1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
50 ** There is a new configure option --with-wide-int.
51 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
54 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available.
55 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
56 automatically select it.
59 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
61 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
62 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
63 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
65 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
66 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
68 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used,
69 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
72 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
74 ** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
75 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the "mouse-1
76 pops up *Messages*" feature, which can now easily be changed.
78 ** emacsclient changes
80 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
81 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
82 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
85 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
87 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
88 error, its exit status is 1.
91 *** shell-mode uses pcomplete rules, with the standard completion UI.
93 *** Many packages have been changed to use completion-at-point rather than
94 their own completion code.
96 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
97 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
99 *** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
101 *** New completion style `substring'.
103 *** Completion style can be set per-category `completion-category-overrides'.
105 *** Completion of buffers now uses substring completion by default.
107 *** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
108 `completing-read-function'.
110 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
112 ** Internationalization changes
115 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
117 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
118 initial documentation.
120 To turn this on in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
121 `bidi-display-reordering' to a non-nil value. The default is nil.
123 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
124 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
125 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
126 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
127 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
128 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
130 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
131 value of paragraph base direction at point.
133 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
134 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
137 Note that some advanced display features, such as overlay strings and
138 `display' text properties, do not yet work correctly when
139 bidirectional text is reordered for display.
142 *** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts.
143 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
144 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
145 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
146 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
147 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
148 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
150 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
151 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
153 *** There are two new input methods for Persian/Farsi: farsi and farsi-translit.
155 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
156 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
158 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
159 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
160 is taken from the desktop settings.
162 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
163 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
164 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
167 ** ImageMagick support.
168 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
169 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
170 libraries if they are present at build time. This needs ImageMagick
171 6.2.8 or newer (versions newer than 6.0.7 _may_ work but have not been
172 tested). To disable ImageMagick support, use the configure option
173 `--without-imagemagick'.
175 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
176 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
177 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
178 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
180 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
182 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
183 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
185 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
186 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
188 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
189 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
190 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
192 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
193 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
194 displayed as a space.
196 ** On Nextstep/OSX, the menu bar can be hidden by customizing
197 ns-auto-hide-menu-bar.
199 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
200 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
202 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
203 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
204 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
205 context in their return values.
207 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
208 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
210 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
211 for remote machines which support SELinux.
214 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
215 higher-resolution time stamps.
217 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
218 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
220 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
221 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
222 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
224 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
225 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
226 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
227 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
229 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
230 scroll a line instead of full screen.
232 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
233 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
236 ** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
237 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
238 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
239 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
240 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
243 ** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
244 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
245 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
246 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
251 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
252 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
254 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
255 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
257 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
258 for `list-colors-display'.
260 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
261 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
262 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
264 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
265 selected for installation.
267 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
269 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
270 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
271 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
272 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
274 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
275 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
276 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
280 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
282 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
283 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
284 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
285 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
287 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
288 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
289 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
290 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
292 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
293 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
296 ** The use of a "mode: minor" specification in a file local variables section
297 to enable a minor-mode is deprecated. Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
299 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
300 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
303 ** The standalone program `fakemail' has been removed.
304 If you need it, feedmail.el ought to provide a superset of the functionality.
306 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
308 ** Function `sha1' is now implemented in C for speed.
309 The elisp implementation sha1.el is removed. Feature sha1 is provided
314 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
315 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
318 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
323 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
327 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-pop, instead of
331 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
334 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
336 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
338 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
340 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
341 also deletes newlines around point.
345 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
346 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
347 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
350 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to C-d and [delete].
351 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
352 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
354 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
355 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
356 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
357 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
359 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
361 ** Selection changes.
363 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
364 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
365 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
366 use the primary selection.
368 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
369 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
371 *** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
372 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
373 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
374 the kill-ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
375 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
377 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
378 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
379 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
380 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
381 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
383 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
384 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
385 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
387 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
388 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
389 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
390 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
392 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
393 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
395 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
396 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
397 between applications.
399 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
401 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
402 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
403 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
404 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
405 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
407 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
409 *** Support for X clipboard managers has been added.
411 **** To inhibit use of the clipboard manager, set
412 `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
414 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
415 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
416 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
418 ** The command shell prompts for the shell path name, when the default
419 directory is a remote file name and neither environment variable
420 $ESHELL nor variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
423 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
425 ** comint and modes derived from it use the generic completion code.
429 *** Compilation mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
430 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
432 *** `compilation-filter-start' is let-bound to the start of the text
433 inserted by the compilation filter function, when calling
434 compilation-filter-hook.
436 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
438 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
439 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
440 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
442 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
443 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
445 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
449 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries' bound to C-c C-a.
451 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
453 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
455 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
457 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
459 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse 7z archives.
461 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
462 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
464 ** `url-queue-retrieve' downloads web pages asynchronously, but allow
465 controlling the degree of parallelism.
467 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers, in certain modes
468 (eg dired, vc-dir, log-edit). For example, adding
469 "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your .dir-locals.el file,
470 will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should
471 call `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
474 ** You can prevent directory local variables from applying to subdirectories.
475 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
476 settings to indicate said section should not be applied to subdirectories.
480 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
481 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
482 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
483 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
486 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
487 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
488 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
489 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
493 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
494 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
495 exists, that is used instead.
497 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
498 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
500 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
501 You can get a comparable behavior with:
502 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
503 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
505 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
507 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
509 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
512 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing `comments'.
513 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
516 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
517 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
520 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
521 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
522 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
525 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
528 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
529 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
532 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
533 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
536 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
537 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
538 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
541 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
542 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
546 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
547 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
548 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
550 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
551 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
553 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
555 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
556 choose a color via list-colors-display.
560 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
561 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
564 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
565 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
567 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
569 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
571 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
572 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
573 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
574 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
577 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
578 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
579 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
580 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
581 creating the session.
583 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
584 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
585 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
586 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
587 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
589 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
590 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
591 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
592 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
593 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
594 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
595 `sql-send-*' functions.
597 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
598 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
599 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
600 connection is established.
602 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
603 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
604 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
605 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
606 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
607 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
608 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
609 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
610 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
611 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
612 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
613 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
616 (database :default DEF
618 :completion COMPLETE)
621 :completion COMPLETE)
623 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
624 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
625 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
627 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
628 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
629 possible values or a function returning such a list).
631 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
632 An alist for recording different username, database and server
633 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
634 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
636 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
638 (setq sql-connection-alist
639 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
640 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
641 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
643 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
645 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
647 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
648 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
649 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
650 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
652 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
653 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
654 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
655 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
656 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
658 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
659 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
660 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
661 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
664 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
665 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
666 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
667 session and save them as a new connection.
669 *** List database objects and details.
670 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
671 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
672 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
674 **** List all objects.
675 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
676 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
677 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceding the command by
678 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
679 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
680 separate window in view-mode.
682 **** List Table details.
683 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
684 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
685 the list of columns in the relation. Preceding the command with the
686 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
687 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
689 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
690 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
691 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
693 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
694 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
695 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
696 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
697 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
699 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
700 This prevents the command interpreter for MySQL and Postgres from
701 listing object name completions when being sent text via
702 `sql-send-*' functions.
704 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
708 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if the displayed
709 image can be animated.
711 *** Option `image-animate-loop', if non-nil, loops the animation.
712 If nil, `image-toggle-animation' plays the animation once.
714 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
716 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
717 superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
718 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
721 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
722 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
723 threads simultaneously.
727 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
728 system or session bus.
730 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
731 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
734 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
735 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
739 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
741 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
742 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
744 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
747 ** VC and related modes
749 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
750 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
751 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
752 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
754 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
756 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
758 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
759 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
760 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
761 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
763 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
765 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
766 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
767 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
768 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
770 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
772 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
773 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
775 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
776 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
781 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
783 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
785 *** The new command `info-display-manual' will display an Info manual
786 specified by its name. If that manual is already visited in some Info
787 buffer within the current session, the command will display that
788 buffer. Otherwise, it will load the manual and display it. This is
789 handy if you have many manuals in many Info buffers, and don't
790 remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual you want to
794 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
796 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
797 original buffers. It is bound to C-x C-q in Occur mode.
799 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
800 and electric-layout-mode.
802 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
803 from which other modes can be derived.
805 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
807 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
808 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
809 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
810 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
813 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
814 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
816 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
817 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
819 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
822 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
825 ** `char-direction-table' and the associated function `char-direction'
826 were deleted. They were buggy and inferior to the new support of
827 bidirectional editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the
828 bidirectional properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property'
829 with the last argument `bidi-class'.
831 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
832 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
833 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
834 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
836 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
837 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
838 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
839 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
841 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
842 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
843 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
846 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
848 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
850 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
851 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
852 programmer-visible consequences.
854 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
857 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
858 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
859 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
860 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
861 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
862 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
864 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
865 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
866 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
867 has now been removed.
869 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
871 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
873 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
874 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
875 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
876 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
877 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
878 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
879 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
882 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
884 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
885 font-lock-defaults-alist
887 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
888 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
890 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
893 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
896 *** New variable completion-extra-properties used to specify extra properties
897 of the current completion:
898 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
899 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
901 *** Functions on completion-at-point-functions can return any of the properties
902 valid for completion-extra-properties.
904 *** completion-annotate-function is obsolete.
906 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
907 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
908 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
909 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
910 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
911 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
912 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
914 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
915 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
917 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
918 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
919 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
920 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
921 must also be supplied.
923 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
924 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
925 variables. It is typically set via file-local variables, in which case it
926 applies to all the code in that file.
928 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
929 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
931 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
932 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
934 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
936 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
937 declared as dynamically bound.
939 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
940 Instead, the offending function is removed.
942 ** New low-level function run-hook-wrapped.
944 ** `server-eval-at' is provided to allow evaluating forms on different
945 Emacs server instances.
947 ** `call-process' allows a `(:file "file")' spec to redirect STDOUT to
950 ** byte-compile-disable-print-circle is obsolete.
951 ** deferred-action-list and deferred-action-function are obsolete.
952 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
953 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
954 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
955 jumping all the way to the top-level.
957 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
958 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
960 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
961 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
962 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
965 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
966 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
967 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
968 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
969 Together with this new variable come a new hook
970 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
971 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
972 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
975 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
978 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
979 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
980 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
981 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
983 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
984 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
985 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
986 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
988 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
990 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
991 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
992 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
995 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
996 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
997 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1001 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1003 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1005 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1007 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1010 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
1012 ** XML and HTML parsing
1014 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
1015 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
1016 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
1017 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1018 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1020 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
1024 *** Emacs can be compiled with libgnutls support
1025 This is the default. You will then be able to use the functionality
1026 in gnutls.el, namely the `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'
1027 functions. It's easiest to use these functions through
1028 `open-network-stream' because it can upgrade connections through
1029 STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain SSL, depending on your needs.
1031 Only versions 2.8.x and higher or GnuTLS have been tested.
1033 *** gnutls-log-level
1034 Set `gnutls-log-level' higher than 0 to get debug output. 1 is for
1035 important messages, 2 is for debug data, and higher numbers are as per
1036 the GnuTLS logging conventions. The output is in *Messages*.
1040 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1042 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1043 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1044 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1045 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1046 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1047 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1049 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1050 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1052 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook' allow
1053 deferring warnings until the main command loop is executed.
1056 ** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1057 as well as those in the -*- line.
1060 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1063 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1065 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
1068 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
1069 included in binary distribution.
1071 ** New configure.bat option --without-gnutls to disable automatic
1074 ** New configure.bat option --lib for general library linkage, works
1075 with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1077 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1080 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1081 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1083 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1084 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1085 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1086 (at your option) any later version.
1088 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1089 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1090 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1091 GNU General Public License for more details.
1093 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1094 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1099 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"