keymap' now works by remapping `self-insert-command' to
3445 the command `undefined'. (In earlier Emacs versions, it used
3446 `substitute-key-definition' to rebind self inserting characters to
3450 ** Mode line display ignores text properties as well as the
3451 :propertize and :eval forms in the value of a variable whose
3452 `risky-local-variable' property is nil.
3455 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
3458 ** The variable `memory-full' now remains t until
3459 there is no longer a shortage of memory.
3461 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 22.1
3463 ** General Lisp changes:
3465 *** The function `expt' handles negative exponents differently.
3466 The value for `(expt A B)', if both A and B are integers and B is
3467 negative, is now a float. For example: (expt 2 -2) => 0.25.
3470 *** The function `eql' is now available without requiring the CL package.
3473 *** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
3476 *** `add-to-list' takes an optional third argument, APPEND.
3478 If APPEND is non-nil, the new element gets added at the end of the
3479 list instead of at the beginning. This change actually occurred in
3480 Emacs 21.1, but was not documented then.
3483 *** New function `add-to-ordered-list' is like `add-to-list' but
3484 associates a numeric ordering of each element added to the list.
3487 *** New function `copy-tree' makes a copy of a tree.
3489 It recursively copies through both CARs and CDRs.
3492 *** New function `delete-dups' deletes `equal' duplicate elements from a list.
3494 It modifies the list destructively, like `delete'. Of several `equal'
3495 occurrences of an element in the list, the one that's kept is the
3499 *** New function `rassq-delete-all'.
3501 (rassq-delete-all VALUE ALIST) deletes, from ALIST, each element whose
3502 CDR is `eq' to the specified value.
3505 *** The function `number-sequence' makes a list of equally-separated numbers.
3507 For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9). By
3508 default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different
3509 separation as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns
3513 *** New variables `most-positive-fixnum' and `most-negative-fixnum'.
3515 They hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
3518 *** Minor change in the function `format'.
3520 Some flags that were accepted but not implemented (such as "*") are no
3524 *** Functions `get' and `plist-get' no longer give errors for bad plists.
3526 They return nil for a malformed property list or if the list is
3530 *** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
3532 They are like `plist-get' and `plist-put', except that they compare
3533 the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
3536 *** New variable `print-continuous-numbering'.
3538 When this is non-nil, successive calls to print functions use a single
3539 numbering scheme for circular structure references. This is only
3540 relevant when `print-circle' is non-nil.
3542 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
3543 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
3546 *** New function `macroexpand-all' expands all macros in a form.
3548 It is similar to the Common-Lisp function of the same name.
3549 One difference is that it guarantees to return the original argument
3550 if no expansion is done, which can be tested using `eq'.
3553 *** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
3555 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
3556 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
3557 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
3560 *** A function or macro's doc string can now specify the calling pattern.
3562 You put this info in the doc string's last line. It should be
3563 formatted so as to match the regexp "\n\n(fn .*)\\'". If you don't
3564 specify this explicitly, Emacs determines it from the actual argument
3565 names. Usually that default is right, but not always.
3568 *** New macro `with-local-quit' temporarily allows quitting.
3570 A quit inside the body of `with-local-quit' is caught by the
3571 `with-local-quit' form itself, but another quit will happen later once
3572 the code that has inhibitted quitting exits.
3574 This is for use around potentially blocking or long-running code
3575 inside timer functions and `post-command-hook' functions.
3578 *** New macro `define-obsolete-function-alias'.
3580 This combines `defalias' and `make-obsolete'.
3583 *** New function `unsafep' determines whether a Lisp form is safe.
3585 It returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly do anything
3586 dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be unsafe
3587 (calls unknown function, alters global variable, etc.).
3590 *** New macro `eval-at-startup' specifies expressions to
3591 evaluate when Emacs starts up. If this is done after startup,
3592 it evaluates those expressions immediately.
3594 This is useful in packages that can be preloaded.
3596 *** `list-faces-display' takes an optional argument, REGEXP.
3598 If it is non-nil, the function lists only faces matching this regexp.
3600 ** Lisp code indentation features:
3603 *** The `defmacro' form can contain indentation and edebug declarations.
3605 These declarations specify how to indent the macro calls in Lisp mode
3606 and how to debug them with Edebug. You write them like this:
3608 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
3610 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
3611 possible declaration specifiers are:
3614 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
3617 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
3618 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro,
3619 but this is cleaner.)
3622 *** cl-indent now allows customization of Indentation of backquoted forms.
3624 See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
3627 *** cl-indent now handles indentation of simple and extended `loop' forms.
3629 The new user options `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation',
3630 `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can
3631 be used to customize the indentation of keywords and forms in loop
3635 ** Variable aliases:
3637 *** New function: defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
3639 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
3640 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
3641 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
3642 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
3644 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
3645 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
3647 *** New function: indirect-variable VARIABLE
3649 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
3650 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
3651 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
3653 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
3654 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
3657 *** The macro `define-obsolete-variable-alias' combines `defvaralias' and
3658 `make-obsolete-variable'.
3660 ** defcustom changes:
3663 *** The new customization type `float' requires a floating point number.
3668 *** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character.
3670 Exception: In a character constant, if it is followed by a `-' in a
3671 character constant (e.g. ?\s-A), it is still interpreted as the super
3672 modifier. In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
3675 *** A hex escape in a string constant forces the string to be multibyte.
3678 *** An octal escape in a string constant forces the string to be unibyte.
3681 *** `split-string' now includes null substrings in the returned list if
3682 the optional argument SEPARATORS is non-nil and there are matches for
3683 SEPARATORS at the beginning or end of the string. If SEPARATORS is
3684 nil, or if the new optional third argument OMIT-NULLS is non-nil, all
3685 empty matches are omitted from the returned list.
3688 *** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
3689 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
3692 *** New function `substring-no-properties' returns a substring without
3696 *** The new function `assoc-string' replaces `assoc-ignore-case' and
3697 `assoc-ignore-representation', which are still available, but have
3698 been declared obsolete.
3701 ** Displaying warnings to the user.
3703 See the functions `warn' and `display-warning', or the Lisp Manual.
3704 If you want to be sure the warning will not be overlooked, this
3705 facility is much better than using `message', since it displays
3706 warnings in a separate window.
3709 ** Progress reporters.
3711 These provide a simple and uniform way for commands to present
3712 progress messages for the user.
3714 See the new functions `make-progress-reporter',
3715 `progress-reporter-update', `progress-reporter-force-update',
3716 `progress-reporter-done', and `dotimes-with-progress-reporter'.
3718 ** Buffer positions:
3721 *** Function `compute-motion' now calculates the usable window
3722 width if the WIDTH argument is nil. If the TOPOS argument is nil,
3723 the usable window height and width is used.
3726 *** The `line-move', `scroll-up', and `scroll-down' functions will now
3727 modify the window vscroll to scroll through display rows that are
3728 taller that the height of the window, for example in the presence of
3729 large images. To disable this feature, bind the new variable
3730 `auto-window-vscroll' to nil.
3733 *** The argument to `forward-word', `backward-word' is optional.
3738 *** Argument to `forward-to-indentation' and `backward-to-indentation' is optional.
3743 *** New function `mouse-on-link-p' tests if a position is in a clickable link.
3745 This is the function used by the new `mouse-1-click-follows-link'
3749 *** New function `line-number-at-pos' returns the line number of a position.
3751 It an optional buffer position argument that defaults to point.
3754 *** `field-beginning' and `field-end' take new optional argument, LIMIT.
3756 This argument tells them not to search beyond LIMIT. Instead they
3757 give up and return LIMIT.
3760 *** Function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now returns the pixel coordinates
3761 and partial visiblity state of the corresponding row, if the PARTIALLY
3765 *** New functions `posn-at-point' and `posn-at-x-y' return
3766 click-event-style position information for a given visible buffer
3767 position or for a given window pixel coordinate.
3769 ** Text modification:
3772 *** The new function `insert-for-yank' normally works like `insert', but
3773 removes the text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list
3774 and handles the `yank-handler' text property.
3777 *** The new function `insert-buffer-substring-as-yank' is like
3778 `insert-for-yank' except that it gets the text from another buffer as
3779 in `insert-buffer-substring'.
3782 *** The new function `insert-buffer-substring-no-properties' is like
3783 `insert-buffer-substring', but removes all text properties from the
3787 *** The new function `filter-buffer-substring' extracts a buffer
3788 substring, passes it through a set of filter functions, and returns
3789 the filtered substring. Use it instead of `buffer-substring' or
3790 `delete-and-extract-region' when copying text into a user-accessible
3791 data structure, such as the kill-ring, X clipboard, or a register.
3793 The list of filter function is specified by the new variable
3794 `buffer-substring-filters'. For example, Longlines mode adds to
3795 `buffer-substring-filters' to remove soft newlines from the copied
3799 *** Function `translate-region' accepts also a char-table as TABLE
3803 *** The new translation table `translation-table-for-input'
3804 is used for customizing self-insertion. The character to
3805 be inserted is translated through it.
3810 The new function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
3811 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
3815 *** The function `insert-string' is now obsolete.
3820 *** In determining an adaptive fill prefix, Emacs now tries the function in
3821 `adaptive-fill-function' _before_ matching the buffer line against
3822 `adaptive-fill-regexp' rather than _after_ it.
3825 ** Atomic change groups.
3827 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
3828 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
3829 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
3831 (atomic-change-group
3833 (delete-region x y))
3835 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
3836 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
3837 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
3838 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
3840 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
3841 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
3843 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
3844 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
3845 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
3846 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
3848 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
3849 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
3852 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
3853 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
3854 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
3855 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
3857 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
3858 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
3859 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
3860 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
3861 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
3862 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
3865 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
3866 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
3867 returned values, like this:
3869 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
3870 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
3872 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
3873 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
3874 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
3876 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
3877 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
3878 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
3879 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
3882 ** Buffer-related changes:
3885 *** `list-buffers-noselect' now takes an additional argument, BUFFER-LIST.
3887 If it is non-nil, it specifies which buffers to list.
3890 *** `kill-buffer-hook' is now a permanent local.
3893 *** The new function `buffer-local-value' returns the buffer-local
3894 binding of VARIABLE (a symbol) in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not
3895 have a buffer-local binding in buffer BUFFER, it returns the default
3896 value of VARIABLE instead.
3898 *** The function `frame-or-buffer-changed-p' now lets you maintain
3899 various status records in parallel.
3901 It takes a variable (a symbol) as argument. If the variable is non-nil,
3902 then its value should be a vector installed previously by
3903 `frame-or-buffer-changed-p'. If the frame names, buffer names, buffer
3904 order, or their read-only or modified flags have changed, since the
3905 time the vector's contents were recorded by a previous call to
3906 `frame-or-buffer-changed-p', then the function returns t. Otherwise
3909 On the first call to `frame-or-buffer-changed-p', the variable's
3910 value should be nil. `frame-or-buffer-changed-p' stores a suitable
3911 vector into the variable and returns t.
3913 If the variable is itself nil, then `frame-or-buffer-changed-p' uses,
3914 for compatibility, an internal variable which exists only for this
3918 *** The function `read-buffer' follows the convention for reading from
3919 the minibuffer with a default value: if DEF is non-nil, the minibuffer
3920 prompt provided in PROMPT is edited to show the default value provided
3921 in DEF before the terminal colon and space.
3923 ** Local variables lists:
3926 *** Text properties in local variables.
3928 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
3929 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
3932 *** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
3933 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
3934 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
3935 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
3939 *** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
3940 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
3941 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
3942 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
3943 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
3944 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
3946 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
3947 confirmation as before.
3949 ** Searching and matching changes:
3952 *** New function `looking-back' checks whether a regular expression matches
3953 the text before point. Specifying the LIMIT argument bounds how far
3954 back the match can start; this is a way to keep it from taking too long.
3957 *** The new variable `search-spaces-regexp' controls how to search
3958 for spaces in a regular expression. If it is non-nil, it should be a
3959 regular expression, and any series of spaces stands for that regular
3960 expression. If it is nil, spaces stand for themselves.
3962 Spaces inside of constructs such as `[..]' and inside loops such as
3963 `*', `+', and `?' are never replaced with `search-spaces-regexp'.
3966 *** New regular expression operators, `\_<' and `\_>'.
3968 These match the beginning and end of a symbol. A symbol is a
3969 non-empty sequence of either word or symbol constituent characters, as
3970 specified by the syntax table.
3973 *** rx.el has new corresponding `symbol-end' and `symbol-start' elements.
3976 *** `skip-chars-forward' and `skip-chars-backward' now handle
3977 character classes such as `[:alpha:]', along with individual
3978 characters and ranges.
3981 *** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
3982 properties from surrounding text.
3985 *** The list returned by `(match-data t)' now has the buffer as a final
3986 element, if the last match was on a buffer. `set-match-data'
3987 accepts such a list for restoring the match state.
3990 *** Functions `match-data' and `set-match-data' now have an optional
3991 argument `reseat'. When non-nil, all markers in the match data list
3992 passed to these functions will be reseated to point to nowhere.
3995 *** The default value of `sentence-end' is now defined using the new
3996 variable `sentence-end-without-space', which contains such characters
3997 that end a sentence without following spaces.
3999 The function `sentence-end' should be used to obtain the value of the
4000 variable `sentence-end'. If the variable `sentence-end' is nil, then
4001 this function returns the regexp constructed from the variables
4002 `sentence-end-without-period', `sentence-end-double-space' and
4003 `sentence-end-without-space'.
4008 *** `buffer-undo-list' can allows programmable elements.
4010 These elements have the form (apply FUNNAME . ARGS), where FUNNAME is
4011 a symbol other than t or nil. That stands for a high-level change
4012 that should be undone by evaluating (apply FUNNAME ARGS).
4014 These entries can also have the form (apply DELTA BEG END FUNNAME . ARGS)
4015 which indicates that the change which took place was limited to the
4016 range BEG...END and increased the buffer size by DELTA.
4019 *** If the buffer's undo list for the current command gets longer than
4020 `undo-outer-limit', garbage collection empties it. This is to prevent
4021 it from using up the available memory and choking Emacs.
4024 ** New `yank-handler' text property can be used to control how
4025 previously killed text on the kill ring is reinserted.
4027 The value of the `yank-handler' property must be a list with one to four
4028 elements with the following format:
4029 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
4031 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
4032 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
4033 element on the kill-ring). If a `yank-handler' property is found,
4034 the normal behavior of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
4036 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
4037 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
4038 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
4039 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
4040 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
4042 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
4043 `yank-excluded-properties' is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
4044 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
4045 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
4046 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
4047 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
4048 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
4049 FUNCTION can set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
4051 *** The functions `kill-new', `kill-append', and `kill-region' now have an
4052 optional argument to specify the `yank-handler' text property to put on
4055 *** The function `yank-pop' will now use a non-nil value of the variable
4056 `yank-undo-function' (instead of `delete-region') to undo the previous
4057 `yank' or `yank-pop' command (or a call to `insert-for-yank'). The function
4058 `insert-for-yank' automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
4059 element of the string argument's `yank-handler' text property if present.
4061 *** The function `insert-for-yank' now supports strings where the
4062 `yank-handler' property does not span the first character of the
4063 string. The old behavior is available if you call
4064 `insert-for-yank-1' instead.
4066 ** Syntax table changes:
4069 *** The macro `with-syntax-table' no longer copies the syntax table.
4072 *** The new function `syntax-after' returns the syntax code
4073 of the character after a specified buffer position, taking account
4074 of text properties as well as the character code.
4077 *** `syntax-class' extracts the class of a syntax code (as returned
4081 *** The new function `syntax-ppss' rovides an efficient way to find the
4082 current syntactic context at point.
4084 ** File operation changes:
4087 *** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
4088 searching for an executable or an Emacs Lisp file.
4091 *** The new primitive `set-file-times' sets a file's access and
4092 modification times. Magic file name handlers can handle this
4096 *** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
4097 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
4098 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
4099 The value in that case is an identifier for the remote file system.
4102 *** `buffer-auto-save-file-format' is the new name for what was
4103 formerly called `auto-save-file-format'. It is now a permanent local.
4106 *** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
4107 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
4108 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
4111 *** `copy-file' now takes an additional option arg MUSTBENEW.
4113 This argument works like the MUSTBENEW argument of write-file.
4116 *** `visited-file-modtime' and `calendar-time-from-absolute' now return
4117 a list of two integers, instead of a cons.
4120 *** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
4121 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
4122 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
4123 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
4126 *** The new hook `before-save-hook' is invoked by `basic-save-buffer'
4127 before saving buffers. This allows packages to perform various final
4128 tasks. For example, it can be used by the copyright package to make
4129 sure saved files have the current year in any copyright headers.
4132 *** If `buffer-save-without-query' is non-nil in some buffer,
4133 `save-some-buffers' will always save that buffer without asking (if
4137 *** New function `locate-file' searches for a file in a list of directories.
4138 `locate-file' accepts a name of a file to search (a string), and two
4139 lists: a list of directories to search in and a list of suffixes to
4140 try; typical usage might use `exec-path' and `load-path' for the list
4141 of directories, and `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' for the list
4142 of suffixes. The function also accepts a predicate argument to
4143 further filter candidate files.
4145 One advantage of using this function is that the list of suffixes in
4146 `exec-suffixes' is OS-dependant, so this function will find
4147 executables without polluting Lisp code with OS dependencies.
4150 *** The precedence of file name handlers has been changed.
4152 Instead of choosing the first handler that matches,
4153 `find-file-name-handler' now gives precedence to a file name handler
4154 that matches nearest the end of the file name. More precisely, the
4155 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen. In case
4156 of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
4159 *** A file name handler can declare which operations it handles.
4161 You do this by putting an `operation' property on the handler name
4162 symbol. The property value should be a list of the operations that
4163 the handler really handles. It won't be called for any other
4166 This is useful for autoloaded handlers, to prevent them from being
4167 autoloaded when not really necessary.
4170 *** The function `make-auto-save-file-name' is now handled by file
4171 name handlers. This will be exploited for remote files mainly.
4176 *** An interactive specification can now use the code letter 'U' to get
4177 the up-event that was discarded in case the last key sequence read for a
4178 previous `k' or `K' argument was a down-event; otherwise nil is used.
4181 *** The new interactive-specification `G' reads a file name
4182 much like `F', but if the input is a directory name (even defaulted),
4183 it returns just the directory name.
4186 *** Functions `y-or-n-p', `read-char', `read-key-sequence' and the like, that
4187 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer, now display the prompt
4188 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
4191 *** (while-no-input BODY...) runs BODY, but only so long as no input
4192 arrives. If the user types or clicks anything, BODY stops as if a
4193 quit had occurred. `while-no-input' returns the value of BODY, if BODY
4194 finishes. It returns nil if BODY was aborted by a quit, and t if
4195 BODY was aborted by arrival of input.
4197 ** Minibuffer changes:
4200 *** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional
4201 buffer argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted, it
4202 defaults to the current buffer.
4205 *** New function `minibuffer-selected-window' returns the window which
4206 was selected when entering the minibuffer.
4209 *** `read-from-minibuffer' now accepts an additional argument KEEP-ALL
4210 saying to put all inputs in the history list, even empty ones.
4213 *** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
4214 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
4215 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
4216 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
4217 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
4220 *** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by Lisp code
4221 to override the built-in `read-file-name' function.
4224 *** The new variable `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' specifies
4225 whether completion ignores case when reading a file name with the
4226 `read-file-name' function.
4229 *** The new function `read-directory-name' is for reading a directory name.
4231 It is like `read-file-name' except that the defaulting works better
4232 for directories, and completion inside it shows only directories.
4234 ** Completion changes:
4237 *** The new function `minibuffer-completion-contents' returns the contents
4238 of the minibuffer just before point. That is what completion commands
4242 *** The functions `all-completions' and `try-completion' now accept lists
4243 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
4244 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
4245 exported to Lisp. The keys in alists and hash tables can be either
4246 strings or symbols, which are automatically converted with to strings.
4249 *** The new macro `dynamic-completion-table' supports using functions
4250 as a dynamic completion table.
4252 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
4254 FUN is called with one argument, the string for which completion is required,
4255 and it should return an alist containing all the intended possible
4256 completions. This alist can be a full list of possible completions so that FUN
4257 can ignore the value of its argument. If completion is performed in the
4258 minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer from which the minibuffer was
4259 entered. `dynamic-completion-table' then computes the completion.
4262 *** The new macro `lazy-completion-table' initializes a variable
4263 as a lazy completion table.
4265 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN)
4267 If the completion table VAR is used for the first time (e.g., by passing VAR
4268 as an argument to `try-completion'), the function FUN is called with no
4269 arguments. FUN must return the completion table that will be stored in VAR.
4270 If completion is requested in the minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer
4271 from which the minibuffer was entered. The return value of
4272 `lazy-completion-table' must be used to initialize the value of VAR.
4275 ** Enhancements to keymaps.
4277 *** New keymaps for typing file names
4279 Two new keymaps, `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map' and
4280 `minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map', apply whenever
4281 Emacs reads a file name in the minibuffer. These key maps override
4282 the usual binding of SPC to `minibuffer-complete-word' (so that file
4283 names with embedded spaces could be typed without the need to quote
4286 *** Cleaner way to enter key sequences.
4288 You can enter a constant key sequence in a more natural format, the
4289 same one used for saving keyboard macros, using the macro `kbd'. For
4292 (kbd "C-x C-f") => "\^x\^f"
4294 *** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
4296 This is an alternative to using `defadvice' or `substitute-key-definition'
4297 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
4298 binding and lookup functionality.
4300 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
4301 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
4305 Suppose that minor mode `my-mode' has defined the commands
4306 `my-kill-line' and `my-kill-word', and it wants C-k (and any other key
4307 bound to `kill-line') to run the command `my-kill-line' instead of
4308 `kill-line', and likewise it wants to run `my-kill-word' instead of
4311 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
4312 command remapping allows you to directly map `kill-line' into
4313 `my-kill-line' and `kill-word' into `my-kill-word' using `define-key':
4315 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
4316 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
4318 When `my-mode' is enabled, its minor mode keymap is enabled too. So
4319 when the user types C-k, that runs the command `my-kill-line'.
4321 Only one level of remapping is supported. In the above example, this
4322 means that if `my-kill-line' is remapped to `other-kill', then C-k still
4323 runs `my-kill-line'.
4325 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
4327 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
4328 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
4329 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
4330 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
4332 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
4333 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
4335 - `key-binding' now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
4336 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
4338 - `where-is-internal' now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
4339 `kill-line', when `my-mode' is enabled), and the actual key binding for
4340 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
4341 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
4342 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns "C-k" for `kill-line', and
4343 "<kill-line>" for `my-kill-line').
4345 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
4346 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
4347 command was not remapped.
4349 *** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
4350 over minor mode keymaps.
4352 *** The `keymap' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
4353 text properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
4354 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `local-map' property.
4356 *** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
4358 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
4359 bindings of the parent keymap.
4361 *** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
4363 *** New function `current-active-maps' returns a list of currently
4366 *** New function `describe-buffer-bindings' inserts the list of all
4367 defined keys and their definitions.
4369 *** New function `keymap-prompt' returns the prompt string of a keymap.
4371 *** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
4374 *** New variable `emulation-mode-map-alists'.
4376 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
4377 keymap alist separate from `minor-mode-map-alist' by adding their
4378 keymap alist to this list.
4383 *** The new function `copy-abbrev-table' copies an abbrev table.
4385 It returns a new abbrev table that is a copy of a given abbrev table.
4388 *** `define-abbrev' now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG.
4390 If non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means
4391 that it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the
4392 abbrevs. Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always
4396 ** Enhancements to process support
4398 *** Function `list-processes' now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
4399 it lists only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set.
4401 *** New fns `set-process-query-on-exit-flag' and `process-query-on-exit-flag'.
4403 These replace the old function `process-kill-without-query'. That
4404 function is still supported, but new code should use the new
4407 *** Function `signal-process' now accepts a process object or process
4408 name in addition to a process id to identify the signaled process.
4410 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
4411 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
4413 Use the new functions `process-get' and `process-put' to access, add,
4414 and modify elements on this property list. Use the new functions
4415 `process-plist' and `set-process-plist' to access and replace the
4416 entire property list of a process.
4418 *** Function `accept-process-output' has a new optional fourth arg
4419 JUST-THIS-ONE. If non-nil, only output from the specified process
4420 is handled, suspending output from other processes. If value is an
4421 integer, also inhibit running timers. This feature is generally not
4422 recommended, but may be necessary for specific applications, such as
4425 *** Adaptive read buffering of subprocess output.
4427 On some systems, when emacs reads the output from a subprocess, the
4428 output data is read in very small blocks, potentially resulting in
4429 very poor performance. This behavior can be remedied to some extent
4430 by setting the new variable `process-adaptive-read-buffering' to a
4431 non-nil value (the default), as it will automatically delay reading
4432 from such processes, allowing them to produce more output before
4433 emacs tries to read it.
4435 *** The new function `call-process-shell-command'.
4437 This executes a shell command synchronously in a separate process.
4439 *** The new function `process-file' is similar to `call-process', but
4440 obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
4441 `default-directory'.
4443 *** A process filter function gets the output as multibyte string
4444 if the process specifies t for its filter's multibyteness.
4446 That multibyteness is decided by the value of
4447 `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is created, and
4448 you can change it later with `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
4450 *** The new function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the
4451 multibyteness of the strings passed to the process's filter.
4453 *** The new function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns the
4454 multibyteness of the strings passed to the process's filter.
4456 *** If a process's coding system is `raw-text' or `no-conversion' and its
4457 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
4458 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
4459 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
4460 which was not compatible with the behavior of file reading.
4463 ** Enhanced networking support.
4465 *** The new `make-network-process' function makes network connections.
4466 It allows opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
4467 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
4469 - A server is started using :server t arg.
4470 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
4471 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
4472 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
4473 - IPv6 is supported (when available). You may explicitly select IPv6
4474 using :family 'ipv6 arg.
4475 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
4476 - The process' property list can be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
4477 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
4478 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
4480 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
4481 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
4482 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:family ipv6))
4484 *** The old `open-network-stream' now uses `make-network-process'.
4486 *** New functions `process-datagram-address', `set-process-datagram-address'.
4488 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
4489 and set the current address of the remote partner.
4491 *** New function `format-network-address'.
4493 This function reformats the Lisp representation of a network address
4494 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
4495 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
4496 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
4497 string for other formatting options.
4499 *** `process-contact' has an optional KEY argument.
4501 Depending on this argument, you can get the complete list of network
4502 process properties or a specific property. Using :local or :remote as
4503 the KEY, you get the address of the local or remote end-point.
4505 An Inet address is represented as a 5 element vector, where the first
4506 4 elements contain the IP address and the fifth is the port number.
4508 *** New functions `stop-process' and `continue-process'.
4510 These functions stop and restart communication through a network
4511 connection. For a server process, no connections are accepted in the
4512 stopped state. For a client process, no input is received in the
4515 *** New function `network-interface-list'.
4517 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
4518 current network addresses.
4520 *** New function `network-interface-info'.
4522 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
4523 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
4525 *** Deleting a network process with `delete-process' calls the sentinel.
4527 The status message passed to the sentinel for a deleted network
4528 process is "deleted". The message passed to the sentinel when the
4529 connection is closed by the remote peer has been changed to
4530 "connection broken by remote peer".
4532 ** Using window objects:
4535 *** New function `window-body-height'.
4537 This is like `window-height' but does not count the mode line or the
4541 *** New function `window-body-height'.
4543 This is like `window-height' but does not count the mode line
4547 *** You can now make a window as short as one line.
4549 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
4550 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
4551 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
4552 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
4553 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
4556 *** The new function `window-inside-edges' returns the edges of the
4557 actual text portion of the window, not including the scroll bar or
4558 divider line, the fringes, the display margins, the header line and
4562 *** The new functions `window-pixel-edges' and `window-inside-pixel-edges'
4563 return window edges in units of pixels, rather than columns and lines.
4566 *** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
4567 selected window without impacting the order of `buffer-list'.
4568 It saves and restores the current buffer, too.
4571 *** `select-window' takes an optional second argument NORECORD.
4573 This is like `switch-to-buffer'.
4576 *** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
4577 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
4578 by calling `select-window'. It also saves and restores the current
4582 *** `set-window-buffer' has an optional argument KEEP-MARGINS.
4584 If non-nil, that says to preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
4585 and scroll-bar settings.
4588 *** The new function `window-tree' returns a frame's window tree.
4591 *** The functions `get-lru-window' and `get-largest-window' take an optional
4592 argument `dedicated'. If non-nil, those functions do not ignore
4596 *** The new function `adjust-window-trailing-edge' moves the right
4597 or bottom edge of a window. It does not move other window edges.
4600 ** Customizable fringe bitmaps
4602 *** New buffer-local variables `fringe-indicator-alist' and
4603 `fringe-cursor-alist' maps between logical (internal) fringe indicator
4604 and cursor symbols and the actual fringe bitmaps to be displayed.
4605 This decouples the logical meaning of the fringe indicators from the
4606 physical appearence, as well as allowing different fringe bitmaps to
4607 be used in different windows showing different buffers.
4609 *** New function `define-fringe-bitmap' can now be used to create new
4610 fringe bitmaps, as well as change the built-in fringe bitmaps.
4612 To change a built-in bitmap, do (require 'fringe) and use the symbol
4613 identifing the bitmap such as `left-truncation' or `continued-line'.
4615 *** New function `destroy-fringe-bitmap' deletes a fringe bitmap
4616 or restores a built-in one to its default value.
4618 *** New function `set-fringe-bitmap-face' specifies the face to be
4619 used for a specific fringe bitmap. The face is automatically merged
4620 with the `fringe' face, so normally, the face should only specify the
4621 foreground color of the bitmap.
4623 *** There are new display properties, `left-fringe' and `right-fringe',
4624 that can be used to show a specific bitmap in the left or right fringe
4625 bitmap of the display line.
4627 Format is `display (left-fringe BITMAP [FACE])', where BITMAP is a
4628 symbol identifying a fringe bitmap, either built-in or defined with
4629 `define-fringe-bitmap', and FACE is an optional face name to be used
4630 for displaying the bitmap instead of the default `fringe' face.
4631 When specified, FACE is automatically merged with the `fringe' face.
4633 *** New function `fringe-bitmaps-at-pos' returns the current fringe
4634 bitmaps in the display line at a given buffer position.
4636 ** Other window fringe features:
4639 *** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
4641 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
4642 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
4643 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
4644 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
4646 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
4647 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
4648 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
4649 between the left and right fringe. To force a specific fringe width,
4650 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
4651 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
4653 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
4654 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
4655 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
4656 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
4659 *** Per-window fringe and scrollbar settings
4661 **** Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and
4664 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
4665 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
4666 `set-window-fringes'.
4668 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
4669 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
4670 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
4671 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
4673 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
4674 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
4675 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
4676 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
4677 an update of the display margins.
4679 **** Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
4680 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
4682 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
4683 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
4684 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
4685 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
4686 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
4687 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
4688 of the display margins.
4690 ** Redisplay features:
4693 *** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
4696 *** New function `force-window-update' can initiate a full redisplay of
4697 one or all windows. Normally, this is not needed as changes in window
4698 contents are detected automatically. However, certain implicit
4699 changes to mode lines, header lines, or display properties may require
4700 forcing an explicit window update.
4703 *** (char-displayable-p CHAR) returns non-nil if Emacs ought to be able
4704 to display CHAR. More precisely, if the selected frame's fontset has
4705 a font to display the character set that CHAR belongs to.
4707 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
4708 does that, this value cannot be accurate.
4711 *** You can define multiple overlay arrows via the new
4712 variable `overlay-arrow-variable-list'.
4714 It contains a list of varibles which contain overlay arrow position
4715 markers, including the original `overlay-arrow-position' variable.
4717 Each variable on this list can have individual `overlay-arrow-string'
4718 and `overlay-arrow-bitmap' properties that specify an overlay arrow
4719 string (for non-window terminals) or fringe bitmap (for window
4720 systems) to display at the corresponding overlay arrow position.
4721 If either property is not set, the default `overlay-arrow-string' or
4722 'overlay-arrow-fringe-bitmap' will be used.
4725 *** New `line-height' and `line-spacing' properties for newline characters
4727 A newline can now have `line-height' and `line-spacing' text or overlay
4728 properties that control the height of the corresponding display row.
4730 If the `line-height' property value is t, the newline does not
4731 contribute to the height of the display row; instead the height of the
4732 newline glyph is reduced. Also, a `line-spacing' property on this
4733 newline is ignored. This can be used to tile small images or image
4734 slices without adding blank areas between the images.
4736 If the `line-height' property value is a positive integer, the value
4737 specifies the minimum line height in pixels. If necessary, the line
4738 height it increased by increasing the line's ascent.
4740 If the `line-height' property value is a float, the minimum line
4741 height is calculated by multiplying the default frame line height by
4744 If the `line-height' property value is a cons (FACE . RATIO), the
4745 minimum line height is calculated as RATIO * height of named FACE.
4746 RATIO is int or float. If FACE is t, it specifies the current face.
4748 If the `line-height' property value is a cons (nil . RATIO), the line
4749 height is calculated as RATIO * actual height of the line's contents.
4751 If the `line-height' value is a cons (HEIGHT . TOTAL), HEIGHT specifies
4752 the line height as described above, while TOTAL is any of the forms
4753 described above and specifies the total height of the line, causing a
4754 varying number of pixels to be inserted after the line to make it line
4755 exactly that many pixels high.
4757 If the `line-spacing' property value is an positive integer, the value
4758 is used as additional pixels to insert after the display line; this
4759 overrides the default frame `line-spacing' and any buffer local value of
4760 the `line-spacing' variable.
4762 If the `line-spacing' property is a float or cons, the line spacing
4763 is calculated as specified above for the `line-height' property.
4766 *** The buffer local `line-spacing' variable can now have a float value,
4767 which is used as a height relative to the default frame line height.
4770 *** Enhancements to stretch display properties
4772 The display property stretch specification form `(space PROPS)', where
4773 PROPS is a property list, now allows pixel based width and height
4774 specifications, as well as enhanced horizontal text alignment.
4776 The value of these properties can now be a (primitive) expression
4777 which is evaluated during redisplay. The following expressions
4780 EXPR ::= NUM | (NUM) | UNIT | ELEM | POS | IMAGE | FORM
4781 NUM ::= INTEGER | FLOAT | SYMBOL
4782 UNIT ::= in | mm | cm | width | height
4783 ELEM ::= left-fringe | right-fringe | left-margin | right-margin
4785 POS ::= left | center | right
4786 FORM ::= (NUM . EXPR) | (OP EXPR ...)
4789 The form `NUM' specifies a fractional width or height of the default
4790 frame font size. The form `(NUM)' specifies an absolute number of
4791 pixels. If a symbol is specified, its buffer-local variable binding
4792 is used. The `in', `mm', and `cm' units specifies the number of
4793 pixels per inch, milli-meter, and centi-meter, resp. The `width' and
4794 `height' units correspond to the width and height of the current face
4795 font. An image specification corresponds to the width or height of
4798 The `left-fringe', `right-fringe', `left-margin', `right-margin',
4799 `scroll-bar', and `text' elements specify to the width of the
4800 corresponding area of the window.
4802 The `left', `center', and `right' positions can be used with :align-to
4803 to specify a position relative to the left edge, center, or right edge
4804 of the text area. One of the above window elements (except `text')
4805 can also be used with :align-to to specify that the position is
4806 relative to the left edge of the given area. Once the base offset for
4807 a relative position has been set (by the first occurrence of one of
4808 these symbols), further occurences of these symbols are interpreted as
4809 the width of the area.
4811 For example, to align to the center of the left-margin, use
4812 :align-to (+ left-margin (0.5 . left-margin))
4814 If no specific base offset is set for alignment, it is always relative
4815 to the left edge of the text area. For example, :align-to 0 in a
4816 header line aligns with the first text column in the text area.
4818 The value of the form `(NUM . EXPR)' is the value of NUM multiplied by
4819 the value of the expression EXPR. For example, (2 . in) specifies a
4820 width of 2 inches, while (0.5 . IMAGE) specifies half the width (or
4821 height) of the specified image.
4823 The form `(+ EXPR ...)' adds up the value of the expressions.
4824 The form `(- EXPR ...)' negates or subtracts the value of the expressions.
4827 *** Normally, the cursor is displayed at the end of any overlay and
4828 text property string that may be present at the current window
4829 position. The cursor can now be placed on any character of such
4830 strings by giving that character a non-nil `cursor' text property.
4833 *** The display space :width and :align-to text properties are now
4834 supported on text terminals.
4837 *** Support for displaying image slices
4839 **** New display property (slice X Y WIDTH HEIGHT) can be used with
4840 an image property to display only a specific slice of the image.
4842 **** Function `insert-image' has new optional fourth arg to
4843 specify image slice (X Y WIDTH HEIGHT).
4845 **** New function `insert-sliced-image' inserts a given image as a
4846 specified number of evenly sized slices (rows x columns).
4849 *** Images can now have an associated image map via the :map property.
4851 An image map is an alist where each element has the format (AREA ID PLIST).
4852 An AREA is specified as either a rectangle, a circle, or a polygon:
4853 A rectangle is a cons (rect . ((X0 . Y0) . (X1 . Y1))) specifying the
4854 pixel coordinates of the upper left and bottom right corners.
4855 A circle is a cons (circle . ((X0 . Y0) . R)) specifying the center
4856 and the radius of the circle; R can be a float or integer.
4857 A polygon is a cons (poly . [X0 Y0 X1 Y1 ...]) where each pair in the
4858 vector describes one corner in the polygon.
4860 When the mouse pointer is above a hot-spot area of an image, the
4861 PLIST of that hot-spot is consulted; if it contains a `help-echo'
4862 property it defines a tool-tip for the hot-spot, and if it contains
4863 a `pointer' property, it defines the shape of the mouse cursor when
4864 it is over the hot-spot. See the variable `void-area-text-pointer'
4865 for possible pointer shapes.
4867 When you click the mouse when the mouse pointer is over a hot-spot,
4868 an event is composed by combining the ID of the hot-spot with the
4869 mouse event, e.g. [area4 mouse-1] if the hot-spot's ID is `area4'.
4872 *** The function `find-image' now searches in etc/images/ and etc/.
4873 The new variable `image-load-path' is a list of locations in which to
4874 search for image files. The default is to search in etc/images, then
4875 in etc/, and finally in the directories specified by `load-path'.
4876 Subdirectories of etc/ and etc/images are not recursively searched; if
4877 you put an image file in a subdirectory, you have to specify it
4878 explicitly; for example, if an image is put in etc/images/foo/bar.xpm:
4880 (defimage foo-image '((:type xpm :file "foo/bar.xpm")))
4882 Note that all images formerly located in the lisp directory have been
4883 moved to etc/images.
4886 *** New function `image-load-path-for-library' returns a suitable
4887 search path for images relative to library. This function is useful in
4888 external packages to save users from having to update
4892 *** The new variable `max-image-size' defines the maximum size of
4893 images that Emacs will load and display.
4895 ** Mouse pointer features:
4899 *** The mouse pointer shape in void text areas (i.e. after the end of a
4900 line or below the last line in the buffer) of the text window is now
4901 controlled by the new variable `void-text-area-pointer'. The default
4902 is to use the `arrow' (non-text) pointer. Other choices are `text'
4903 (or nil), `hand', `vdrag', `hdrag', `modeline', and `hourglass'.
4906 *** The mouse pointer shape over an image can now be controlled by the
4907 :pointer image property.
4910 *** The mouse pointer shape over ordinary text or images can now be
4911 controlled/overriden via the `pointer' text property.
4913 ** Mouse event enhancements:
4916 *** Mouse events for clicks on window fringes now specify `left-fringe'
4917 or `right-fringe' as the area.
4920 *** All mouse events now include a buffer position regardless of where
4921 you clicked. For mouse clicks in window margins and fringes, this is
4922 a sensible buffer position corresponding to the surrounding text.
4925 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
4928 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
4931 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
4935 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types
4939 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns the actual glyph coordinates
4940 of the mouse event position.
4943 *** Mouse events can now indicate an image object clicked on.
4946 *** Mouse events include relative X and Y pixel coordinates relative to
4947 the top left corner of the object (image or character) clicked on.
4950 *** Mouse events include the pixel width and height of the object
4951 (image or character) clicked on.
4954 *** New functions 'posn-object', 'posn-object-x-y', 'posn-object-width-height'.
4956 These return the image or string object of a mouse click, the X and Y
4957 pixel coordinates relative to the top left corner of that object, and
4958 the total width and height of that object.
4960 ** Text property and overlay changes:
4963 *** Arguments for `remove-overlays' are now optional, so that you can
4964 remove all overlays in the buffer with just (remove-overlays).
4967 *** New variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
4969 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
4970 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
4971 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
4972 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
4975 *** New function `get-char-property-and-overlay' accepts the same
4976 arguments as `get-char-property' and returns a cons whose car is the
4977 return value of `get-char-property' called with those arguments and
4978 whose cdr is the overlay in which the property was found, or nil if
4979 it was found as a text property or not found at all.
4982 *** The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties'.
4984 It is like `remove-text-properties' except that it takes a list of
4985 property names as argument rather than a property list.
4990 *** The new face attribute condition `min-colors' can be used to tailor
4991 the face color to the number of colors supported by a display, and
4992 define the foreground and background colors accordingly so that they
4993 look best on a terminal that supports at least this many colors. This
4994 is now the preferred method for defining default faces in a way that
4995 makes a good use of the capabilities of the display.
4998 *** New function `display-supports-face-attributes-p' can be used to test
4999 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
5001 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
5002 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
5003 defined with `defface'.
5006 *** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
5007 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
5008 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors, or use
5009 the feature of specifying the face attributes :foreground and :background
5010 directly in the `face' property instead of using a named face.
5013 *** The first face specification element in a defface can specify
5014 `default' instead of frame classification. Then its attributes act as
5015 defaults that apply to all the subsequent cases (and can be overridden
5019 *** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
5020 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
5021 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
5022 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
5023 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
5026 *** The function `face-differs-from-default-p' now truly checks
5027 whether the given face displays differently from the default face or
5028 not (previously it did only a very cursory check).
5031 *** `face-attribute', `face-foreground', `face-background', `face-stipple'.
5033 These now accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how
5034 face inheritance is used when determining the value of a face
5038 *** New functions `face-attribute-relative-p' and `merge-face-attribute'
5039 help with handling relative face attributes.
5042 *** The priority of faces in an :inherit attribute face list is reversed.
5044 If a face contains an :inherit attribute with a list of faces, earlier
5045 faces in the list override later faces in the list; in previous
5046 releases of Emacs, the order was the opposite. This change was made
5047 so that :inherit face lists operate identically to face lists in text
5051 *** On terminals, faces with the :inverse-video attribute are displayed
5052 with swapped foreground and background colors even when one of them is
5053 not specified. In previous releases of Emacs, if either foreground
5054 or background color was unspecified, colors were not swapped. This
5055 was inconsistent with the face behavior under X.
5058 *** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
5059 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
5061 ** Font-Lock changes:
5064 *** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
5066 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
5067 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
5068 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
5069 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
5072 *** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
5074 **** the FACENAME returned in `font-lock-keywords' can be a list of the
5075 form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set other
5076 properties than `face'.
5078 **** `font-lock-extra-managed-props' can be set to make sure those
5079 extra properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
5082 *** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
5084 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
5085 (see `jit-lock-defer-contextually'), then all of that text will
5086 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
5087 depends on text several lines further down (and when `font-lock-multiline'
5088 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
5096 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
5097 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a `jit-lock-defer-multiline'
5098 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
5099 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
5101 ** Major mode mechanism changes:
5104 *** `set-auto-mode' now gives the interpreter magic line (if present)
5105 precedence over the file name. Likewise an `<?xml' or `<!DOCTYPE'
5106 declaration will give the buffer XML or SGML mode, based on the new
5107 variable `magic-mode-alist'.
5110 *** Use the new function `run-mode-hooks' to run the major mode's mode hook.
5113 *** All major mode functions should now run the new normal hook
5114 `after-change-major-mode-hook', at their very end, after the mode
5115 hooks. `run-mode-hooks' does this automatically.
5118 *** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
5119 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
5123 *** Major modes can define `eldoc-documentation-function'
5124 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
5128 *** `define-derived-mode' by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
5129 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
5132 *** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
5133 are used by `define-derived-mode' to make sure the mode hook for the
5134 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
5136 ** Minor mode changes:
5139 *** `define-minor-mode' now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
5140 and simply passes them to `defcustom', if applicable.
5143 *** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
5146 *** `define-global-minor-mode'.
5148 This is a new name for what was formerly called
5149 `easy-mmode-define-global-mode'. The old name remains as an alias.
5151 ** Command loop changes:
5154 *** The new function `called-interactively-p' does what many people
5155 have mistakenly believed `interactive-p' to do: it returns t if the
5156 calling function was called through `call-interactively'.
5158 Only use this when you cannot solve the problem by adding a new
5159 INTERACTIVE argument to the command.
5162 *** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional argument.
5164 If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks for a function that could be
5165 called with `call-interactively', and does not return t for keyboard
5169 *** When a command returns, the command loop moves point out from
5170 within invisible text, in the same way it moves out from within text
5171 covered by an image or composition property.
5173 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
5174 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
5175 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
5176 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
5177 `post-command-hook' and thus does not care about intermediate states.
5180 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to `only', that
5181 enables Transient Mark mode for the following command only.
5182 During that following command, the value of `transient-mark-mode'
5183 is `identity'. If it is still `identity' at the end of the command,
5184 the next return to the command loop changes to nil.
5187 *** Both the variable and the function `disabled-command-hook' have
5188 been renamed to `disabled-command-function'. The variable
5189 `disabled-command-hook' has been kept as an obsolete alias.
5192 *** `emacsserver' now runs `pre-command-hook' and `post-command-hook'
5193 when it receives a request from emacsclient.
5195 ** Lisp file loading changes:
5198 *** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
5199 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
5200 current file redefined it).
5203 *** `load-history' now records (defun . FUNNAME) when a function is
5204 defined. For a variable, it records just the variable name.
5207 *** The function `symbol-file' can now search specifically for function,
5208 variable or face definitions.
5211 *** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
5212 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
5213 and runs any code associated with the provided feature.
5216 *** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
5217 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
5218 than 3 levels of nesting.
5221 ** Byte compiler changes:
5223 *** The byte compiler now displays the actual line and character
5224 position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form of its
5225 warning and error messages have been brought into line with GNU standards
5226 for these. As a result, you can use next-error and friends on the
5227 compilation output buffer.
5229 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
5230 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
5232 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
5233 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
5234 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
5235 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
5238 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
5239 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
5241 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
5242 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
5243 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
5244 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
5245 macro expansion), but such tests can be nested. Note that `when' and
5246 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
5248 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
5249 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
5250 Emacs and XEmacs and can sometimes make the result significantly more
5251 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
5252 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
5255 *** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in Lisp files is now obeyed.
5258 *** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
5259 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
5260 (require 'cl) when loaded.
5262 ** Frame operations:
5265 *** New functions `frame-current-scroll-bars' and `window-current-scroll-bars'.
5267 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
5268 horizontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
5271 *** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
5272 for all (existing and future) frames.
5275 *** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
5276 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
5277 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
5278 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
5281 *** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
5282 the `scroll-bar-width' frame parameter value is nil.
5287 *** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
5289 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
5290 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
5291 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
5294 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
5296 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
5297 the time it takes to convert the format.
5299 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
5303 *** `set-buffer-file-coding-system' now takes an additional argument,
5304 NOMODIFY. If it is non-nil, it means don't mark the buffer modified.
5307 *** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
5308 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
5309 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
5310 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
5313 *** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
5314 of one coding system from another coding system.
5317 *** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
5318 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
5322 *** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
5323 it is read from a file without decoding.
5326 *** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
5327 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
5330 *** New function `quail-find-key' returns a list of keys to type in the
5331 current input method to input a character.
5333 ** Mode line changes:
5336 *** New function `format-mode-line'.
5338 This returns the mode line or header line of the selected (or a
5339 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
5342 *** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
5343 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
5346 *** The new `%i' and `%I' constructs for `mode-line-format' can be used
5347 to display the size of the accessible part of the buffer on the mode
5351 *** Mouse-face on mode-line (and header-line) is now supported.
5353 ** Menu manipulation changes:
5356 *** To manipulate the File menu using easy-menu, you must specify the
5357 proper name "file". In previous Emacs versions, you had to specify
5358 "files", even though the menu item itself was changed to say "File"
5359 several versions ago.
5362 *** The dummy function keys made by easy-menu are now always lower case.
5363 If you specify the menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
5364 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
5366 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for the bindings that were
5367 made with easy-menu.
5370 *** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
5371 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
5372 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
5373 need to have a name.
5375 ** Operating system access:
5378 *** The new primitive `get-internal-run-time' returns the processor
5379 run time used by Emacs since start-up.
5382 *** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
5383 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
5384 accepts a float as UID parameter.
5387 *** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
5390 *** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
5391 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
5392 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
5395 *** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
5396 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
5401 *** A number of hooks have been renamed to better follow the conventions:
5403 `find-file-hooks' to `find-file-hook',
5404 `find-file-not-found-hooks' to `find-file-not-found-functions',
5405 `write-file-hooks' to `write-file-functions',
5406 `write-contents-hooks' to `write-contents-functions',
5407 `x-lost-selection-hooks' to `x-lost-selection-functions',
5408 `x-sent-selection-hooks' to `x-sent-selection-functions',
5409 `delete-frame-hook' to `delete-frame-functions'.
5411 In each case the old name remains as an alias for the moment.
5414 *** Variable `local-write-file-hooks' is marked obsolete.
5416 Use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook'.
5419 *** New function `x-send-client-message' sends a client message when
5425 *** New variable `gc-cons-percentage' automatically grows the GC cons threshold
5426 as the heap size increases.
5429 *** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
5430 on garbage collection.
5433 *** The normal hook `post-gc-hook' is run at the end of garbage collection.
5435 The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
5437 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 22.1
5440 ** The new library button.el implements simple and fast `clickable
5441 buttons' in emacs buffers. Buttons are much lighter-weight than the
5442 `widgets' implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that
5443 doesn't require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for
5444 such things as help and apropos buffers.
5447 ** The new library tree-widget.el provides a widget to display a set
5448 of hierarchical data as an outline. For example, the tree-widget is
5449 well suited to display a hierarchy of directories and files.
5452 ** The new library bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
5453 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
5457 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
5458 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
5460 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
5461 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
5462 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
5465 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
5466 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
5469 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
5470 (function (lambda ()
5472 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
5473 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
5474 (function (lambda ()
5475 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
5478 ** The new library benchmark.el does timing measurements on Lisp code.
5480 This includes measuring garbage collection time.
5483 ** The new library testcover.el does test coverage checking.
5485 This is so you can tell whether you've tested all paths in your Lisp
5486 code. It works with edebug.
5488 The function `testcover-start' instruments all functions in a given
5489 file. Then test your code. The function `testcover-mark-all' adds
5490 overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to show where coverage
5491 is lacking. The command `testcover-next-mark' (bind it to a key!)
5492 will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
5494 Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely
5495 evaluated; a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same
5496 value. The red splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly
5497 complete their evaluation, such as `error'. The brown splotches are
5498 skipped for forms that are expected to always evaluate to the same
5499 value, such as (setq x 14).
5501 For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to
5502 help out the test coverage tool. The macro `noreturn' suppresses a
5503 red splotch. It is an error if the argument to `noreturn' does
5504 return. The macro `1value' suppresses a brown splotch for its argument.
5505 This macro is a no-op except during test-coverage -- then it signals
5506 an error if the argument actually returns differing values.
5508 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
5510 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
5514 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
5516 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
5519 ** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
5522 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
5525 ** Translation tables are available between equivalent characters in
5526 different Emacs charsets -- for instance `e with acute' coming from the
5527 Latin-1 and Latin-2 charsets. User options `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode'
5528 and `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' respectively turn on translation
5529 between ISO 8859 character sets (`unification') on encoding
5530 (e.g. writing a file) and decoding (e.g. reading a file). Note that
5531 `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is useful and safe, but
5532 `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' can cause text to change when you read
5533 it and write it out again without edits, so it is not generally advisable.
5534 By default `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is turned on.
5536 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
5537 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
5539 If you want the old behavior, set selection-coding-system to
5540 compound-text, which may be significantly more efficient. Using
5541 compound-text-with-extensions seems to be necessary only for decoding
5542 text from applications under XFree86 4.2, whose behavior is actually
5543 contrary to the compound text specification.
5546 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
5548 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
5550 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
5553 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
5555 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
5557 X applications can use `extended segments' to encode characters in
5558 compound text that belong to character sets which are not part of the
5559 list of approved standard encodings for X, e.g. Big5. To paste
5560 selections with such characters into Emacs, use the new coding system
5561 compound-text-with-extensions as the value of selection-coding-system.
5563 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
5566 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
5567 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
5569 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
5570 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
5571 instead of using default-major-mode.
5573 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
5574 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
5575 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
5576 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
5577 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
5578 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
5579 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
5581 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
5585 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
5587 ** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
5588 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
5589 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
5591 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
5592 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
5595 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
5597 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
5598 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
5599 charsets in this release.
5601 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
5603 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
5605 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
5606 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
5609 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
5610 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
5611 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
5612 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
5613 necessary changes to unexec.
5615 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
5616 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
5618 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
5619 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
5621 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
5622 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
5624 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
5625 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
5626 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
5627 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
5628 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
5630 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
5631 new display features described below.
5634 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
5636 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
5638 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
5639 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
5640 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
5641 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
5644 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
5646 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
5647 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
5648 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
5649 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
5652 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
5653 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
5654 under Lisp changes, below.
5656 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
5658 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
5659 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
5660 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
5661 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
5662 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
5663 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
5666 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
5667 supported on character terminals.
5669 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
5670 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
5671 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
5672 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
5674 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
5678 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
5679 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
5680 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
5681 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
5684 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
5686 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
5687 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
5688 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
5689 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
5691 - User option: max-mini-window-height
5693 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
5694 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
5695 specifies a number of lines.
5699 - User option: resize-mini-windows
5701 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
5702 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
5703 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
5706 Default is `grow-only'.
5710 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
5711 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
5713 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
5715 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
5716 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
5719 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
5721 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
5722 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
5723 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
5725 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
5727 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
5728 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
5729 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
5730 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
5731 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
5734 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
5735 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
5736 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
5737 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
5738 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
5739 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
5741 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
5742 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
5743 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
5744 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
5745 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
5746 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
5748 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
5749 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
5750 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
5751 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
5752 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
5754 ** Tool bar support.
5756 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
5757 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
5758 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
5759 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
5760 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
5763 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
5764 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
5768 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
5769 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
5770 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
5772 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
5773 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
5774 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
5775 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
5777 ** Automatic Hscrolling
5779 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
5780 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
5783 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
5784 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
5785 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
5786 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
5787 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
5789 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
5790 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
5791 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
5792 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
5793 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
5794 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
5796 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
5797 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
5798 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
5799 customizing face `fringe'.
5801 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
5802 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
5803 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
5804 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
5805 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
5806 the window to be partially obscured.)
5808 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
5809 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
5810 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
5811 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
5813 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
5815 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
5816 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
5817 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
5818 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
5819 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
5822 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
5824 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
5826 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
5828 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
5829 `*') toggles the status.
5831 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
5833 ** Hourglass pointer
5835 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
5836 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
5840 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
5841 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
5842 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
5845 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
5847 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
5848 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
5849 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
5852 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
5853 have to do anything to activate it.
5855 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
5857 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
5858 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
5860 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
5861 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
5862 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
5863 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
5864 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
5865 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
5866 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
5867 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
5869 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
5870 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
5871 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
5872 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
5873 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
5874 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
5876 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
5877 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
5879 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
5880 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
5883 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
5884 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
5885 beginning and end of the buffer.
5887 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
5888 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
5891 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
5892 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
5894 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
5895 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
5898 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
5899 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
5902 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
5904 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
5905 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
5906 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
5908 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
5909 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
5910 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
5912 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
5915 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
5917 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
5918 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
5919 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
5920 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
5921 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
5924 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
5925 all frames except the selected one.
5927 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
5928 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
5930 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
5931 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
5932 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
5933 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
5934 `Info-use-header-line'.
5936 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
5937 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
5938 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
5940 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
5942 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
5943 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
5946 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
5947 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
5948 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
5949 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
5951 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
5953 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
5954 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
5955 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
5956 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
5958 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
5959 point in a pop-up window.
5961 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
5962 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
5963 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
5965 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
5966 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
5968 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
5969 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
5970 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
5971 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
5973 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
5975 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
5976 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
5978 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
5979 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
5980 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
5982 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
5983 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
5986 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
5987 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
5988 file that is already visited under a different name.
5990 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
5991 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
5993 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
5994 and displays information about that.
5996 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
5997 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
5999 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
6000 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
6001 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
6002 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
6003 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
6004 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
6006 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
6007 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
6009 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
6010 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
6011 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
6012 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
6013 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
6014 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
6015 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
6017 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
6018 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
6020 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
6021 system for keyboard input.
6023 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
6024 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
6025 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
6026 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
6027 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
6028 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
6029 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
6030 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
6031 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
6033 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
6034 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
6036 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
6037 displays all characters in that character set.
6039 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
6040 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
6042 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
6043 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
6044 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
6046 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
6047 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
6048 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
6049 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
6050 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
6051 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
6054 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
6055 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
6058 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
6059 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
6060 Lisp Coding Convention".
6062 new command old-binding
6063 --- ------- -----------
6064 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
6065 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
6066 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
6068 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
6069 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
6070 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
6072 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
6073 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
6074 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
6075 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
6076 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
6077 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
6079 ** There are new Leim input methods.
6080 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
6081 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
6084 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
6085 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
6086 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
6087 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
6088 "`", you must type "=q".
6090 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
6091 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
6092 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
6093 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
6094 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
6097 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
6098 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
6099 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
6100 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
6102 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
6103 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
6104 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
6105 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
6107 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
6108 on the display using several methods
6110 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
6111 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
6112 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
6114 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
6115 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
6117 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
6119 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
6120 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
6122 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
6123 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
6124 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
6125 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
6127 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
6128 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
6129 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
6131 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
6132 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
6134 ** New X resources recognized
6136 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
6137 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
6138 is useful for debugging X problems.
6142 emacs.synchronous: true
6144 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
6145 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
6146 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
6147 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
6148 visual class names are
6157 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
6158 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
6161 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
6162 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
6163 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
6168 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
6170 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
6171 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
6172 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
6173 resource values are `true' or `on'.
6177 emacs.privateColormap: true
6179 ** Faces and frame parameters.
6181 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
6182 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
6183 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
6184 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
6185 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
6186 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
6187 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
6189 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
6190 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
6191 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
6192 `default' face and vice versa.
6196 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
6198 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
6200 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
6201 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
6202 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
6203 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
6205 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
6206 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
6207 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
6209 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
6212 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
6214 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
6215 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
6216 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
6217 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
6219 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
6221 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
6223 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
6225 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
6228 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
6231 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
6233 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
6234 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
6235 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
6237 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
6238 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
6240 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
6241 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
6242 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
6244 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
6246 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
6247 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
6248 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
6249 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
6251 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
6252 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
6253 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
6254 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
6256 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
6257 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
6258 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
6261 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
6263 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
6264 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
6265 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
6267 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
6268 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
6269 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
6270 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
6271 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
6272 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
6274 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
6276 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
6277 notably at the end of lines.
6279 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
6280 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
6282 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
6284 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
6285 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
6287 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
6288 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
6289 after each match to get the replacement text.
6291 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
6292 you edit the replacement string.
6294 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
6295 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
6296 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
6298 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
6300 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
6301 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
6303 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
6304 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
6305 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
6306 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
6309 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
6310 read mail from the menu etc.
6312 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
6313 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
6314 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
6315 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
6317 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
6318 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
6320 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
6321 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
6322 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
6323 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
6324 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
6327 ** Customize changes
6329 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
6330 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
6331 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
6332 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
6333 earlier versions of Emacs.
6335 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
6336 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
6339 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
6340 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
6341 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
6342 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
6345 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
6346 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
6347 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
6348 already in your init file.
6350 ** New features in evaluation commands
6352 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
6353 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
6354 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
6355 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
6356 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
6358 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
6359 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
6360 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
6361 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
6364 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
6365 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
6367 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
6368 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
6370 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
6371 code when called with a prefix argument.
6375 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
6376 current user setups (although it's believed that these
6377 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
6378 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
6379 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
6380 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
6383 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
6384 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
6385 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
6388 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
6389 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
6390 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
6391 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
6393 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
6394 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
6396 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
6397 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
6399 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
6400 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
6401 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
6402 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
6404 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
6405 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
6406 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
6407 earlier statement. An example:
6409 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
6411 res += a[i]->offset;
6414 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
6415 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
6416 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
6417 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
6420 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
6423 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
6424 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
6425 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
6426 documentation or other natural language text.
6428 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
6429 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
6430 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
6431 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
6432 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
6433 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
6434 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
6436 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
6437 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
6438 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
6439 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
6441 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
6442 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
6443 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
6444 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
6447 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
6448 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
6449 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
6450 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
6451 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
6452 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
6453 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
6454 is reported afterwards.
6456 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
6457 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
6458 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
6460 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
6461 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
6462 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
6463 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
6464 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
6465 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
6468 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
6469 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
6470 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
6471 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
6472 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
6475 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
6476 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
6477 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
6478 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
6479 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
6480 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
6482 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
6483 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
6484 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
6485 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
6486 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
6487 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
6488 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
6489 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
6491 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
6492 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
6493 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
6494 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
6497 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
6498 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
6499 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
6500 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
6501 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
6502 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
6503 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
6504 function documentation for more info.
6506 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
6507 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
6508 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
6509 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
6510 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
6511 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
6512 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
6513 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
6515 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
6517 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
6518 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
6520 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
6521 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
6522 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
6523 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
6524 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
6527 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
6528 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
6529 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
6532 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
6533 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
6534 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
6535 chapter about this in the manual.
6537 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
6538 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
6539 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
6540 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
6541 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
6543 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
6544 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
6545 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
6547 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
6548 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
6550 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
6551 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
6552 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
6555 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
6556 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
6557 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
6558 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
6561 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
6562 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
6563 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
6564 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
6565 they were before the filling.
6567 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
6568 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
6569 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
6572 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
6573 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
6574 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
6575 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
6578 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
6579 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
6580 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
6581 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
6582 Thanks to Eric Eide.
6584 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
6585 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
6586 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
6588 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
6590 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
6591 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
6592 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
6593 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
6595 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
6596 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
6597 the column specified by comment-column.
6599 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
6600 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
6601 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
6602 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
6603 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
6604 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
6606 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
6607 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
6610 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
6612 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
6613 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
6614 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
6615 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
6618 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
6622 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
6623 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
6624 is, delete only empty directories.
6626 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
6627 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
6628 copy directories recursively.
6630 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
6631 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
6632 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
6634 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
6635 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
6638 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
6639 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
6640 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
6641 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
6642 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
6644 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
6647 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
6648 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
6649 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
6650 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
6654 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
6655 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
6656 internationalization and mail-fetching.
6658 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
6659 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
6661 If you used procmail like in
6663 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
6664 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
6665 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
6666 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
6668 this now has changed to
6671 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
6674 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
6675 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
6677 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
6678 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
6679 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
6680 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
6682 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
6683 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
6684 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
6686 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
6687 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
6688 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
6689 now just a compatibility layer.
6691 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
6694 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
6695 called to position point.
6697 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
6698 summary buffers and NOV files.
6700 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
6701 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
6703 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
6704 subtly different manner.
6706 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
6707 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
6708 ever-changing layouts.
6710 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
6712 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
6714 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
6716 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
6720 -------------------------
6724 C-c C-c q @quotation
6726 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
6729 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
6731 ** Changes in Outline mode.
6733 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
6734 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
6735 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
6737 ** Changes to Emacs Server
6739 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
6740 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
6741 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
6742 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
6743 buffers to kill, as before.
6745 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
6746 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
6749 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
6750 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
6752 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
6754 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
6755 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
6756 use. Default is 1000.
6758 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
6759 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
6761 ** Changes to hideshow.el
6763 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
6765 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
6766 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
6767 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
6768 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
6770 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
6771 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
6772 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
6775 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
6776 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
6777 the normal block-hiding function.
6779 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
6781 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
6782 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
6783 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
6784 for `hs-minor-mode'.
6786 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
6787 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
6789 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
6791 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
6792 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
6793 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
6795 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
6798 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
6801 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
6802 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
6803 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
6804 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
6805 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
6806 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
6808 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
6810 ** Changes to cmuscheme
6812 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
6813 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
6815 ** Changes in Font Lock
6817 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
6818 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
6820 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
6821 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
6823 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
6824 the face used for each string/comment.
6826 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
6827 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
6829 ** Changes to Shell mode
6831 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
6832 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
6833 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
6834 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
6836 ** Comint (subshell) changes
6838 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
6839 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
6841 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
6842 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
6843 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
6844 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
6845 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
6846 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
6848 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
6849 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
6850 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
6851 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
6852 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
6853 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
6854 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
6855 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
6857 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
6858 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
6860 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
6861 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
6862 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
6864 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
6865 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
6866 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
6868 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
6869 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
6870 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
6872 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
6873 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
6874 argument, it appends to the file.
6876 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
6877 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
6880 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
6883 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
6884 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
6885 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
6887 ** Changes to Rmail mode
6889 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
6890 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
6891 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
6892 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
6893 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
6896 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
6897 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
6898 regexp matching your mail addresses.
6900 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
6901 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
6902 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
6903 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
6904 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
6906 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
6909 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
6910 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
6913 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
6914 in which folder to put messages automatically.
6916 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
6917 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
6918 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
6920 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
6921 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
6923 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
6924 use the -f option when sending mail.
6926 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
6927 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
6928 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
6929 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
6930 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
6931 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
6933 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
6934 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
6935 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
6937 ** Changes to TeX mode
6939 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
6942 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
6944 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
6946 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
6948 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6950 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
6951 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
6952 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
6953 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
6954 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
6955 can be edited from that buffer.
6957 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
6958 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
6959 `A' to use all marked entries).
6961 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
6962 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
6964 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
6965 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
6966 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
6969 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
6970 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
6971 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
6972 in column 1 are always made leaves.
6974 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
6975 has the following new features:
6977 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
6978 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
6979 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
6980 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
6982 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
6983 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
6984 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
6985 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
6986 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
6989 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
6994 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
6995 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
6996 spell-checks the current buffer.
6998 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
7001 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
7002 correction is made and re-checked.
7004 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
7006 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
7009 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
7012 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
7015 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
7017 ** Makefile mode changes
7019 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
7021 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
7022 Fontlock mode is active.
7026 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
7027 so that searches can be resumed.
7029 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
7030 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
7031 that started the search.
7033 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
7034 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
7036 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
7038 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
7039 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
7040 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
7041 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
7042 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
7043 `secondary-selection'.
7045 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
7046 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
7047 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
7048 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
7049 usual snappy response.
7051 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
7052 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
7053 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
7054 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
7058 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
7059 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
7060 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
7061 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
7062 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
7063 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
7064 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
7065 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
7066 file is registered in that backend.
7068 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
7069 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
7070 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
7071 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
7072 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
7073 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
7075 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
7076 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
7077 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
7078 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
7079 where it doesn't make sense.)
7081 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
7082 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
7083 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
7087 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
7088 checks are always done now.
7090 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
7093 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
7094 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
7095 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
7097 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
7098 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
7099 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
7100 the working file (``merge news'').
7102 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
7103 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
7106 *** Multiple Backends
7108 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
7109 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
7110 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
7111 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
7114 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
7115 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
7116 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
7117 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
7119 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
7120 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
7121 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
7122 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
7123 current revision number from the more remote backend.
7125 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
7126 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
7127 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
7128 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
7130 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
7131 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
7132 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
7133 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
7137 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
7138 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
7139 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
7140 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
7141 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
7142 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
7143 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
7145 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
7146 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
7147 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
7148 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
7149 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
7150 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
7151 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
7152 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
7153 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
7154 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
7155 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
7158 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
7159 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
7160 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
7161 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
7162 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
7163 entire directory tree.
7165 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
7166 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
7167 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
7168 "watched" by other developers.)
7170 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
7171 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
7172 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
7173 starting at the given directory.
7175 *** Lisp Changes in VC
7177 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
7178 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
7179 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
7180 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
7181 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
7182 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
7183 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
7184 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
7185 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
7187 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
7188 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
7189 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
7190 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
7192 ** New modes and packages
7194 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
7195 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
7196 the default is not applicable.
7198 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
7199 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
7200 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
7204 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
7205 drawn, like this: | \ /
7209 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
7210 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
7211 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
7212 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
7213 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
7216 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
7217 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
7219 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
7222 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
7223 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
7224 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
7225 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
7227 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
7228 also do without the mouse.
7230 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
7231 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
7232 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
7233 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
7234 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
7236 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
7238 lines straight-lines
7240 poly-lines straight poly-lines
7242 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
7243 spray-can setting size for spraying
7244 vaporize line vaporize lines
7245 erase characters erase rectangles
7247 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
7248 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
7249 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
7252 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
7253 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
7254 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
7255 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
7257 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
7260 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
7261 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
7262 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
7263 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
7264 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
7265 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
7266 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
7267 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
7268 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
7270 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
7271 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
7272 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
7273 on certain projects.
7275 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
7276 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
7278 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
7280 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
7281 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
7282 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
7283 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
7284 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
7285 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
7286 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
7287 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
7289 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
7292 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
7293 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
7295 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
7296 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
7298 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
7299 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
7300 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
7301 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
7302 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
7304 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
7305 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
7306 separate Texinfo file.
7308 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
7309 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
7310 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
7311 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
7312 enter check-in log messages.
7314 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
7315 without invoking external programs.
7317 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
7318 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
7319 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
7320 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
7321 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
7323 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
7324 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
7326 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
7327 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
7329 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
7330 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
7331 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
7332 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
7333 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
7336 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
7337 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
7338 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
7339 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
7341 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
7342 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
7343 actually modifying content of a buffer.
7345 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
7348 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
7350 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
7352 ; comment (until end of line)
7356 $A default non-terminal
7357 $"C" default terminal
7358 $?C? default special
7359 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
7360 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
7361 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
7362 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
7363 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
7364 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
7365 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
7366 C+ one or more occurrences of C
7367 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
7368 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
7369 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
7370 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
7371 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
7372 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
7373 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
7375 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
7377 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
7378 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
7379 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
7380 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
7381 equal signs of assignments.
7383 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
7384 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
7386 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
7387 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
7388 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
7390 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
7392 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
7393 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
7394 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
7395 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
7396 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
7397 which answers different needs.
7399 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
7400 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
7401 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
7402 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
7403 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
7406 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
7407 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
7409 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
7411 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
7412 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
7413 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
7415 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
7417 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
7418 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
7419 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
7420 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
7421 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
7422 and background colors.
7424 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
7427 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
7430 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
7432 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
7434 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
7435 whitespace in a file.
7437 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
7438 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
7439 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
7440 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
7441 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
7442 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
7443 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
7445 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
7447 Here is an example of columns:
7450 dog pineapple car EXTRA
7451 porcupine strawberry airplane
7453 Doing the following settings:
7455 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
7456 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
7457 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
7458 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
7461 Selecting the lines above and typing:
7463 M-x delimit-columns-region
7467 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
7468 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
7469 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
7471 delim-col has the following options:
7473 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
7476 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
7477 between each column.
7479 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
7482 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
7485 delim-col has the following commands:
7487 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
7488 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
7490 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
7491 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
7492 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
7493 recent file list can be displayed:
7495 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
7496 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
7497 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
7499 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
7500 dynamically change the menu appearance.
7502 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
7505 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
7506 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
7507 specific to Message mode.
7509 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
7510 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
7511 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
7513 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
7514 interface to access directory servers using different directory
7515 protocols. It has a separate manual.
7517 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
7518 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
7520 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
7522 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
7523 minibuffer with completion.
7525 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
7526 with the diary features.
7528 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
7529 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
7531 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
7534 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
7535 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
7536 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
7537 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
7539 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
7540 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
7543 ** Changes in sort.el
7545 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
7546 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
7547 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
7550 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
7552 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
7553 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
7554 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
7556 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
7557 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
7559 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
7560 output ^M at the end of lines.
7562 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
7563 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
7565 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
7566 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
7569 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
7572 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
7573 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
7576 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
7577 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
7578 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
7579 nil -- just delete one character.
7581 Default value is `untabify'.
7583 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
7585 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
7586 symbol, not double-quoted.
7588 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
7589 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
7590 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
7591 moved to lisp/obsolete.
7593 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
7594 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
7595 `auto-compression-mode' command.
7597 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
7598 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
7599 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
7601 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
7602 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
7604 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
7605 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
7607 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
7608 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
7610 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
7611 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
7612 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
7613 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
7614 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
7615 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
7617 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
7618 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
7620 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
7622 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
7623 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
7625 ** Shell script mode changes.
7627 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
7628 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
7629 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
7633 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
7635 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
7636 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
7637 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
7638 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
7639 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
7641 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
7642 declarations when given the --declarations option.
7644 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
7645 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
7647 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
7648 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
7649 `template' keywords.
7651 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
7652 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
7654 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
7657 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
7659 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
7661 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
7664 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
7666 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
7667 variables are tagged.
7669 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
7671 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
7674 ** Changes in etags.el
7676 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
7677 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
7678 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
7680 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
7681 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
7683 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
7684 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
7685 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
7686 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
7688 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
7690 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
7691 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
7693 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
7695 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
7696 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
7697 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
7699 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
7700 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
7702 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
7703 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
7705 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
7706 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
7707 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
7708 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
7709 point will go to the beginning of the file.
7711 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
7712 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
7713 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
7715 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
7716 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
7717 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
7719 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
7720 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
7721 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
7723 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
7725 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
7727 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
7728 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
7729 expression from that list, are not checked.
7731 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
7732 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
7733 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
7734 the buffer, just like for the local files.
7736 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
7738 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
7739 displays local abbrevs, only.
7741 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
7742 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
7744 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
7745 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
7746 is measured in pixels.
7748 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
7749 to be visited as images.
7751 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
7752 were added to compile.el.
7754 ** Withdrawn packages
7756 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
7757 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
7759 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
7761 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
7764 * Incompatible Lisp changes
7766 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
7767 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
7768 See the sections below for details.
7770 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
7771 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
7772 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
7773 to remove the properties of the copy.
7775 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
7776 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
7777 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
7778 these properties are active.
7780 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
7781 ranges may affect some code.
7783 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
7784 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
7785 make a difference to some code.
7787 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
7788 operates on the minibuffer.
7790 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
7791 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
7792 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
7793 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
7794 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
7795 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
7796 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
7797 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
7798 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
7799 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
7800 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
7801 the buffer as multibyte characters.
7803 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
7804 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
7805 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
7807 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
7808 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
7809 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
7811 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
7812 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
7813 such as `mapconcat'.
7815 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
7818 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
7819 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
7820 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
7821 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
7822 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
7823 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
7824 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
7825 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
7827 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
7828 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
7829 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
7830 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
7831 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
7832 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
7833 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
7834 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
7835 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
7836 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
7839 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
7840 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
7842 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
7844 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
7845 allows the animated display of strings.
7847 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
7848 interactive form of a function.
7850 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
7851 between custom options. Example:
7853 (defcustom default-input-method nil
7854 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
7855 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
7856 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
7858 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
7859 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
7861 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
7862 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
7863 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
7865 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
7866 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
7867 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
7868 (signal or normal termination).
7870 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
7871 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
7873 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
7874 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
7876 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
7877 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
7879 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
7881 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
7882 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
7885 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
7887 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
7888 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
7889 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
7890 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
7891 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
7894 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
7895 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
7898 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
7899 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
7901 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
7902 with the more general `:mask' property.
7904 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
7906 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
7909 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
7910 is running in batch mode. For example,
7912 (message "%s" (read t))
7914 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
7917 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
7918 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
7920 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
7921 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
7924 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
7927 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
7929 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
7930 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
7932 - Function: remq ELT LIST
7934 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
7935 comparison is done with `eq'.
7937 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
7939 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
7940 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
7941 `key-and-value', in addition to `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
7943 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
7944 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
7945 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
7947 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
7948 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
7950 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
7951 function was declared obsolete.
7953 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
7954 retained as an alias).
7956 ** Easy-menu's :filter now takes the unconverted form of the menu and
7957 the result is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
7959 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
7961 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
7963 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
7964 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
7965 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
7966 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
7967 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
7968 means never include the minibuffer window.
7970 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
7972 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
7974 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
7976 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
7977 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
7978 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
7979 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
7982 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
7983 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
7984 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
7985 minibuffer even if it is active.
7987 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
7988 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
7989 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
7990 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
7991 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
7992 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
7994 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
7995 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
7996 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
7997 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
7998 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
7999 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
8000 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
8002 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
8003 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
8004 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
8006 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
8007 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
8008 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
8009 Default value is nil.
8011 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
8014 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
8015 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
8016 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
8018 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
8019 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
8020 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
8022 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
8023 list of a primitive.
8025 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
8027 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
8028 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
8029 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
8030 than replacing the local map.
8032 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
8033 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
8034 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
8037 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
8039 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
8040 as promised long ago.
8042 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
8044 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
8045 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
8046 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
8049 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
8051 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
8052 regular expressions.
8054 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
8056 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
8060 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
8062 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
8066 matches string STRING literally.
8069 matches character CHAR literally.
8072 matches any character except a newline.
8075 matches any character
8078 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
8079 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
8085 matches any character not in SET
8088 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
8089 in the text being matched
8092 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
8095 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
8096 string being matched against.
8099 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
8100 string being matched against.
8103 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
8104 buffer being matched against.
8107 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
8108 buffer being matched against.
8111 matches the empty string, but only at point.
8114 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
8118 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
8121 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
8124 `(not word-boundary)'
8125 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
8129 matches 0 through 9.
8132 matches ASCII control characters.
8135 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
8138 matches space and tab only.
8141 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
8145 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
8149 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8150 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
8153 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8154 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
8157 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
8160 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
8163 matches anything lower-case.
8166 matches anything upper-case.
8169 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8170 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
8173 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
8176 matches anything that has word syntax.
8179 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
8180 of the following symbols.
8182 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
8183 `punctuation' (\\s.)
8186 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
8187 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
8188 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
8189 `string-quote' (\\s\")
8190 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
8192 `character-quote' (\\s/)
8193 `comment-start' (\\s<)
8194 `comment-end' (\\s>)
8196 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
8197 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
8199 `(category CATEGORY)'
8200 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
8201 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
8203 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
8205 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
8206 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
8210 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
8212 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
8213 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
8214 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
8215 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
8216 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
8217 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
8218 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
8219 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
8220 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
8221 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
8222 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
8231 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
8235 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
8242 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
8243 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
8245 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
8246 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
8248 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
8249 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
8250 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
8252 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
8253 another name for `submatch'.
8255 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
8256 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
8257 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
8260 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
8261 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
8262 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
8263 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
8264 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
8266 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
8267 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
8269 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
8270 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
8273 like `zero-or-more'.
8276 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
8279 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
8281 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
8282 matches one or more occurrences of A.
8288 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
8291 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
8293 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
8294 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
8300 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
8303 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
8306 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
8309 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
8312 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
8316 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
8318 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
8320 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
8321 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
8322 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
8323 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
8325 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
8326 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
8327 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
8328 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
8330 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
8331 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
8332 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
8334 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
8335 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
8336 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
8337 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
8338 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
8339 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
8340 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
8343 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
8345 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
8346 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
8347 character set as previously.
8349 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
8350 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
8351 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
8353 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
8354 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
8355 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
8356 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
8358 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
8359 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
8361 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
8362 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
8365 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
8366 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
8368 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
8369 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
8370 buffers and strings.
8372 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
8373 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
8374 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
8375 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
8376 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
8377 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
8378 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
8381 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
8382 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
8383 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
8385 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
8386 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
8387 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
8388 may differ between buffer and string text.
8390 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
8391 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
8393 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
8394 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
8395 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
8396 `composition' from STRING.
8398 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
8399 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
8401 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
8404 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
8405 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
8407 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
8408 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
8409 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
8410 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
8412 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
8413 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
8414 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
8415 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
8416 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
8417 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
8419 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
8420 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
8421 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
8423 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
8424 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
8425 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
8427 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
8428 have been introduced.
8430 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
8431 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
8432 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
8433 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
8434 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
8435 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
8436 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
8437 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
8438 their multibyte equivalent.
8440 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
8441 that offset in the file before writing.
8443 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
8444 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
8446 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
8447 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
8448 from which the command was issued.
8450 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
8451 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
8452 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
8453 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
8456 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
8457 to `window-buffer-height'.
8459 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
8461 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
8462 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
8463 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
8465 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
8468 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
8469 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
8471 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
8472 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
8473 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
8475 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
8476 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
8477 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
8478 is currently displayed in some window.
8480 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
8481 argument function's results.
8483 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
8484 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
8485 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
8486 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
8489 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
8490 header in the list of headers passed to it.
8492 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
8493 ignores differences in case and text representation.
8495 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
8496 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
8499 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
8500 nil don't display a cursor
8501 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
8502 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
8503 others display a box cursor.
8505 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
8506 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
8507 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
8508 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
8510 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
8511 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
8512 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
8513 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
8517 (string-to-syntax "()")
8520 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
8523 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
8524 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
8531 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
8536 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
8541 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
8548 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
8549 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
8552 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
8553 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
8554 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
8555 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
8557 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
8559 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
8560 for a regexp in a string.
8562 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
8563 `mouse-position-function'.
8565 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
8566 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
8568 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
8569 Keywords are now always considered constants.
8571 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
8574 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
8575 returned by function `recent-keys'.
8577 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
8578 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
8579 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
8580 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
8583 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
8584 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
8586 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
8587 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
8588 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
8589 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
8592 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
8593 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
8594 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
8595 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
8597 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
8598 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
8599 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
8601 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
8602 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
8605 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
8607 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
8608 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
8609 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
8612 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
8613 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
8614 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
8615 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
8616 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
8618 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
8619 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
8621 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
8622 instead of being optional.
8624 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
8625 modify read-only text.
8627 ** New functions and variables for locales.
8629 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
8630 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
8631 time functions like strftime. The new variables
8632 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
8633 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
8635 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
8636 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
8637 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
8638 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
8639 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
8640 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
8641 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
8643 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
8644 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
8645 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
8648 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
8649 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
8651 ** New function `propertize'
8653 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
8654 strings with text properties.
8656 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
8658 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
8659 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
8660 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
8661 specified value of that property. Example:
8663 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
8665 ** push and pop macros.
8667 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
8668 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
8669 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
8671 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
8672 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
8673 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
8675 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
8677 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
8678 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
8680 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
8681 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
8682 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
8683 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
8685 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
8686 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
8687 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
8688 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
8690 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
8691 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
8692 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
8695 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
8696 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
8697 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
8698 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
8699 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
8701 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
8703 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
8704 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8705 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
8706 [:alpha:] matches letters.
8707 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8708 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
8709 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
8710 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
8711 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
8712 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
8713 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8714 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
8715 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
8716 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
8717 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
8719 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
8721 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
8723 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
8725 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
8726 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
8730 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
8731 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
8732 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
8736 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
8737 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
8739 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
8741 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
8742 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
8743 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
8744 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
8745 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
8747 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
8749 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
8750 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
8751 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
8755 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
8756 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
8757 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
8758 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
8759 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
8761 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
8763 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
8765 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
8767 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
8769 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
8771 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
8774 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
8776 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
8778 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
8780 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
8782 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
8784 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
8786 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
8788 Returns the size of TABLE.
8790 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
8792 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
8794 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
8796 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
8798 - Function: clrhash TABLE
8802 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
8804 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
8807 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
8809 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
8810 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
8812 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
8814 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
8816 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
8818 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
8819 arguments KEY and VALUE.
8821 - Function: sxhash OBJ
8823 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
8825 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
8827 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
8828 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
8829 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
8830 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
8831 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
8833 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
8835 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
8836 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
8837 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
8839 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
8840 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
8842 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
8843 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
8845 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
8846 (sxhash (upcase a)))
8848 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
8849 'case-fold-string-hash))
8851 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
8853 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
8855 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
8856 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
8857 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
8859 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
8861 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
8862 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
8864 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
8865 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
8866 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
8867 is too short to reach that column.
8869 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
8870 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
8871 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
8872 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
8874 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
8875 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
8876 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
8878 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
8879 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
8881 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
8882 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
8884 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
8885 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
8886 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
8887 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
8888 temporary-file-directory instead.
8890 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
8891 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
8892 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
8893 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
8895 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
8896 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
8898 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
8900 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
8901 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
8902 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
8904 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
8906 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
8907 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
8908 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
8909 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
8910 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
8911 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
8913 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
8914 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
8915 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
8916 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
8918 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
8920 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
8921 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
8922 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
8925 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
8926 string where arguments appear in the result string.
8930 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
8932 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
8933 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
8936 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
8938 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
8940 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
8941 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
8944 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
8946 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
8947 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
8952 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
8953 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
8955 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
8956 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
8957 to enable sound support.
8959 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
8960 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
8961 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
8962 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
8963 sound to play, before playing the sound.
8965 The following sound properties are supported:
8969 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
8970 searched relative to `data-directory'.
8974 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
8975 may be present, but not both.
8979 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
8980 0..1. This property is optional.
8984 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
8985 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
8987 Other properties are ignored.
8989 An alternative interface is called as
8990 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
8992 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
8994 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
8997 ** Changes to garbage collection
8999 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
9000 of live and free strings.
9002 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
9003 strings that have been consed so far.
9006 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
9009 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
9012 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
9013 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
9014 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
9016 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
9018 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
9020 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
9023 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
9025 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
9027 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
9028 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
9029 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
9030 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
9031 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
9033 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
9036 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
9038 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
9039 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
9040 or omitted means use the selected frame.
9042 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
9043 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
9045 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
9048 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
9052 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
9054 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
9055 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
9057 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
9058 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
9059 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
9060 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
9061 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
9062 just display it black instead.
9064 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
9067 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
9071 ** New face implementation.
9073 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
9074 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
9078 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
9080 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
9082 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
9083 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
9085 3. Font height in 1/10pt
9087 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
9089 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
9091 6. Foreground color.
9093 7. Background color.
9095 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
9097 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
9099 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
9101 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
9103 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
9106 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
9107 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
9109 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
9110 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
9111 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
9112 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
9113 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
9114 attributes mentioned above.
9116 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
9117 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
9120 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
9121 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
9126 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
9127 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
9128 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
9129 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
9130 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
9131 results in a fully-specified face.
9133 *** Face realization.
9135 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
9136 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
9137 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
9138 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
9139 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
9140 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
9142 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
9143 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
9144 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
9145 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
9147 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
9148 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
9149 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
9150 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
9151 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
9153 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
9154 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
9155 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
9156 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
9157 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
9160 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
9161 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
9162 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
9163 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
9165 **** Clearing face caches.
9167 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
9168 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
9173 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
9174 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
9175 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
9177 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
9178 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
9179 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
9180 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
9181 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
9183 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
9184 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
9185 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
9187 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
9189 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
9190 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
9191 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
9192 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
9193 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
9194 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
9195 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
9197 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
9198 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
9201 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
9202 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
9205 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
9208 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
9213 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
9214 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
9217 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
9218 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
9219 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
9220 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
9221 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
9224 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
9226 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
9228 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
9230 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
9232 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
9233 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
9234 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
9236 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
9237 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
9238 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
9239 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
9240 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
9241 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
9242 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
9243 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
9244 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
9245 of the face font sort order.
9247 - Function: x-font-family-list
9249 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
9250 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
9251 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
9252 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
9254 - Variable: font-list-limit
9256 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
9257 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
9258 matching font. The default is currently 100.
9260 *** Setting face attributes.
9262 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
9263 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
9264 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
9267 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
9268 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
9270 The following attributes are recognized:
9274 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
9275 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
9276 and `?' are allowed.
9280 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
9281 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
9282 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
9283 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
9287 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
9288 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
9289 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
9290 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
9294 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
9295 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
9296 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
9300 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
9301 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
9304 `:foreground', `:background'
9306 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
9310 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
9311 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
9312 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
9317 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
9318 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
9319 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
9324 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
9325 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
9326 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
9327 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
9331 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
9332 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
9333 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
9334 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
9335 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
9336 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
9337 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
9338 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
9339 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
9340 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
9341 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
9342 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
9343 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
9344 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
9345 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
9346 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
9351 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
9352 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
9356 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
9357 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
9358 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
9359 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
9360 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
9361 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
9363 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
9364 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
9368 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
9369 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
9370 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
9373 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
9374 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
9375 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
9377 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
9382 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
9383 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
9384 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
9386 *** Face attributes and X resources
9388 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
9391 Face attribute X resource class
9392 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
9393 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
9394 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
9395 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
9396 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
9397 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
9398 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
9399 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
9400 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
9401 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
9402 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
9403 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
9404 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
9405 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
9406 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
9407 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
9408 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
9409 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
9410 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
9411 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
9413 *** Text property `face'.
9415 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
9416 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
9417 specification can be
9419 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
9421 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
9422 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
9423 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
9424 for face attribute names.
9426 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
9427 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
9428 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
9430 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
9432 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
9433 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
9434 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
9435 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
9436 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
9437 used to clear the mapping table.
9439 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
9441 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
9442 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
9443 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
9444 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
9445 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
9446 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
9447 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
9448 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
9449 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
9450 modify their color-related behavior.
9452 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
9455 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
9457 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
9458 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
9459 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
9460 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
9461 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
9462 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
9463 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
9464 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
9465 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
9467 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
9468 display can display image files.
9470 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
9472 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
9473 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
9474 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
9475 `Inviolable' option.
9477 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
9478 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
9479 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
9481 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
9483 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
9484 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
9485 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
9487 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
9488 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
9489 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
9490 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
9491 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
9492 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
9493 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
9496 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
9497 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
9498 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
9500 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
9502 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
9504 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
9506 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9507 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
9508 constrained position if that is different.
9510 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
9511 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
9512 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
9513 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
9514 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
9515 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
9516 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
9517 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
9518 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
9520 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
9521 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
9522 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
9523 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
9524 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
9526 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
9527 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
9529 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
9531 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
9533 Delete the field surrounding POS.
9534 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9535 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9537 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
9539 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
9540 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9541 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9542 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
9543 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
9545 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
9547 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
9548 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9549 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9550 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
9551 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
9553 - Function: field-string &optional POS
9555 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
9556 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9557 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9559 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
9561 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
9562 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9563 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9567 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
9568 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
9569 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
9570 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
9572 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
9573 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
9574 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
9575 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
9578 IMAGE is an image specification.
9580 *** Image specifications
9582 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
9583 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
9584 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
9585 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
9586 described below are ignored.
9588 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
9592 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
9593 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
9594 to use for its ascent.
9596 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
9597 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
9599 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
9600 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
9601 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
9602 overlays that apply to the image.
9606 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
9607 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
9608 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
9612 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
9617 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
9619 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
9620 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
9622 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
9623 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
9624 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
9625 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
9626 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
9627 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
9628 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
9629 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
9632 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
9634 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
9636 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
9637 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
9638 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
9639 of the factors' absolute values.
9641 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
9647 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
9653 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
9658 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
9659 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
9660 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
9661 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
9662 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
9663 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
9664 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
9667 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
9668 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
9673 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
9674 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
9675 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
9676 may be present in the image specification.
9680 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
9681 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
9682 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
9683 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
9685 *** Supported image types
9687 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
9689 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
9690 properties supported are:
9694 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
9695 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
9699 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
9700 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
9702 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
9703 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
9704 instead of a `:file' property.
9708 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
9712 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
9718 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
9719 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
9721 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
9723 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
9726 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
9727 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
9730 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
9732 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
9733 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
9734 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
9735 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
9737 Additional image properties supported are:
9739 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
9741 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
9742 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
9745 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
9746 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
9748 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
9749 to display compressed images.
9751 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
9753 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
9754 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
9759 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
9760 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
9764 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
9765 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
9767 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
9769 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
9770 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
9773 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
9775 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
9776 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
9779 **** GIF, image type `gif'
9781 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
9782 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
9784 Additional image properties supported are:
9788 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
9789 multi-image GIF file. If INDEX is too large, the image displays
9792 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
9793 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
9794 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
9797 (defun show-anim (file max)
9798 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
9799 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
9801 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
9804 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
9807 (goto-char (point-min))
9808 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
9809 (insert-image img "x"))
9810 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
9812 **** PNG, image type `png'
9814 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
9815 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
9818 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
9820 Additional image properties supported are:
9824 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
9825 integer. This is a required property.
9829 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
9830 must be a integer. This is an required property.
9834 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
9835 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
9836 files. This is an required property.
9838 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
9843 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
9844 which are supported in the current configuration.
9846 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
9847 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
9848 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
9849 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
9850 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
9852 *** Simplified image API, image.el
9854 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
9855 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
9856 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
9857 define an image based on available image types. The functions
9858 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
9863 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
9866 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
9867 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
9868 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
9869 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
9870 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
9871 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
9872 of the display margins.
9874 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
9875 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
9876 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
9877 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
9882 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
9883 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
9884 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
9885 that have a `help-echo' property.
9887 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
9888 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
9889 the window in which the help was found.
9891 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
9892 `help-echo' text property was found.
9894 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
9895 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
9897 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
9898 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
9901 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
9902 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
9904 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
9905 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
9906 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
9907 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
9908 used as help string.
9910 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
9911 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
9912 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
9914 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
9916 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
9917 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
9919 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
9920 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
9921 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
9922 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
9925 (global-set-key [A-down]
9928 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
9929 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
9930 (global-set-key [A-up]
9933 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
9934 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
9936 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
9938 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
9939 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
9940 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
9941 is called with one argument, POS.
9943 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
9944 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
9945 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
9946 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
9947 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
9949 ** Tool bar support.
9951 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
9952 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
9953 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
9954 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
9955 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
9956 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
9958 *** Tool bar item definitions
9960 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
9961 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
9962 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
9964 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
9965 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
9966 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
9967 property (see below).
9969 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
9970 binding are currently ignored.
9972 The following properties are recognized:
9976 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
9981 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
9985 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
9986 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
9987 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
9989 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
9991 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
9992 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
9996 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
9997 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
9998 meaning of each of the four elements:
10000 Index Use when item is
10001 ----------------------------------------
10002 0 enabled and selected
10003 1 enabled and deselected
10004 2 disabled and selected
10005 3 disabled and deselected
10007 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
10008 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
10010 `:help HELP-STRING'.
10012 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
10013 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
10015 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
10016 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
10017 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
10020 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
10021 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
10022 buffer-locally to override the global map.
10024 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
10026 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
10027 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
10028 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
10030 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
10031 raised when the mouse moves over them.
10033 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
10034 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
10035 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
10036 vertical margins . Default is 1.
10038 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
10039 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
10041 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
10043 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
10044 a tool bar item. If
10046 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
10047 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
10048 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
10050 is the original tool bar item definition, then
10052 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
10054 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
10057 ** Mode line changes.
10059 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
10061 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
10062 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
10063 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
10065 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
10066 a `local-map' text property.
10068 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
10069 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
10071 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
10072 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
10073 `local-map' property.
10075 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
10076 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
10079 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
10080 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
10082 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
10083 variable mode-line-format to nil.
10085 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
10087 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
10088 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
10089 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
10090 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
10093 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
10096 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
10097 position in the header-line.
10099 ** Text property `display'
10101 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
10102 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
10103 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
10104 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
10105 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
10107 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
10109 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
10110 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
10112 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
10113 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
10114 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
10115 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
10116 simpler form STRING as property value.
10118 *** Variable width and height spaces
10120 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
10121 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
10122 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
10123 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
10124 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
10125 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
10126 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
10128 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
10129 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
10130 properties described below.
10132 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
10133 characters having the `display' property.
10137 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
10138 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
10140 - :relative-width FACTOR
10142 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
10143 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
10144 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
10145 width of that character by FACTOR.
10149 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
10150 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
10152 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
10156 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
10157 normal line height.
10159 - :relative-height FACTOR
10161 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
10162 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
10166 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
10167 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
10168 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
10171 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
10175 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
10176 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
10177 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
10178 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
10179 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
10180 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
10181 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
10182 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
10183 as display specification.
10185 *** Other display properties
10187 - (space-width FACTOR)
10189 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
10190 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
10195 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
10197 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
10198 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
10199 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
10200 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
10201 a font is available counts as a step.
10203 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
10204 as tall as the frame's default font.
10206 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
10207 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
10209 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
10210 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
10214 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
10215 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
10216 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
10217 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
10218 `height' subproperty.
10220 *** Conditional display properties
10222 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
10223 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
10224 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
10225 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
10226 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
10227 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
10228 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
10229 different when object is a string.
10231 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
10234 ** New menu separator types.
10236 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
10237 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
10238 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
10239 to specify other menu separator types.
10241 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
10243 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
10246 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
10248 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
10250 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
10252 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
10254 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
10256 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
10258 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
10260 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
10262 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
10264 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
10265 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
10267 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
10269 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
10271 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
10273 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
10275 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
10277 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
10279 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
10281 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
10283 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
10285 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
10287 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
10289 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
10291 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
10293 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
10295 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
10296 the corresponding single-line separators.
10298 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
10300 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
10301 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
10302 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
10303 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
10304 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
10305 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
10306 default foreground is black.
10308 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
10309 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
10310 `ScrollBarBackground').
10312 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
10313 settings for scroll bar colors.
10315 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
10316 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
10318 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
10319 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
10320 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
10321 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
10322 the original window start.
10324 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
10325 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
10326 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
10328 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
10330 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
10331 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
10332 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
10333 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
10335 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
10336 fixed-width and fixed-height.
10338 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
10340 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
10341 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
10342 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
10343 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
10344 temporarily to nil, for example
10346 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
10347 (enlarge-window 10))
10349 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
10350 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
10352 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
10353 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
10354 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
10355 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
10356 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
10357 support a vertical-bar cursor).
10361 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
10363 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
10366 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
10368 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
10370 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
10371 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
10372 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
10373 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
10374 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
10376 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
10380 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
10382 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
10386 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
10388 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
10389 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
10391 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
10393 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
10395 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
10396 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
10397 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
10399 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
10400 is the one that is used.
10402 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
10403 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
10404 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
10405 separate from the command's regular output.
10406 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
10407 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
10408 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
10411 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
10412 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
10413 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
10414 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
10416 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
10417 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
10418 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
10419 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
10421 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
10422 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
10423 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
10424 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
10426 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
10427 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
10428 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
10429 they never ignore case.
10431 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
10432 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
10433 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
10434 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
10435 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
10436 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
10437 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
10439 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
10440 the same format that was used in the file before.
10442 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
10443 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
10445 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
10446 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
10447 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
10449 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
10450 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
10451 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
10452 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
10453 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
10454 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
10455 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
10457 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
10458 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
10459 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
10460 format. You can now customize these variables.
10462 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
10463 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
10464 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
10465 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
10467 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
10468 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
10469 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
10471 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
10472 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
10473 doesn't have any effect.
10475 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
10476 not one per buffer.
10478 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
10479 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
10480 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
10482 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
10483 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
10484 `auto-show-mode' command.
10486 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
10487 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
10488 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
10489 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
10490 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
10492 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
10493 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
10495 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
10496 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
10497 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
10499 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
10500 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
10501 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
10502 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
10504 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
10506 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
10507 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
10508 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
10509 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
10510 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
10512 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
10513 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
10515 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
10516 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
10517 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
10518 `?' on other systems.
10520 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
10521 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
10524 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
10525 current codepage when it starts.
10529 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
10530 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
10531 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
10532 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
10533 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
10534 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
10538 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
10539 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
10541 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
10542 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
10543 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
10544 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
10545 buffer-file-coding-system.
10547 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
10548 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
10551 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
10552 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
10553 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
10554 list of possible coding systems.
10558 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
10559 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
10560 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
10561 docstring for details.
10563 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
10564 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
10565 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
10566 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
10567 lineup functions use this feature currently.
10569 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
10570 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
10572 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
10573 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
10575 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
10576 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
10577 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
10578 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
10581 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
10582 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
10584 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
10585 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
10586 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
10587 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
10589 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
10590 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
10591 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
10592 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
10593 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
10595 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
10597 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
10599 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
10600 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
10602 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
10604 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
10605 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
10606 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
10607 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
10608 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
10612 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
10613 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
10614 Gnus manual for the full story.
10616 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
10617 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
10618 group, which is created automatically.
10620 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
10623 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
10625 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
10626 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
10628 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
10631 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
10633 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
10634 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
10636 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
10638 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
10639 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
10641 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
10642 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
10644 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
10645 control over simplification.
10647 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
10649 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
10652 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
10654 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
10656 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
10657 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
10658 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
10660 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
10661 `a' forces normal posting method.
10663 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
10666 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
10667 to a non-nil value.
10669 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
10670 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
10672 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
10675 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
10677 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
10679 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
10680 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
10682 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
10683 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
10685 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
10687 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
10690 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
10691 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
10693 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
10694 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
10696 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
10698 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
10700 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
10702 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
10704 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
10705 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
10706 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
10708 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
10709 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
10710 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
10711 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
10712 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
10714 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
10715 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
10716 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
10717 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
10719 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
10720 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
10721 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
10724 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
10726 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
10727 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
10729 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
10730 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
10731 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
10732 removed from the label.
10734 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
10735 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
10737 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
10738 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
10740 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
10741 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
10744 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
10746 ** New/deleted modes and packages
10748 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
10749 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
10751 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
10752 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
10753 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
10755 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
10756 changes with a special face.
10758 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
10759 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
10760 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
10762 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
10764 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
10765 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
10766 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
10767 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
10768 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
10770 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
10771 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
10772 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
10774 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
10775 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
10776 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
10777 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
10778 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
10779 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
10780 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
10781 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
10782 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
10784 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
10785 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
10786 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
10787 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
10788 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
10791 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
10792 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
10793 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
10794 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
10795 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
10796 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
10798 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
10799 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
10800 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
10801 was not documented clearly before.
10803 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
10804 This includes Tetris and Snake.
10806 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
10808 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
10809 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
10810 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
10811 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
10813 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
10814 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
10815 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
10817 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
10819 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
10820 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
10822 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
10823 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
10826 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
10827 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
10828 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
10829 file names and attributes are returned.
10831 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
10832 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
10833 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
10834 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
10835 returns the result.
10837 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
10838 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
10840 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
10842 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
10843 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
10844 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
10847 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
10848 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
10851 The new function process-running-child-p
10852 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
10853 terminal to its own child process.
10855 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
10856 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
10857 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
10858 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
10860 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
10861 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
10863 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
10864 :included is an alias for :visible.
10866 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
10867 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
10868 to move or copy menu entries.
10870 ** Multibyte editing changes
10872 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
10873 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
10874 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
10875 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
10876 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
10877 (setq char (sref str idx)
10878 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
10879 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
10881 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
10882 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
10883 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
10885 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
10886 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
10887 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
10889 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
10891 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
10892 across the boundary.
10894 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
10895 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
10896 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
10897 contains 8-bit characters.
10898 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
10899 contains invalid characters.
10901 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
10902 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
10903 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
10904 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
10907 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
10908 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
10909 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
10910 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
10912 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
10913 compose Thai characters in a string.
10915 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
10916 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
10917 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
10918 menus should always use the third argument.
10920 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
10921 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
10922 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
10923 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
10925 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
10926 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
10927 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
10928 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
10930 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
10931 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
10932 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
10933 echo area contents.
10935 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
10937 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
10938 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
10939 requested feature cannot be loaded.
10941 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
10942 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
10943 means to clear out that attribute.
10945 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
10946 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
10948 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
10949 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
10950 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
10951 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
10953 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
10954 the gap of the current buffer.
10956 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
10957 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
10960 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
10961 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
10962 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
10963 it back in after any modifications have been made.
10965 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
10967 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
10968 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
10969 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
10970 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
10971 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
10973 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
10974 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
10975 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
10976 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
10977 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
10979 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
10980 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
10981 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
10983 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
10984 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
10985 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
10986 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
10987 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
10990 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
10991 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
10992 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
10993 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
10995 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
10997 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
10998 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
10999 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
11000 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
11002 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
11003 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
11004 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
11005 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
11006 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
11007 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
11008 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
11011 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
11014 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
11015 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
11016 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
11017 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
11018 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
11020 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
11021 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
11022 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
11023 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
11025 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
11026 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
11027 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
11028 something that most users not do.
11030 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
11031 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
11032 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
11035 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
11036 pasting operations.
11038 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
11039 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
11040 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
11041 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
11044 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
11045 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
11046 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
11047 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
11048 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
11051 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
11052 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
11053 to be confused by TeX commands.
11055 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
11056 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
11057 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
11058 of various alternative replacements and actions.
11060 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
11061 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
11062 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
11063 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
11064 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
11066 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
11067 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
11069 ** Changes in input method usage.
11071 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
11072 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
11075 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
11077 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
11078 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
11080 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
11081 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
11083 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
11085 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
11087 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
11088 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
11090 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
11091 given in the following case:
11092 o When you are using a complex input method.
11093 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
11095 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
11096 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
11097 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
11098 setting it to t is helpful.
11100 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
11102 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
11104 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
11105 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
11106 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
11107 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
11110 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
11111 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
11112 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
11115 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
11117 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
11119 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
11120 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
11122 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
11123 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
11124 its owner and group.
11126 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
11127 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
11129 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
11130 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
11132 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
11133 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
11134 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
11135 by the left edge of the rectangle.
11137 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
11138 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
11139 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
11140 for writing keyboard macros.
11142 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
11143 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
11144 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
11145 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
11146 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
11149 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
11151 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
11152 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
11155 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
11156 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
11157 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
11158 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
11160 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
11161 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
11162 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
11164 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
11165 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
11166 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
11167 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
11169 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
11170 failure if the command produces no output.
11172 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
11173 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
11176 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
11177 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
11178 function and variable names.
11180 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
11181 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
11182 file-coding-system-alist.
11184 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
11185 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
11186 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
11187 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
11188 according to the current fontset.
11190 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
11192 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
11193 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
11194 nonascii-insert-offset.
11196 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
11197 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
11198 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
11199 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
11201 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
11202 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
11204 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
11205 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
11207 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
11208 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
11211 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
11212 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
11214 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
11215 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
11216 all variables that have documentation.
11218 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
11219 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
11220 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
11221 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
11222 it should show; the default is 20.
11224 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
11225 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
11228 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
11229 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
11230 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
11231 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
11232 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
11233 Newly added options are included as well.
11235 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
11236 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
11237 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
11239 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
11242 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
11243 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
11245 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
11246 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
11249 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
11250 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
11253 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
11254 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
11255 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
11256 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
11259 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
11261 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
11262 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
11263 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
11265 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
11266 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
11267 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
11272 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
11273 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
11275 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
11276 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
11278 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
11279 read and post multi-lingual articles.
11281 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
11282 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
11283 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
11284 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
11285 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
11286 made invisible again.
11288 ** Mail reading and sending changes
11290 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
11291 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
11292 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
11295 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
11296 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
11297 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
11298 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
11299 rmail-default-body-file.
11301 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
11302 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
11303 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
11305 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
11306 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
11307 is evaluated to insert the signature.
11309 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
11310 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
11311 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
11312 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
11313 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
11314 especially interested in trying feedmail.
11316 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
11317 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
11318 provided by feedmail are:
11320 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
11321 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
11322 there is also a queue for draft messages
11324 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
11325 be prompted for confirmation
11327 **** does smart filling of address headers
11329 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
11330 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
11331 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
11333 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
11334 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
11335 /usr/lib/sendmail, and Emacs Lisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
11336 function for something else (10-20 lines of Lisp code).
11340 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
11341 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
11343 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
11344 run Dired on the directory name at point.
11346 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
11347 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
11348 for a specified regexp.
11352 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
11355 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
11356 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
11359 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
11360 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
11361 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
11362 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
11364 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
11365 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
11366 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
11367 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
11368 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
11370 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
11371 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
11372 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
11373 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
11374 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
11376 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
11377 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
11378 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
11379 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
11381 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
11382 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
11383 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
11385 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
11386 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
11387 session to resolve them.
11389 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
11390 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
11391 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
11394 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
11395 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
11396 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
11397 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
11398 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
11399 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
11402 ** Changes in Font Lock
11404 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
11405 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
11406 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
11407 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
11408 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
11410 ** Frame name display changes
11412 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
11413 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
11414 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
11415 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
11417 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
11418 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
11421 ** Comint (subshell) changes
11423 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
11424 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
11425 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
11427 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
11429 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
11430 that is, the line after the last line you got.
11431 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
11433 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
11434 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
11435 the following line.
11437 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
11438 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
11439 previously sent input.
11441 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
11442 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
11443 as the search string.
11445 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
11446 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
11450 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
11451 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
11452 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
11455 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
11456 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
11457 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
11458 style is still the default however.
11460 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
11462 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
11463 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
11464 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
11466 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
11467 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
11469 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
11470 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
11472 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
11473 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
11475 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
11476 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
11478 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
11479 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
11480 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
11481 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
11483 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
11485 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
11486 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
11487 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
11489 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
11490 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
11491 expanding dynamically.
11493 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
11494 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
11496 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
11497 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
11498 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
11499 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
11501 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
11503 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
11505 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
11506 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
11507 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
11508 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
11509 against the first word in the title.
11511 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
11512 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
11513 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
11514 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
11515 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
11516 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
11518 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
11519 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
11520 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
11521 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
11523 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
11525 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
11526 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
11527 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
11528 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
11529 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
11530 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
11532 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
11533 Editing group once the package is loaded.
11535 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
11536 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
11537 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
11539 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
11540 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
11544 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
11545 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
11546 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
11548 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
11549 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
11550 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
11551 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
11554 o URLs are automatically skipped
11555 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
11557 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
11559 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
11561 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
11562 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
11563 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
11564 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
11566 *** New recursive parser.
11568 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
11569 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
11570 recursive parser scans the individual files.
11572 *** Parsing only part of a document.
11574 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
11575 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
11576 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
11578 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
11580 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
11582 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
11584 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
11586 *** Using multiple selection buffers
11588 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
11589 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
11591 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
11593 *** References to external documents.
11595 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
11596 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
11597 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
11598 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
11599 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
11600 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
11601 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
11603 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
11605 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
11606 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
11608 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
11609 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
11611 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
11613 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
11614 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
11616 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
11618 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
11619 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
11620 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
11621 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
11622 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
11623 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
11626 *** Support for the varioref package
11628 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
11632 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
11633 and citations are created. These hooks are
11634 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
11635 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
11637 *** Citations outside LaTeX
11639 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
11640 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
11642 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
11644 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
11645 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
11648 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
11650 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
11651 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
11652 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
11653 directories that contain the same file name.
11655 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
11656 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
11657 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
11658 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
11659 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
11660 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
11661 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
11664 ** New modes and packages
11666 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
11667 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
11668 it, but some do not.
11670 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
11673 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
11674 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
11675 around in a buffer.
11677 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
11679 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
11680 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
11681 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
11682 established system of notation similar to Chess.
11684 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
11685 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
11686 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
11688 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
11689 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
11690 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc.); others are implementations of
11691 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
11692 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
11695 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
11696 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
11698 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
11699 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
11700 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
11701 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
11703 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
11705 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
11706 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
11707 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
11708 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
11709 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc.)
11710 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
11711 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
11712 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
11713 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
11714 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
11715 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
11717 Platform-specific modes:
11719 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
11720 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
11721 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
11722 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
11723 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
11724 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
11725 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
11726 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
11727 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
11729 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
11731 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
11732 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
11733 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
11734 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
11736 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
11737 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
11738 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
11740 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
11741 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
11742 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
11743 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
11745 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
11746 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
11747 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
11750 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
11751 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
11752 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
11753 current input method for reading this one event.
11755 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
11756 now control whether to output certain characters as
11757 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
11758 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
11759 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
11760 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
11762 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
11764 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
11765 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
11767 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
11768 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
11769 always increases point by 1.
11771 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
11772 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
11774 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
11776 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
11777 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
11778 default value changed. For example,
11780 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
11785 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
11788 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
11789 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
11790 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
11791 `:version' in the top level group.
11793 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
11795 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
11796 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
11798 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
11799 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
11800 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
11803 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
11804 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
11807 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
11808 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
11809 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
11811 ** Frame-local variables.
11813 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
11814 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
11815 local bindings for that variable.
11817 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
11818 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
11819 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
11822 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
11823 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
11824 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
11825 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
11827 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
11828 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
11829 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
11830 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
11832 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
11833 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
11834 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
11835 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
11836 See the documentation in sregex.el.
11838 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
11839 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
11840 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
11841 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
11843 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
11844 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
11846 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
11847 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
11848 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
11850 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
11851 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
11852 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
11853 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
11855 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
11856 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
11859 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
11860 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
11861 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
11862 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
11863 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
11865 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
11866 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
11867 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
11868 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
11870 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
11871 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
11872 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
11873 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
11874 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
11876 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
11877 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
11878 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
11879 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
11881 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
11882 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
11883 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
11885 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
11886 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
11887 was directed to display this buffer.
11889 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
11890 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
11891 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
11892 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
11893 set-window-configuration.
11895 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
11896 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
11897 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
11898 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
11900 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
11901 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
11902 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
11904 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
11905 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
11906 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
11908 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
11909 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
11911 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
11912 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
11914 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
11915 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
11916 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
11918 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
11919 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
11920 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
11921 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
11925 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
11926 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
11929 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
11930 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
11931 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
11932 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
11933 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
11935 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
11937 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
11938 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
11939 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
11940 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
11943 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
11944 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
11945 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
11946 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
11947 The supported properties include
11949 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
11951 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
11952 item should appear in the menu.
11954 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
11955 which will be REAL-BINDING.
11956 It should return a binding to use instead.
11958 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
11959 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
11960 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
11961 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
11962 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
11965 This means that the command normally has no
11966 keyboard equivalent.
11967 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
11968 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
11969 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
11970 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
11971 value says whether this button is currently selected.
11973 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
11974 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
11976 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
11980 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
11981 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
11982 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
11983 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
11985 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
11987 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
11988 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
11989 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
11990 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
11991 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
11992 forward, away from the user.
11994 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
11996 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
11997 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
11998 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
11999 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
12000 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
12002 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
12004 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
12005 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
12006 that were dragged and dropped.
12008 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
12010 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
12012 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
12013 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
12014 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
12016 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
12017 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
12018 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
12020 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
12021 in Emacs 19 and before.
12023 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
12024 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
12026 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
12027 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
12028 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
12029 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
12031 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
12032 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
12033 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
12034 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
12035 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
12037 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
12038 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
12039 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
12040 consistent with the new representation.
12042 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
12043 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
12044 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
12045 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
12047 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
12048 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
12049 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
12051 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
12052 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
12053 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
12055 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
12056 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
12057 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
12059 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
12060 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
12062 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
12063 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
12065 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
12066 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
12067 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
12068 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
12070 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
12071 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
12073 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
12074 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
12075 buffer or string being searched.
12077 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
12078 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
12079 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
12080 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
12081 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
12082 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
12083 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
12085 *** Structure of coding system changed.
12087 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
12088 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
12089 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
12090 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
12091 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
12092 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
12093 define-coding-system-alias.
12095 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
12096 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
12097 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
12098 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
12099 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
12100 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
12101 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
12104 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
12105 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
12106 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
12107 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
12109 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
12110 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
12111 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
12112 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
12114 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
12115 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
12116 This function requires a user interaction.
12118 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
12119 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
12120 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
12121 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
12122 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
12123 select-safe-coding-system.
12125 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
12126 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
12127 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
12130 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
12131 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
12132 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
12134 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
12135 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
12136 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
12137 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
12139 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
12140 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
12141 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
12144 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
12145 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
12147 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
12148 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
12149 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
12150 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
12151 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
12152 range of characters.
12154 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
12155 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
12157 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
12158 in the current buffer at position POS.
12160 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
12161 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
12162 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
12163 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
12164 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
12165 binding input-method-function to nil.
12167 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
12168 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
12169 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
12170 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
12171 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
12173 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
12174 subsequent events of a key sequence.
12176 *** You can customize any language environment by using
12177 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
12179 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
12180 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
12181 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
12182 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
12183 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
12185 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
12187 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
12188 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
12189 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
12192 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
12193 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
12195 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
12196 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
12197 in your .emacs file.)
12199 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
12200 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
12202 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
12203 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
12205 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
12206 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
12209 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
12210 delete the character before point, as usual.
12212 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
12213 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
12214 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
12216 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
12217 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
12218 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
12219 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
12220 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
12223 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
12224 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
12225 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
12226 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
12227 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
12229 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
12230 and is an alias for it.
12232 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
12233 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
12235 ** Scrolling changes
12237 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
12238 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
12240 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
12241 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
12244 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
12245 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
12246 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
12247 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
12249 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
12250 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
12251 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
12252 recenters the window.
12254 ** International character set support (MULE)
12256 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
12257 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
12258 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
12259 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
12260 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
12261 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
12263 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
12264 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
12265 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
12266 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
12267 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
12269 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
12270 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
12271 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
12272 language, to make it possible to type them.
12274 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
12275 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
12277 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
12278 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
12280 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
12282 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
12284 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
12285 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
12286 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
12287 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
12288 characters for their work until they want to change.
12292 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
12293 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
12294 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
12295 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
12296 support several input methods.
12298 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
12299 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
12302 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
12303 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
12304 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
12305 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
12306 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
12309 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
12310 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
12311 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
12312 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
12313 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
12315 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
12316 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
12317 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
12318 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
12320 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
12321 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
12322 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
12323 the first guess is wrong.
12325 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
12326 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
12328 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
12329 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
12330 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
12331 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
12333 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
12334 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
12335 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
12336 translate automatically to and from either one.
12338 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
12340 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
12341 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
12342 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
12345 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
12346 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
12347 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
12348 multibyte characters in that buffer.
12350 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
12351 character conversion as well.
12353 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
12355 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
12356 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
12357 requires using many fonts.
12359 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
12360 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
12362 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
12363 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
12364 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
12365 you would use a font.
12367 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
12368 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
12369 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
12371 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
12372 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
12375 *** Defining fontsets.
12377 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
12378 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
12379 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
12381 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
12382 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
12383 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
12384 standard fontset are created automatically.
12386 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
12387 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
12388 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
12389 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
12390 name is `fontset-startup'.
12392 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
12393 The resource value should have this form:
12394 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
12395 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
12396 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
12397 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
12398 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
12399 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
12400 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
12401 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
12402 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
12404 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
12405 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
12406 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
12408 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
12409 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
12410 following resource,
12411 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
12412 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
12413 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
12414 Here is the substitution rule:
12415 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
12416 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
12417 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
12418 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
12419 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
12421 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
12422 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
12423 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
12425 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
12426 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
12427 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
12428 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
12431 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
12432 defaults for a particular choice of language.
12434 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
12435 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
12436 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
12437 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
12438 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
12439 system for new files that you create.
12441 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
12442 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
12443 whole Emacs session.
12445 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
12446 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
12447 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
12449 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
12450 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
12451 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
12452 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
12453 coding systems that Emacs supports.
12455 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
12456 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
12457 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
12458 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
12459 is used for *the immediately following command*.
12461 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
12462 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
12464 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
12465 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
12467 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
12468 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
12470 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
12471 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
12472 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
12473 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
12476 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
12477 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
12478 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
12479 translated into that character code.
12481 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
12482 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
12484 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
12486 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
12487 the coding system for keyboard input.
12489 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
12490 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
12491 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
12493 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
12495 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
12496 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
12497 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
12498 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
12499 designed to work with terminals.
12501 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
12502 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
12503 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
12504 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
12505 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
12506 in the corresponding buffer.
12508 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
12510 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
12511 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
12512 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
12514 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
12515 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
12516 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
12519 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
12520 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
12522 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
12523 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
12524 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
12525 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
12527 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
12528 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
12529 related information.
12531 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
12532 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
12535 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
12536 information about the support for a particular language.
12537 You specify the language as an argument.
12539 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
12540 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
12543 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
12544 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
12545 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
12546 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
12548 A alternativnyj (Russian)
12550 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
12551 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
12552 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
12553 E euc-japan (Japanese)
12554 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
12555 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
12556 K euc-korea (Korean)
12559 S shift_jis (Japanese)
12562 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
12563 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
12564 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
12565 v viqr (Vietnamese)
12568 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
12569 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
12570 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
12571 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
12573 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
12574 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
12576 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
12577 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
12578 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
12579 Rmail files themselves.
12581 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
12582 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
12584 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
12587 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
12588 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
12589 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
12590 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
12591 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
12593 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
12594 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
12595 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
12598 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
12599 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
12600 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
12601 without any conversion.
12603 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
12604 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
12605 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
12606 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
12608 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
12609 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
12611 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
12612 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
12614 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
12615 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
12617 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
12618 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
12619 in the buffer before point.
12621 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
12622 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
12625 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
12626 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
12628 ** File locking works with NFS now.
12630 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
12631 in the same directory as FILENAME.
12633 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
12634 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
12635 can become a bottleneck.
12637 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
12638 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
12639 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
12640 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
12641 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
12642 so useful that the change is worth while.
12644 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
12645 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
12646 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
12647 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
12649 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
12650 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
12653 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
12654 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
12655 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
12657 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
12658 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
12659 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
12661 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
12662 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
12663 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
12665 ** Changes in View mode.
12667 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
12668 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
12670 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
12671 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
12673 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
12676 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
12677 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
12679 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
12680 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
12681 not just the selected window.
12683 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
12684 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
12685 turns View mode on or off.
12687 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
12688 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
12689 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
12691 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
12692 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
12694 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
12695 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
12696 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
12697 which version to compare with.
12699 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
12700 blocks if a match is inside the block.
12702 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
12703 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
12704 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
12705 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
12707 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
12708 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
12709 blocks, all of them or none.
12711 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
12712 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
12713 confirmation first.
12715 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
12716 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
12717 However, the mode will not be changed if
12718 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
12719 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
12720 not suitable for ordinary files, or
12721 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
12723 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
12725 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
12726 these commands do not change the major mode.
12728 ** M-x occur changes.
12730 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
12731 it performs a case-sensitive search.
12733 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
12734 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
12735 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
12737 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
12738 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
12739 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
12740 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
12741 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
12743 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
12744 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
12745 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
12746 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
12748 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
12749 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
12750 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
12752 ** Outline mode changes.
12754 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
12756 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
12758 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
12759 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
12760 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
12761 was already active.
12763 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
12764 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
12765 get confused by it.
12767 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
12768 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
12770 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
12772 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
12773 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
12774 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
12775 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
12777 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
12778 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
12779 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
12781 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
12782 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
12785 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
12786 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
12787 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
12788 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
12790 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
12791 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
12792 can be. The default value is 30.
12794 ** Changes in Mail mode.
12796 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
12797 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
12798 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
12799 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
12800 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
12803 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
12804 compose-mail-other-frame.
12806 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
12807 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
12808 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
12809 buffer that shows the original message.
12811 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
12812 with separator lines around the contents.
12814 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
12815 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
12816 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
12817 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
12819 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
12821 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
12822 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
12823 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
12824 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
12826 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
12827 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
12830 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
12831 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
12834 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
12835 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
12836 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
12837 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
12839 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
12840 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
12841 be taken to be magic.
12843 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
12844 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
12845 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
12847 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
12848 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
12850 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
12851 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
12853 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
12855 new key dired.el binding old key
12856 ------- ---------------- -------
12857 * c dired-change-marks c
12859 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
12860 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
12861 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
12863 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
12864 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
12865 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
12866 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
12867 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
12868 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
12872 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
12873 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
12874 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
12875 each time you run it.
12877 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
12878 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
12880 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
12881 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
12882 means to move in the opposite direction.
12884 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
12885 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
12887 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
12888 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
12889 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
12890 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
12895 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
12897 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
12900 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
12901 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
12903 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
12906 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
12908 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
12910 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
12912 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
12913 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
12914 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
12916 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
12918 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
12920 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
12921 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
12923 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
12924 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
12925 used to pick articles.
12927 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
12928 another have been added.
12930 `M-x gnus-change-server'
12932 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
12933 generating lines in buffers.
12935 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
12938 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
12940 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
12942 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
12944 *** Scores can be decayed.
12946 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
12948 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
12949 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
12951 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
12954 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
12956 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
12957 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
12959 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
12961 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
12962 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
12964 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
12965 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
12967 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
12970 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
12971 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
12973 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
12975 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
12977 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
12979 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
12981 Use the `Y c' command.
12983 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
12985 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
12987 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
12989 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
12990 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
12992 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
12994 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
12996 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
12997 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
12999 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
13001 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
13002 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
13003 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
13004 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
13007 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
13008 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
13009 particular news group. This can be done by:
13011 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
13013 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
13014 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
13015 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
13016 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
13017 for reading and posting).
13019 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
13020 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
13021 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
13022 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
13025 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
13026 default. Here are some of these default settings:
13028 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
13029 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
13030 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
13031 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
13032 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
13034 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
13035 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
13037 ** CC mode changes.
13039 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
13040 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
13041 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
13042 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
13043 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
13046 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
13047 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
13048 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
13049 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
13050 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
13051 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
13053 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
13054 of the current buffer.
13056 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
13057 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
13058 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
13060 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
13061 style that the Python developers like.
13063 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
13064 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
13065 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
13067 ** VC Changes [new]
13069 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
13070 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
13071 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
13073 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
13074 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
13077 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
13078 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
13080 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
13081 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
13082 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
13083 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
13085 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
13086 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
13088 ** Calendar changes.
13090 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
13091 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
13092 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
13093 following/previous years.
13095 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
13096 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
13097 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
13098 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
13099 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
13100 supposed attribute of God.
13102 ** ps-print changes
13104 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
13107 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
13109 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
13110 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
13111 printer system has this behavior, set variable
13112 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
13114 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
13115 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
13116 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
13118 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
13119 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
13121 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
13122 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
13123 printing for your printer.
13125 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
13126 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
13128 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
13129 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
13131 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
13132 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
13133 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
13134 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
13135 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
13136 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
13137 The default value is nil.
13139 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
13140 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
13142 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
13143 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
13144 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
13145 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
13146 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
13147 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
13148 color). The default is 0 ("black").
13150 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
13151 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
13153 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
13154 The default is 0 ("black").
13156 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
13157 The default is 0 ("black").
13159 border-width Specify the border width.
13160 The default is 0.4.
13162 Any other property is ignored.
13164 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
13165 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
13168 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
13169 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
13170 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
13171 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
13172 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
13173 controlling headers.
13175 *** Color management (subgroup)
13177 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
13180 *** Face Management (subgroup)
13182 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
13183 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
13184 background should be used. Valid values are:
13186 t always use face background color.
13187 nil never use face background color.
13188 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
13190 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
13192 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
13195 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
13196 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
13198 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
13201 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
13202 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
13203 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
13205 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
13209 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
13213 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
13217 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
13221 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
13223 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
13225 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
13228 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
13229 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
13230 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
13232 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
13233 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
13234 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13235 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13236 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13240 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13241 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13242 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13245 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
13246 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
13247 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
13248 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
13249 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
13250 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13251 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13252 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13253 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
13254 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
13255 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
13258 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
13260 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
13263 *** Printer management (subgroup)
13265 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
13266 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
13267 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
13268 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
13271 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
13272 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
13273 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
13275 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
13276 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
13279 *** Page settings (subgroup)
13281 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
13282 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
13283 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
13284 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
13285 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
13286 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
13289 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
13290 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
13291 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
13293 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
13294 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
13295 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
13296 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
13297 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
13298 its TO, are ignored.
13300 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
13301 pages. Valid values are:
13303 nil print all pages.
13305 `even-page' print only even pages.
13307 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
13309 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
13310 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
13311 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
13312 print only the even sheet of paper.
13314 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
13315 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
13316 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
13317 only the odd sheet of paper.
13319 Any other value is treated as nil.
13321 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
13322 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
13323 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
13325 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
13327 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
13328 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
13330 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
13331 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
13332 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
13333 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
13334 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
13335 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
13336 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
13338 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
13339 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
13340 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
13341 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
13342 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
13343 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
13344 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
13346 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
13348 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
13349 messages should be sent.
13351 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
13352 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
13353 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
13355 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
13357 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
13358 points for line numbers.
13360 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
13361 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
13363 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
13364 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
13365 to 2, the printing will look like:
13377 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
13378 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
13381 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
13382 zebra stripe is to be printed.
13384 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
13386 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
13387 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
13388 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
13389 3, the output will look like:
13403 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
13404 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
13406 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
13407 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
13410 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
13411 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
13414 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
13416 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
13417 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
13419 ** hideshow changes.
13421 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
13424 *** Support for java-mode added.
13426 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
13427 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
13429 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
13430 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
13431 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
13433 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
13434 robust and a lot faster.
13436 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
13438 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
13439 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
13440 documentation for more details.
13442 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
13444 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
13445 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
13446 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
13447 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
13448 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
13450 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
13451 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
13452 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
13453 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
13459 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
13460 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify
13461 the faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new
13462 custom group font-lock-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in your
13463 ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
13464 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
13466 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
13468 *** Maximum decoration
13470 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
13471 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
13472 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
13473 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
13474 to get the old behavior.
13478 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
13480 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
13481 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
13483 *** Configurable support
13485 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
13486 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
13487 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
13488 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
13489 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
13490 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
13491 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
13493 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
13494 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
13495 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
13497 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
13499 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
13500 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
13503 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
13505 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
13511 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
13512 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
13513 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
13514 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
13516 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
13518 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
13519 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
13520 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
13522 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
13524 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
13525 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
13526 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
13527 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
13528 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
13529 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
13530 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
13532 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
13533 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
13534 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
13535 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
13536 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
13537 the command M-o M-o (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
13539 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
13541 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
13542 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
13543 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
13544 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
13546 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
13549 ** Ada mode changes.
13551 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
13552 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
13553 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
13554 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
13557 *** There are two new commands:
13558 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
13559 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
13561 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
13562 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
13563 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
13565 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
13566 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
13567 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
13569 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
13570 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
13571 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
13572 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
13574 ** Scheme mode changes.
13576 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
13577 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
13578 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
13579 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
13582 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
13583 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
13584 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
13585 variables as buffer-local variables.
13587 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
13588 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
13590 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
13592 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
13593 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
13594 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
13595 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
13597 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
13598 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
13601 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
13602 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
13603 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
13604 option takes precedence.
13606 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
13607 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
13608 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
13610 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
13611 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
13614 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
13615 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
13617 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
13618 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
13621 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
13622 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
13623 these register values no longer become completely useless.
13624 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
13625 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
13626 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
13628 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
13629 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
13630 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
13631 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
13633 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
13634 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
13635 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
13636 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
13637 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
13639 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
13640 since it applies only to the current frame.
13642 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
13643 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
13644 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
13646 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
13647 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
13648 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
13649 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
13650 instead of just the file you are editing.
13654 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
13655 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
13656 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
13657 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
13658 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
13661 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
13662 knows which kind of label is needed.
13664 C-c ) reftex-reference
13665 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
13666 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
13668 C-c [ reftex-citation
13669 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
13670 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
13672 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
13673 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
13676 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
13677 can quickly jump to every section.
13679 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
13680 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
13681 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
13682 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
13683 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
13685 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
13687 *** Info documentation is now available.
13689 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
13690 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
13692 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
13693 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
13695 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
13696 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
13698 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
13699 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
13700 appropriate functions.
13702 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
13703 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
13705 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
13708 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
13709 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
13711 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
13712 shall be delimited.
13714 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
13715 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
13716 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
13718 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
13719 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
13720 prefixed with `ALT'.
13722 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
13723 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
13724 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
13727 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
13728 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
13729 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
13731 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
13732 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
13734 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
13735 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
13736 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
13738 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
13740 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
13742 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
13743 from alien sources.
13745 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
13746 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
13749 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
13752 *** Added support for imenu.
13754 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
13755 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
13756 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
13757 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
13759 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
13760 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
13762 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
13764 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
13766 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
13767 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
13768 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
13771 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
13772 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
13774 ** browse-url changes
13776 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
13777 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
13778 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
13779 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
13780 customization variables.
13782 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
13784 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
13785 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
13786 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
13788 ** Changes in Ediff
13790 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
13791 pops up the Info file for this command.
13793 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
13794 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
13795 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
13798 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
13799 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
13800 files in the same directory.
13802 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
13803 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
13804 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
13806 ** Changes in Viper
13808 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
13809 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
13811 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
13812 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
13813 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
13814 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
13815 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
13816 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
13817 color when Viper is in insert state.
13818 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
13819 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
13820 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
13824 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
13825 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
13826 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
13827 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
13828 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
13830 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
13832 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
13833 constructs are tagged. Files are recognized by the extension .java.
13835 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
13836 recognized by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
13837 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
13839 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
13840 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
13841 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
13842 methods and protocols.
13844 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognized by the extension
13845 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
13846 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
13849 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
13850 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
13851 at least M times and as many as N times.
13853 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
13854 in files has changed slightly.
13856 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
13857 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
13858 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
13859 with old time-stamp-format values.
13861 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
13862 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
13863 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
13866 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
13867 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
13868 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
13869 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
13870 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
13871 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
13873 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
13874 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
13875 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
13877 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
13878 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
13879 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
13880 recommended now will continue to work then.
13882 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
13885 ** There are some additional major modes:
13887 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
13888 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
13889 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
13891 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
13892 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
13895 ** New Lisp packages include:
13897 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
13899 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
13900 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
13902 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
13904 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
13907 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
13908 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
13911 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
13912 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
13913 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
13914 strings or comments.
13916 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
13917 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
13918 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
13919 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
13922 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
13923 can visit them by short forms of their names.
13925 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
13926 Emacs Lisp function at point.
13928 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
13930 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
13931 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
13933 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
13935 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
13937 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
13939 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
13940 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
13942 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
13943 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
13944 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
13945 original place after inserting the copy.
13947 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
13950 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
13951 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
13952 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
13954 Enable mouse-drag with:
13955 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
13957 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
13959 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
13960 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
13962 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
13963 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
13967 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
13968 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
13969 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
13970 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
13971 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
13972 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
13973 instance) and vice versa.
13975 To use this package load it using
13976 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
13977 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
13978 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
13979 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
13980 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
13981 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
13983 *** Interface to ph.
13985 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
13987 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
13988 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
13991 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
13993 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
13994 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
13995 while the real cursor does not move.
13997 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
13998 for visiting your favorite web sites.
14000 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
14001 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
14005 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
14006 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
14007 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
14008 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
14010 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
14012 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
14014 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
14016 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
14017 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
14018 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
14019 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
14020 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
14022 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
14023 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
14024 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
14025 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
14026 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
14027 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
14029 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
14031 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
14032 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
14033 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
14034 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
14036 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
14037 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
14039 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
14040 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
14043 ** Basic Lisp changes
14045 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
14046 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
14048 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
14049 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
14052 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
14054 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
14056 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
14057 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
14059 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
14060 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
14063 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
14065 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
14067 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
14069 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
14070 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
14071 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
14074 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
14075 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
14076 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
14078 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
14079 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
14080 adding one of these suffixes.
14082 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
14083 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
14084 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
14086 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
14087 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
14089 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
14091 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
14092 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
14094 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
14095 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
14097 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
14099 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
14100 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
14102 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
14103 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
14104 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
14105 works using `save-current-buffer'.
14107 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
14108 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
14111 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
14112 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
14113 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
14116 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
14117 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
14120 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
14122 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
14123 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
14124 Then it returns that string.
14126 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
14128 (with-output-to-string
14129 (princ "The buffer is ")
14130 (princ (buffer-name)))
14132 returns "The buffer is foo".
14134 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
14137 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
14138 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
14139 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
14141 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
14142 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
14144 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
14145 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
14146 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
14147 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
14148 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
14149 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
14151 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
14152 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
14153 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
14156 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
14157 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
14158 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
14159 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
14160 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
14162 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
14163 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
14164 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
14165 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
14167 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
14168 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
14170 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
14172 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
14173 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
14174 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
14175 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
14178 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
14179 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
14182 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
14184 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
14185 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
14186 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
14187 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
14188 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
14190 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
14192 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
14193 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
14194 more than the number of characters.
14196 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
14197 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
14198 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
14199 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
14200 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
14201 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
14203 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
14204 and returns a string containing those characters.
14206 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
14207 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
14208 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
14209 character, sref signals an error.
14211 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
14212 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
14213 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
14215 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
14216 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
14217 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
14219 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
14220 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
14221 to a vector of the characters in it.
14223 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
14224 of a string. You call it as follows:
14226 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
14228 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
14229 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
14230 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
14231 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
14232 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
14234 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
14235 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
14237 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
14238 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
14240 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
14241 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
14242 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
14243 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
14245 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
14247 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
14249 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
14250 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
14251 are not included in the resulting value.
14253 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
14254 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
14255 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
14256 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
14258 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
14259 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
14260 character extends across that column), then the padding character
14261 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
14262 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
14263 column START-COLUMN.
14265 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
14266 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
14267 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
14268 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
14269 changed text, before the change.
14271 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
14272 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
14273 one character set for each script, not for each language.
14275 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
14277 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
14279 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
14280 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
14282 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
14283 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
14284 which identify the character within that character set.
14286 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
14287 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
14288 opposite of split-char.
14290 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
14291 of all the characters between BEG and END.
14293 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
14294 of all the characters in a string.
14296 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
14297 and specifying coding systems.
14299 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
14300 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
14301 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
14302 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
14303 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
14304 as what to do about code conversion.)
14306 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
14307 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
14309 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
14310 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
14311 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
14313 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
14314 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
14315 to match against a file name.
14317 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
14318 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
14319 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
14320 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
14321 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
14322 specifies the coding system for encoding.
14324 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
14325 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
14327 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
14328 the coding system to use for network sockets.
14330 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
14331 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
14332 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
14335 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
14336 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
14337 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
14338 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
14339 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
14340 specifies the coding system for encoding.
14342 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
14343 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
14345 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
14346 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
14347 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
14348 start the subprocess.
14350 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
14351 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
14352 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
14353 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
14354 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
14356 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
14357 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
14360 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
14361 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
14362 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
14363 connection permanently or until overridden.
14365 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
14366 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
14367 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
14368 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
14369 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
14370 system for one operation at a time.
14372 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
14373 files, subprocesses or network connections.
14375 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
14376 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
14377 The value is a cons cell,
14378 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
14379 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
14380 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
14381 input to the subprocess.
14383 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
14384 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
14386 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
14387 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
14388 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
14390 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
14391 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
14392 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
14393 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
14396 Thus, instead of writing
14398 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
14399 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
14401 you would now write this:
14403 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
14404 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
14408 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
14409 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
14410 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
14411 for a description of them.
14413 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
14414 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
14416 (defgroup ispell nil
14417 "Spell checking using Ispell."
14420 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
14421 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
14422 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
14423 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
14424 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
14426 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
14427 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
14428 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
14429 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
14430 first-level subgroups.
14432 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
14434 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
14435 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
14439 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
14440 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
14441 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
14442 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
14443 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
14444 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
14446 ** Text property changes
14448 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
14451 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
14452 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
14453 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
14454 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
14455 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
14457 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
14458 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
14459 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
14460 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
14462 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
14463 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
14464 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
14466 ** Changes in invisibility features
14468 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
14469 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
14470 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
14471 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
14472 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
14473 make the overlay visible.
14475 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
14476 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
14477 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
14478 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
14479 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
14480 t when it should hide it.
14482 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
14484 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
14485 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
14486 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
14487 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
14488 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
14489 Here is an example of how to do this:
14491 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
14492 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
14493 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
14494 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
14497 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
14500 ;; When done with the overlays:
14501 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
14502 ;; Or respectively:
14503 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
14505 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
14507 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
14508 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
14509 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
14510 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
14512 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
14513 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
14514 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
14516 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
14517 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
14519 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
14520 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
14522 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
14523 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
14524 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
14526 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
14527 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
14528 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
14529 determine the syntax type of the character.
14531 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
14532 of the current buffer.
14534 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
14535 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
14536 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
14538 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
14539 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
14540 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
14541 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
14542 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
14544 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
14547 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
14548 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
14549 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
14551 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
14552 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
14553 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
14554 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
14555 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
14557 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
14558 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
14559 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
14561 ** Changes in face features
14563 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
14564 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
14566 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
14567 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
14569 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
14570 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
14572 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
14573 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
14575 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
14576 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
14577 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
14578 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
14581 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
14582 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
14584 ** Changes in file-handling functions
14586 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
14587 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
14588 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
14589 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
14591 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
14594 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
14595 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
14597 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
14598 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
14600 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
14601 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
14603 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
14604 character code conversion as well as other things.
14606 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
14607 (formerly it did not).
14609 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
14610 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
14612 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
14613 instead of constant strings.
14615 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
14616 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
14617 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
14619 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
14620 in the same way as before.
14622 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
14623 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
14624 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
14626 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
14627 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
14628 else, and returns nil.
14630 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
14631 directory cannot be listed.
14633 ** Changes in minibuffer input
14635 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
14636 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
14637 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
14638 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
14641 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
14642 It is available through the history command M-n.
14644 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
14645 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
14646 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
14647 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
14648 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
14650 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
14651 argument in this way.
14653 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
14654 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
14655 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
14657 ** Echo area features
14659 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
14660 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
14661 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
14662 after the echo area is cleared.
14664 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
14665 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
14667 ** Keyboard input features
14669 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
14670 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
14672 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
14673 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
14674 by keyboard macros.
14676 ** Frame-related changes
14678 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
14679 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
14680 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
14682 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
14683 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
14684 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
14686 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
14687 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
14688 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
14689 in the selected frame.
14691 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
14692 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
14693 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
14695 ** X Windows features
14697 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
14698 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
14699 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
14701 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
14702 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
14704 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
14705 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
14706 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
14708 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
14709 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
14711 ** Subprocess features
14713 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
14714 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
14717 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
14718 and returns the output from the command as a string.
14720 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
14721 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
14723 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
14724 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
14726 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
14727 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
14728 goes after the other menu items.
14730 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
14731 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
14732 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
14735 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
14736 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
14738 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
14739 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
14742 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
14743 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
14744 but its hook is still run.
14746 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
14747 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
14749 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
14750 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
14751 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
14753 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
14754 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
14755 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
14758 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
14759 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
14761 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
14762 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
14763 functions like display-time.
14765 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
14766 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
14768 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
14769 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
14770 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
14772 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
14773 if there is an error in compilation.
14775 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
14776 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
14777 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
14778 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
14780 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
14781 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
14782 the *scratch* buffer.
14784 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
14785 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
14786 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
14787 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
14789 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
14790 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
14791 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
14793 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
14794 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
14795 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
14796 and compose-mail-other-frame.
14798 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
14799 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
14800 full name of the specified user will be returned.
14802 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
14803 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
14804 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
14805 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
14806 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
14809 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
14810 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
14811 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
14812 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
14814 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
14815 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
14816 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
14817 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
14819 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
14821 ** imenu.el changes.
14823 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
14824 item from menu created by imenu.
14826 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
14827 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
14828 select one of those items.
14830 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
14832 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
14833 Copyright information:
14835 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
14836 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
14838 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
14839 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
14840 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
14841 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
14843 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
14844 of this document, or of portions of it,
14845 under the above conditions, provided also that they
14846 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
14850 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
14853 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793