1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS.
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
11 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
12 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
14 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
15 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
18 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
19 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if they these are available.
21 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
22 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
24 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
25 support 64-bit executables. See etc/MACHINES for instructions.
27 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
29 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
30 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
31 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
32 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
34 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
35 a version-dependent component.
37 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
38 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
39 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
40 character is still bound as before.
42 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
45 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
46 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to executable-chmod.
48 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
49 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
50 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
51 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
52 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
53 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
54 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
56 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
57 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
58 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
59 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
60 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
61 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
62 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
63 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
64 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
66 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
67 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
69 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
70 point in a pop-up window.
72 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
73 displays all characters in that character set.
75 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
76 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
78 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
81 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
83 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
84 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
86 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
87 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
88 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
89 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
91 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
92 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
93 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
94 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
96 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
97 on the display using several methods
99 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
100 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
101 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
103 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
104 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
106 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
108 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
109 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
111 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
112 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
113 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
114 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
116 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
117 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
118 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
120 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
121 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
123 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
124 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
127 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
128 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
131 ** New X resources recognized
133 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
134 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
135 is useful for debugging X problems.
139 emacs.synchronous: true
141 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
142 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
143 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
144 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
145 visual class names are
154 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
155 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
158 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
159 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
160 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
165 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
167 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
168 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
169 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
170 resource values are `true' or `on'.
174 emacs.privateColormap: true
176 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
177 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
178 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
180 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
181 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
182 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
185 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
187 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
188 all frames except the selected one.
190 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
191 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
193 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
194 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X either in the echo
195 area or with tooltips.
197 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
198 read mail from the menu etc.
200 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
201 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
203 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
205 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
209 -------------------------
216 ** Changes in Outline mode.
218 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
219 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
220 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
222 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
223 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
225 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
226 or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
227 several other special buffers.
229 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
230 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
233 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
234 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
236 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
237 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
238 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
240 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
241 is running in batch mode. For example,
243 (message "%s" (read t))
245 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
248 ** Faces and frame parameters.
250 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
251 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
252 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
253 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
254 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
255 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
256 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
258 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
259 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
260 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
261 `default' face and vice versa.
265 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
266 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
267 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
269 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
271 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
272 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
273 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
274 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
276 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
277 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
278 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
280 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
283 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
285 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
286 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
287 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
288 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
291 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
293 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
294 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
295 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
296 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
299 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
300 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
301 under Lisp changes, below.
303 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
305 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
306 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
309 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
310 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
311 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
312 customizing face `fringe'.
314 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
315 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
319 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
320 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
322 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
324 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
325 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
326 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
327 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
328 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
331 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
332 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
333 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
334 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
335 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
336 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
338 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
339 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
340 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
341 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
342 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
343 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
345 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
346 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
347 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
348 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
349 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
351 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
353 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
354 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
355 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
357 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
359 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
360 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
361 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
362 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
363 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
368 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
369 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
373 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
374 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
375 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
378 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
380 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
381 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
382 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
385 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
386 have to do anything to activate it.
388 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
390 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
391 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
392 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
393 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
395 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
397 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
399 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
401 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
404 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
407 ** Hscrolling in C code.
409 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
410 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
415 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
416 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
418 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
420 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
421 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
422 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
423 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
424 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
426 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
428 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
431 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
432 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
434 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
436 - Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
437 toggles the read-only status.
439 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
441 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
443 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
444 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
447 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
449 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
450 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
451 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
452 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
453 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
454 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
459 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
460 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
461 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
463 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
464 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
465 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
466 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
467 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
468 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
470 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
472 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
474 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
475 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
476 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
478 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
479 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
481 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
482 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
483 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
485 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
487 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
488 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
489 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
490 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
492 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
493 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
494 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
495 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
497 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
498 notably at the end of lines.
500 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
501 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
503 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
505 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
506 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
507 after each match to get the replacement text.
509 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
510 you edit the replacement string.
512 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', let's
513 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
514 lisp-complete-symbol.
516 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
518 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
519 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
520 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
521 window size by setting the following variable:
523 - User option: max-mini-window-height
525 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
526 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
527 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
531 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
533 ** Changes to hideshow.el
535 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
536 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
538 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
540 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
541 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
542 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
543 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
544 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
545 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
547 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
548 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
549 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
550 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
552 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
554 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
555 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
556 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
557 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
558 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
560 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
561 something like this in your .emacs.
563 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
565 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
567 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
569 If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
570 entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
571 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
573 New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
574 buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
576 Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
577 if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
579 The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
580 expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
581 cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
584 ** Changes in Font Lock
586 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
587 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
590 ** Comint (subshell) changes
592 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
593 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
595 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
596 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
597 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
599 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
600 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
601 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
603 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and
604 scheme-interaction-mode now highlight user input, and support choosing
605 previous input with mouse-2. To control this feature, see the
606 user-option `comint-highlight-input'.
608 ** Changes to Rmail mode
610 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
611 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
612 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
613 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
614 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
617 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
618 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
619 regexp matching your mail addresses.
621 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
622 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
623 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
624 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
625 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
627 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
630 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
631 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
634 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
635 in which folder to put messages automatically.
637 ** Changes to TeX mode
639 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
642 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
644 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
645 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
646 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
647 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
648 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
649 can be edited from that buffer.
651 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
652 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
653 `A' to use all marked entries).
655 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
656 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
658 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
659 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
660 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
663 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
664 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
665 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
666 in column 1 are always made leaves.
668 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
669 has the following new features:
671 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
672 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
673 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
674 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
676 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
677 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
678 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
679 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
680 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
683 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
688 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
689 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
690 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
692 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
693 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
694 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
695 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
699 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
700 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
701 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
703 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
704 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
707 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
708 between custom options. Example:
710 (defcustom default-input-method nil
711 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
712 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
713 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
715 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
716 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
718 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
719 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
720 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
722 ** New features in evaluation commands
724 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
725 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
726 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
727 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
728 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
730 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
731 code when called with a prefix argument.
735 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
736 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
737 is, delete only empty directories.
739 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
740 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
741 copy directories recursively.
743 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
744 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
745 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
747 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
748 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
751 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
752 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
753 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
754 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
755 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
757 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
760 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
761 use the -f option when sending mail.
765 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
766 current user setups (although it's believed that these
767 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
768 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
769 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
770 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
773 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
774 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
775 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
776 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
777 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
780 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
781 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
782 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
783 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
784 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
785 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
787 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
788 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
789 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
790 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
791 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
792 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
793 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
794 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
796 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
797 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
798 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
799 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
802 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
803 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
804 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
805 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
806 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
807 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
808 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
809 function documentation for more info.
811 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
812 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
813 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
814 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
815 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
816 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
817 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
818 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
820 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
822 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
823 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
825 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
826 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
827 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
828 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
829 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
832 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
833 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
834 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
837 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
838 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
839 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
840 chapter about this in the manual.
842 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
843 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
844 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
845 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
846 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
848 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
849 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
850 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
852 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
853 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
855 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
856 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
857 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
860 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
861 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
862 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
863 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
866 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
867 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
868 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
871 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
872 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
873 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
874 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
877 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
878 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
879 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
880 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
883 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
884 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
885 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
887 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
889 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
890 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
891 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
892 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
894 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
895 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
896 the column specified by comment-column.
898 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
899 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
900 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
901 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
902 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
903 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
905 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
906 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
909 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
911 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
912 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
913 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
914 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
917 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
919 ** Makefile mode changes
921 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
923 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
924 Fontlock mode is active.
928 ** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
929 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
930 that started the search.
932 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
933 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
935 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
937 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
938 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
939 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
940 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
941 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
942 `secondary-selection'.
944 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
945 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
946 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
947 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
948 usual snappy response.
950 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
951 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
952 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
953 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
955 ** Changes in sort.el
957 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
958 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
959 new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
962 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
964 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
965 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
966 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
968 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
969 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
971 ** Shell script mode changes.
973 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
974 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
975 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
979 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
981 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
982 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
983 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
984 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
985 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
987 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
988 declarations when given the --declarations option.
990 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
991 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
993 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
996 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
998 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1000 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1003 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1004 variables are tagged.
1006 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1008 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1011 ** Changes in etags.el
1013 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1014 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1015 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1017 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1018 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1020 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1021 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1022 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1023 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1025 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1027 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1028 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1030 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1032 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1033 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1034 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1036 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1037 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1039 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1040 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1042 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1043 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1044 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1046 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1047 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1048 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1049 There is currently no specific input method support for them.
1051 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1052 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1053 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1055 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1057 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1059 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
1060 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1061 expression from that list, are not checked.
1063 ** New modes and packages
1065 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1066 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1068 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1069 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1070 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1072 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1073 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1074 separate Texinfo file.
1076 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine
1077 or by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1078 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS.
1079 It comes with log-view-mode to view RCS and SCCS logs and log-edit-mode
1080 used to enter checkin log messages.
1082 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1083 without invoking external programs.
1085 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1086 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1087 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1088 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1089 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1091 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1092 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1094 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1095 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1097 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1098 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1099 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1100 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1101 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1104 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1105 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1106 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1107 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1109 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1110 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1111 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1113 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1116 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1118 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1120 ; comment (until end of line)
1124 $A default non-terminal
1125 $"C" default terminal
1126 $?C? default special
1127 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1128 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1129 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1130 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1131 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1132 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1133 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1134 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1135 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1136 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1137 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1138 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1139 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1140 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1141 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1143 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1145 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1146 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1147 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1148 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1149 equal signs of assignments.
1151 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1152 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1154 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1155 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1156 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1157 customize the package.
1159 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1161 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1162 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1163 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1164 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1165 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1166 which answers different needs.
1168 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1169 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1170 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1171 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1172 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1175 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1176 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1178 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1180 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1182 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1184 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1187 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1190 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1192 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1194 *** whitespace.el ???
1196 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1197 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1198 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1199 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1200 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1201 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1202 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1204 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1206 Here is an example of columns:
1209 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1210 porcupine strawberry airplane
1212 Doing the following settings:
1214 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1215 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1216 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1217 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1220 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1222 M-x delimit-columns-region
1226 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1227 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1228 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1230 delim-col has the following options:
1232 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1235 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1236 between each column.
1238 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1241 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1244 delim-col has the following commands:
1246 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1247 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1249 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1250 were operated on recently.
1252 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1254 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1255 recentf at Emacs startup.
1257 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1258 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1259 file list can be displayed:
1261 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1262 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1263 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1265 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1266 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1268 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1271 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1272 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1273 specific to Message mode.
1275 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1276 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1277 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1279 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1280 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1281 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1283 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1284 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1286 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1288 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1289 minibuffer with completion.
1291 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1292 with the diary features.
1294 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1295 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1297 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1300 ** Withdrawn packages
1302 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1303 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1305 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1307 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1310 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1311 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1313 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1314 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1315 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1317 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1318 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1320 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1321 function was declared obsolete.
1323 ** Function plist-member is renamed from widget-plist-member (which is
1324 retained as an alias).
1326 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1327 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1328 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1330 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1332 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1334 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1335 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1337 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1339 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1341 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1343 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1344 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1345 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1346 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1349 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1350 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1351 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1352 minibuffer even if it is active.
1354 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1355 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1356 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1357 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1358 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1359 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1361 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1362 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1363 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1364 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1365 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1366 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1367 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1369 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key
1370 and event names in angle brackets.
1372 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1373 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1374 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1375 Default value is nil.
1377 ** The user option line-number-display-limit can now be set to nil,
1380 ** select-safe-coding-system now also checks the most preferred
1381 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1382 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1384 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1387 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1388 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1389 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1390 than replacing the local map.
1392 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1393 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1395 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1397 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1401 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1403 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1404 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1405 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1406 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1408 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1409 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1410 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1411 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1413 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1414 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1415 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1417 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1418 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1419 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1420 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1421 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1422 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1423 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1426 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1428 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1429 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1430 character set as previously.
1432 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1433 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1434 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1436 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1437 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1438 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1439 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1441 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1442 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1444 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1445 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1448 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1449 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1451 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1452 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1453 buffers and strings.
1455 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1456 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1457 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1458 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1459 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1460 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1461 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1464 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1465 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1466 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1468 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1469 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1470 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1471 may differ between buffer and string text.
1473 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1474 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1476 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1477 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1478 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1479 `composition' from STRING.
1481 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1482 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1484 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1487 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1488 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1489 character set is not used.
1491 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1492 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1493 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1496 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1497 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1498 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1501 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1502 that offset in the file before writing.
1504 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1505 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
1507 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1508 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1509 from which the command was issued.
1511 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1512 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1513 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1514 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1517 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1518 to `window-buffer-height'.
1520 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1522 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1523 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1524 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1526 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1529 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1530 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1532 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1533 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1534 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1536 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1537 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1538 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1539 is currently displayed in some window.
1541 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1542 argument function's results.
1544 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1545 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1547 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1548 header is the list of headers passed to it.
1550 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1551 ignores differences in case and text representation.
1553 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1554 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1557 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1558 nil don't display a cursor
1559 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1560 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1561 others display a box cursor.
1563 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1564 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1565 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1566 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1568 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1569 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
1570 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1571 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1575 (string-to-syntax "()")
1578 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1581 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1582 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1589 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1594 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1599 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1606 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
1607 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1610 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1611 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1612 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1613 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1616 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1618 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
1619 for a regexp in a string.
1621 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1622 `mouse-position-function'.
1624 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1625 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1627 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1628 Keywords are now always considered constants.
1631 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1634 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1635 returned by function `recent-keys'.
1638 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1639 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1640 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1641 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1645 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1646 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1649 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1650 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1651 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1652 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1655 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1656 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1657 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1658 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
1661 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1662 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1663 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1666 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1667 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1670 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1672 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
1673 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1674 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1678 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
1679 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
1682 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1683 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1686 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1687 instead of being optional.
1690 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1691 modify read-only text.
1694 ** New functions and variables for locales.
1696 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1697 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
1698 time functions like strftime. The new variables
1699 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1700 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
1702 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1703 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1704 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
1705 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1706 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1707 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1708 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
1711 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1712 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1713 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1717 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1718 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1721 ** New function `propertize'
1723 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1724 strings with text properties.
1726 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1728 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1729 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1730 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1731 specified value of that property. Example:
1733 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1736 ** push and pop macros.
1738 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1739 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
1740 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1742 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1743 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1744 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1746 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1748 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1749 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
1751 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1752 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1753 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1754 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1756 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1757 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1758 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1759 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1762 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1763 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1765 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1766 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1767 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1768 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
1769 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1771 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1773 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1774 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1775 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1776 [:alpha:] matches letters.
1777 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1778 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1779 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1780 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1781 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1782 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
1783 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1784 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1785 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1786 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1787 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1790 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1792 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1794 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1796 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1797 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1801 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1802 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1803 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1807 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1808 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1810 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1812 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1813 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1814 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
1815 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1816 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1818 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1820 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1821 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1822 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1826 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
1827 Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
1828 their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
1829 hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1831 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
1833 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1835 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1837 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1839 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1841 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1844 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1846 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1848 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1850 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1852 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1854 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1856 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1858 Returns the size of TABLE.
1860 - Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1862 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1864 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1866 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1868 - Function: clrhash TABLE
1872 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1874 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1877 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
1879 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1880 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1882 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1884 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1886 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1888 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1889 arguments KEY and VALUE.
1891 - Function: sxhash OBJ
1893 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1895 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1897 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1898 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
1899 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
1900 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1901 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1903 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1905 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1906 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1907 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1909 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1910 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
1912 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
1913 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
1915 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
1916 (sxhash (upcase a)))
1918 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
1919 'case-fold-string-hash))
1921 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
1924 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
1926 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
1927 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
1928 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
1931 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
1933 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
1934 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
1937 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
1938 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
1939 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
1940 is too short to reach that column.
1943 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
1944 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
1945 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
1946 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
1948 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
1949 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
1950 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
1953 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
1954 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
1957 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
1958 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
1961 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
1962 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
1963 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
1964 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
1965 temporary-file-directory instead.
1968 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
1969 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
1970 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
1971 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
1974 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
1975 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
1978 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
1980 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
1981 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
1982 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
1985 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
1987 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
1988 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
1989 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
1990 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
1991 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
1992 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
1994 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
1995 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
1996 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
1997 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2000 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2002 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2003 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2004 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2007 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2008 string where arguments appear in the result string.
2012 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2014 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2015 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
2018 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2021 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2023 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2024 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2027 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2029 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2030 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2036 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2037 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2039 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2040 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2041 to enable sound support.
2043 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2044 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2045 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2046 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2047 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2049 The following sound properties are supported:
2053 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2054 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2058 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2059 may be present, but not both.
2063 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2064 0..1. This property is optional.
2066 Other properties are ignored.
2068 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2070 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2073 ** Changes to garbage collection
2075 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2076 of live and free strings.
2078 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2079 strings that have been consed so far.
2082 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2086 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2088 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2091 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2093 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2095 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2096 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2097 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2098 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2099 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2101 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2102 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2105 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2108 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center'.
2110 When this property is specified, the image is vertically centered
2111 around a centerline which would be the vertical center of text drawn
2112 at the position of the image, in the manner specified by the text
2113 properties and overlays that apply to the image.
2116 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2118 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2119 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2120 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2121 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2123 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2124 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2126 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2127 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2128 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2129 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2130 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2131 just display it black instead.
2133 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2136 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2140 ** New face implementation.
2142 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2143 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2148 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2150 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2152 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2153 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2155 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2157 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2159 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2161 6. Foreground color.
2163 7. Background color.
2165 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2167 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2169 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2171 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2173 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2176 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2177 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2179 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2180 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2181 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2182 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2183 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2184 attributes mentioned above.
2186 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2187 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2190 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2191 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2197 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2198 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2199 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2200 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2201 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2202 results in a fully-specified face.
2205 *** Face realization.
2207 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2208 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2209 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2210 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2211 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2212 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2214 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2215 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2216 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2217 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2219 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2220 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2221 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2222 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2223 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2225 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2226 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2227 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2228 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2229 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2232 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2233 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2234 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2235 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2238 **** Clearing face caches.
2240 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2241 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2247 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2248 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2249 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2251 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2252 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2253 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2254 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2255 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2257 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2258 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2259 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2261 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2263 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2264 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2265 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2266 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2267 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2268 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2269 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2271 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2272 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2278 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2279 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2282 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2283 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2284 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2285 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2286 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2289 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2291 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2294 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2296 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2298 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2299 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2300 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2302 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2303 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2304 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2305 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2306 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2307 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2308 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2309 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2310 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2311 of the face font sort order.
2313 - Function: x-font-family-list
2315 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2316 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2317 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2318 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2320 - Variable: font-list-limit
2322 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2323 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2324 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2327 *** Setting face attributes.
2329 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2330 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2331 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2334 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2335 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2337 The following attributes are recognized:
2341 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2342 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2343 and `?' are allowed.
2347 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2348 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2349 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2350 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2354 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
2359 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2360 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2361 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2365 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2366 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2369 `:foreground', `:background'
2371 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2375 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2376 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2377 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2382 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2383 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2384 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2389 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2390 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2391 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2392 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2396 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2397 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2398 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2399 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2400 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2401 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2402 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2403 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2404 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2405 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2406 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2407 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2408 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2409 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2410 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2411 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2416 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2417 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2421 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2422 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2423 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2424 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2425 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2426 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2428 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2429 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2433 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2434 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2435 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2438 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2439 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2440 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2442 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2445 *** Face attributes and X resources
2447 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2450 Face attribute X resource class
2451 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2452 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2453 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2454 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2455 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2456 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2457 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2458 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2459 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2460 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2461 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2462 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2463 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2464 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2465 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2466 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2467 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2468 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2469 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2470 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2473 *** Text property `face'.
2475 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2476 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2477 specification can be
2479 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2481 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2482 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2483 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2484 for face attribute names.
2486 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2487 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2488 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2491 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2493 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2494 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2495 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
2496 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
2497 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
2498 used to clear the mapping table.
2500 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2502 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2503 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2504 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2505 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2506 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2507 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2508 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2509 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2510 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2511 modify their color-related behavior.
2513 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2516 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2518 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2519 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2520 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2521 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2522 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2523 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2524 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2525 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2526 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2529 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
2531 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
2533 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2534 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2535 Otherwise, it returns zero.
2537 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2539 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2540 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2543 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
2544 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
2545 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
2546 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
2547 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2548 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2549 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2552 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
2553 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
2554 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
2556 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2558 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
2560 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2561 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2562 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2563 constrained position if that is is different.
2565 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2566 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2567 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2568 constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
2569 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2570 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2573 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2574 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2575 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2576 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2577 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2579 - Function: erase-field &optional POS
2581 Erases the field surrounding POS.
2582 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2583 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2585 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2587 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2588 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2589 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2590 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
2591 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2593 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2595 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2596 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2597 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2598 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
2599 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2601 - Function: field-string &optional POS
2603 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2604 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2605 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2607 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2609 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2610 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2611 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2616 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2617 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2618 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2619 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2621 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2622 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2623 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2624 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2627 IMAGE is an image specification.
2629 *** Image specifications
2631 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2632 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2633 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
2634 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2635 described below are ignored.
2637 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2641 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2642 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2643 to use for its ascent.
2645 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2646 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2648 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
2649 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
2650 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
2651 overlays that apply to the image.
2655 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
2656 margin around the image. Default is 0.
2660 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2665 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2666 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2667 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2668 which is intended to display images "disabled."
2670 `:heuristic-mask BG'
2672 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2673 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2674 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2675 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2676 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2677 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2678 background of the image.
2682 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2683 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2684 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2685 may be present in the image specification.
2689 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2690 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2691 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2692 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2694 *** Supported image types
2696 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
2698 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2699 properties supported are
2703 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2704 is the frame's foreground.
2708 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2709 the frame's background color.
2711 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2712 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2713 instead of a `:file' property.
2717 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2721 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2727 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2728 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2730 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2732 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2735 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2736 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2739 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
2741 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2742 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2743 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2744 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2746 Additional image properties supported are:
2748 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2750 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2751 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2754 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2755 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2757 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2758 to display compressed images.
2760 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
2762 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2763 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2766 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2768 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
2769 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2772 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2774 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2775 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2778 **** GIF, image type `gif'
2780 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2781 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2783 Additional image properties supported are:
2787 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2788 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2790 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2791 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2792 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2795 (defun show-anim (file max)
2796 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2797 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2799 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2802 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
2805 (goto-char (point-min))
2806 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2807 (insert-image img "x"))
2808 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2810 **** PNG, image type `png'
2812 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2813 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2816 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2818 Additional image properties supported are:
2822 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
2823 integer. This is a required property.
2827 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
2828 must be a integer. This is an required property.
2832 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2833 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2834 files. This is an required property.
2836 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2841 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2842 which are supported in the current configuration.
2844 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2845 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2846 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2847 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
2848 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
2850 *** Simplified image API, image.el
2852 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2853 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2854 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2855 define an image based on available image types. The functions
2856 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2862 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2865 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2866 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2867 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2868 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2869 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2870 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2871 of the display margins.
2873 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2874 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2875 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2876 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2882 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2883 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2884 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2885 that have a `help-echo' property.
2887 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
2888 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
2889 the window in which the help was found.
2891 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
2892 `help-echo' text property was found.
2894 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
2895 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
2897 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
2898 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
2901 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
2902 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
2904 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
2905 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
2906 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
2907 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
2908 used as help string.
2910 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
2911 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
2912 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
2915 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
2917 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
2918 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
2920 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
2921 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
2922 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
2923 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
2926 (global-set-key [A-down]
2929 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
2930 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
2931 (global-set-key [A-up]
2934 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
2935 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
2938 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
2940 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
2941 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
2942 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
2943 is called with one argument, POS.
2945 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
2946 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
2947 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
2948 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
2949 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
2952 ** Tool bar support.
2954 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
2955 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
2956 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
2957 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
2958 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
2959 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
2961 *** Tool bar item definitions
2963 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2964 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
2965 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
2967 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
2968 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
2969 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
2970 property (see below).
2972 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
2973 binding are currently ignored.
2975 The following properties are recognized:
2979 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
2984 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
2988 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
2989 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
2990 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
2992 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
2994 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
2995 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
2999 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3000 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3001 meaning of each of the four elements:
3003 Index Use when item is
3004 ----------------------------------------
3005 0 enabled and selected
3006 1 enabled and deselected
3007 2 disabled and selected
3008 3 disabled and deselected
3010 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3011 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3013 `:help HELP-STRING'.
3015 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3016 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3018 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
3020 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3021 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3022 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3024 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3025 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3027 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3028 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3029 pixels. Default is 1.
3031 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3032 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3034 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3036 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3039 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3040 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3041 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3043 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3045 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3047 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3050 ** Mode line changes.
3053 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3055 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3056 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3057 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3059 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3060 a `local-map' text property.
3062 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3063 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3065 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3066 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3067 `local-map' property.
3069 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3070 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3073 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3074 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3077 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3078 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3081 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3083 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3084 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3085 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3086 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3089 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3092 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3093 position in the header-line.
3096 ** Text property `display'
3098 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3099 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3100 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3101 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3103 *** Variable width and height spaces
3105 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3106 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3107 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3108 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3109 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3110 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3111 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3113 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3114 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3115 properties described below.
3117 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3118 characters having the `display' property.
3122 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3123 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3125 - :relative-width FACTOR
3127 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3128 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3129 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3130 width of that character by FACTOR.
3134 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3135 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3137 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3141 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3144 - :relative-height FACTOR
3146 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3147 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3151 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3152 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3153 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3156 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3160 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3161 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3162 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3163 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3164 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3165 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3166 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3167 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3168 as display specification.
3170 *** Other display properties
3172 - :space-width FACTOR
3174 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3175 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3180 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3182 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3183 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3184 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3185 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3186 a font is available counts as a step.
3188 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3189 as tall as the frame's default font.
3191 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3192 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3194 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3195 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3199 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3200 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3201 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3202 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3203 `:height' subproperty.
3205 *** Conditional display properties
3207 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3208 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3209 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3210 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3211 the text having the `display' property.
3213 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3217 ** New menu separator types.
3219 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3220 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3221 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3222 to specify other menu separator types.
3224 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3226 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3229 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3231 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3233 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3235 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3237 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3239 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3241 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3243 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3245 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3247 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3248 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3250 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3252 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3254 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3256 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3258 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3260 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3262 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3264 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3266 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3268 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3270 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3272 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3274 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3276 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3278 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3279 the corresponding single-line separators.
3282 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3284 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3285 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3286 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3287 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3288 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3289 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3290 default foreground is black.
3292 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3293 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3294 `ScrollBarBackground').
3296 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3297 settings for scroll bar colors.
3300 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3301 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3304 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3305 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3306 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3307 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3308 the original window start.
3311 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3312 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3313 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3316 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3318 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3319 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3320 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3321 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3323 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3324 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3326 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3328 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3329 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3330 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3331 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3332 temporarily to nil, for example
3334 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3335 (enlarge-window 10))
3337 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3338 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3340 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3341 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3342 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3343 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3344 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3345 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3347 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3349 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3352 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3354 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3356 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3357 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3358 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3359 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3360 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3362 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3366 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3368 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3371 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3373 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3374 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3376 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3378 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3380 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3381 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3382 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3384 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3385 is the one that is used.
3387 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3388 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3389 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3390 separate from the command's regular output.
3391 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3392 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3393 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3396 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3397 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3398 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3399 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3401 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3402 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3403 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3404 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3406 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3407 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3408 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3409 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3411 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3412 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3413 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3414 they never ignore case.
3416 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3417 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3418 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3419 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3420 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3421 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3422 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3424 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3425 the same format that was used in the file before.
3427 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3428 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3430 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3431 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3432 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3434 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3435 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3436 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3437 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3438 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3439 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3440 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3442 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3443 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3444 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3445 format. You can now customize these variables.
3447 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3448 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3449 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3450 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3452 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3453 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3454 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3456 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3457 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3458 doesn't have any effect.
3460 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3463 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3464 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3465 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3467 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3468 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3469 `auto-show-mode' command.
3471 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3472 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3473 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3474 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3475 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3477 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3478 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3480 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3481 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3482 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3484 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3485 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3486 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3487 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3489 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3491 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3492 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3493 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3494 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3495 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3497 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3498 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3500 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3501 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3502 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3503 `?' on other systems.
3505 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3506 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3509 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3510 current codepage when it starts.
3514 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3515 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3516 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3517 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3518 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3519 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3523 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3524 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3526 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3527 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3528 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3529 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3530 buffer-file-coding-system.
3532 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3533 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3536 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3537 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3538 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3539 list of possible coding systems.
3543 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3544 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3545 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3546 docstring for details.
3548 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3549 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3550 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3551 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3552 lineup functions use this feature currently.
3554 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3555 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3557 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3558 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3560 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3561 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3562 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3563 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3566 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3567 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3569 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3570 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3571 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3572 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3574 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3575 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3576 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3577 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3578 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3580 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3582 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3584 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3585 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3587 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3589 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3590 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3591 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3592 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3593 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3597 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3598 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3599 Gnus manual for the full story.
3601 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3602 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3603 group, which is created automatically.
3605 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3608 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3610 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3611 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3613 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3616 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3618 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3619 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3621 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3623 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3624 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3626 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3627 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3629 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3630 control over simplification.
3632 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3634 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3637 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3639 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3641 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
3642 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3643 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3645 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3646 `a' forces normal posting method.
3648 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3651 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3654 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3655 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3657 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3660 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3662 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3664 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3665 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3667 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3668 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3670 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3672 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3675 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3676 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3678 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3679 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3681 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3683 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3685 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3687 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3689 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3690 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3691 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3693 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3694 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3695 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3696 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3697 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3699 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3700 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3701 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3702 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3704 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3705 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3706 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3709 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3711 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3712 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3714 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3715 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3716 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3717 removed from the label.
3719 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3720 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3722 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3723 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3725 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3726 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
3729 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3731 ** New/deleted modes and packages
3733 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3734 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3736 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3737 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3738 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3740 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3741 changes with a special face.
3743 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3744 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3745 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3747 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3749 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3750 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3751 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3752 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3753 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3755 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3756 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3757 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3759 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3760 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3761 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3762 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3763 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3764 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3765 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3766 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3767 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3769 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3770 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
3771 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
3772 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
3773 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
3776 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
3777 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
3778 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
3779 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
3780 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
3781 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
3783 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
3784 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
3785 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
3786 was not documented clearly before.
3788 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
3789 This includes Tetris and Snake.
3791 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
3793 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
3794 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
3795 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
3796 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
3798 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
3799 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
3800 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
3802 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
3804 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
3805 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3807 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3808 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3811 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3812 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3813 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3814 file names and attributes are returned.
3816 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3817 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3818 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3819 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3822 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3823 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3825 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
3827 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3828 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3829 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3832 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3833 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3836 The new function process-running-child-p
3837 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3838 terminal to its own child process.
3840 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3841 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3842 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3843 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3845 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3846 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3848 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3849 :included is an alias for :visible.
3851 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3852 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3853 to move or copy menu entries.
3855 ** Multibyte editing changes
3857 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3858 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3859 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3860 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3861 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3862 (setq char (sref str idx)
3863 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3864 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3866 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3867 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3868 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3870 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3871 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3872 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3874 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3876 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3877 across the boundary.
3879 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3880 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3881 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3882 contains 8-bit characters.
3883 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
3884 contains invalid characters.
3886 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
3887 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
3888 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
3889 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
3892 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
3893 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
3894 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
3895 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
3897 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
3898 compose Thai characters in a string.
3900 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
3901 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
3902 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
3903 menus should always use the third argument.
3905 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
3906 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
3907 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
3908 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
3910 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
3911 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
3912 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
3913 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
3915 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
3916 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
3917 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
3920 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
3922 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
3923 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
3924 requested feature cannot be loaded.
3926 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
3927 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
3928 means to clear out that attribute.
3930 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
3931 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
3933 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
3934 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
3935 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
3936 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
3938 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
3939 the gap of the current buffer.
3941 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
3942 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
3945 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
3946 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
3947 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
3948 it back in after any modifications have been made.
3950 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
3952 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
3953 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
3954 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
3955 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
3956 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
3958 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
3959 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
3960 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
3961 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
3962 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
3964 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
3965 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
3966 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
3968 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
3969 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
3970 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
3971 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
3972 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
3975 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
3976 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
3977 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
3978 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
3980 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
3982 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
3983 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
3984 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
3985 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
3987 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
3988 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
3989 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
3990 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
3991 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
3992 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
3993 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
3996 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
3999 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
4000 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
4001 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
4002 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
4003 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
4005 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
4006 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
4007 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
4008 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
4010 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
4011 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
4012 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
4013 something that most users not do.
4015 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
4016 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
4017 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
4020 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4023 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4024 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4025 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4026 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4029 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4030 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4031 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4032 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4033 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4036 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4037 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4038 to be confused by TeX commands.
4040 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4041 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4042 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4043 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4045 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4046 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4047 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4048 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4049 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4051 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4052 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4054 ** Changes in input method usage.
4056 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4057 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4060 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4062 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4063 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4065 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4066 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4068 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4070 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4072 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4073 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4075 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4076 given in the following case:
4077 o When you are using a complex input method.
4078 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4080 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4081 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4082 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4083 setting it to t is helpful.
4085 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4087 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4089 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4090 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4091 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4092 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4095 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4096 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4097 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4100 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4102 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4104 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4105 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4107 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4108 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4109 its owner and group.
4111 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4112 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4114 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4115 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4117 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4118 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4119 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4120 by the left edge of the rectangle.
4122 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4123 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4124 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4125 for writing keyboard macros.
4127 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4128 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4129 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4130 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4131 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4134 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4136 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4137 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4140 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4141 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4142 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4143 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4145 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4146 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4147 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4149 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4150 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4151 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4152 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4154 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4155 failure if the command produces no output.
4157 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4158 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4161 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4162 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4163 function and variable names.
4165 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4166 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4167 file-coding-system-alist.
4169 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4170 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4171 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4172 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4173 according to the current fontset.
4175 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4177 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4178 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4179 nonascii-insert-offset.
4181 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4182 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4183 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4184 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4186 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4187 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4189 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4190 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4192 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4193 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4196 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4197 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4199 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4200 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4201 all variables that have documentation.
4203 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4204 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4205 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4206 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4207 it should show; the default is 20.
4209 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4210 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4213 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4214 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4215 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4216 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4217 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4218 Newly added options are included as well.
4220 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4221 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4222 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4224 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4227 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4228 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4230 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4231 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4234 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4235 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4238 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4239 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4240 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4241 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4244 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4246 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4247 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4248 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4250 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4251 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4252 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4257 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4258 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4260 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4261 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4263 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4264 read and post multi-lingual articles.
4266 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4267 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4268 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4269 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4270 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4271 made invisible again.
4273 ** Mail reading and sending changes
4275 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4276 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4277 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4280 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4281 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4282 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4283 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4284 rmail-default-body-file.
4286 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4287 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4288 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4290 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4291 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4292 is evaluated to insert the signature.
4294 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4295 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4296 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4297 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4298 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4299 especially interested in trying feedmail.
4301 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4302 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4303 provided by feedmail are:
4305 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4306 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4307 there is also a queue for draft messages
4309 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4310 be prompted for confirmation
4312 **** does smart filling of address headers
4314 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4315 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4316 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4318 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4319 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4320 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4321 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4325 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4326 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4328 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4329 run Dired on the directory name at point.
4331 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4332 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4333 for a specified regexp.
4337 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4340 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4341 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4344 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4345 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4346 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4347 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4349 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4350 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4351 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4352 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4353 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4355 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4356 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4357 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4358 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4359 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4361 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4362 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4363 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4364 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4366 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4367 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4368 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4370 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4371 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4372 session to resolve them.
4374 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4375 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4376 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4379 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4380 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4381 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4382 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4383 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4384 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4387 ** Changes in Font Lock
4389 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4390 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4391 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4392 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4393 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4395 ** Frame name display changes
4397 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4398 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4399 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4400 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4402 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4403 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4406 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4408 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4409 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4410 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4412 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4414 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4415 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4416 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4418 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4419 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4422 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4423 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4424 previously sent input.
4426 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4427 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4428 as the search string.
4430 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4431 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4435 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4436 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4437 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
4440 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4441 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4442 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4443 style is still the default however.
4445 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4447 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4448 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4449 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4451 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4452 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4454 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4455 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4457 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4458 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4460 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4461 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4463 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4464 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4465 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4466 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4468 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
4470 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
4471 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4472 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4474 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4475 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4476 expanding dynamically.
4478 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4479 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4481 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4482 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4483 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4484 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4486 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4488 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4490 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4491 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4492 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4493 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4494 against the first word in the title.
4496 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4497 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4498 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
4499 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
4500 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
4501 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
4503 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4504 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4505 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4506 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4508 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
4510 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4511 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4512 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4513 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4514 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4515 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4517 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4518 Editing group once the package is loaded.
4520 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4521 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4522 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4524 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4525 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4529 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4530 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
4531 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4533 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
4534 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4535 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4536 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
4539 o URLs are automatically skipped
4540 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4542 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4544 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4546 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4547 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4548 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4549 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4551 *** New recursive parser.
4553 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4554 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4555 recursive parser scans the individual files.
4557 *** Parsing only part of a document.
4559 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4560 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4561 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4563 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4565 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
4567 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4569 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4571 *** Using multiple selection buffers
4573 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4574 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4576 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4578 *** References to external documents.
4580 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4581 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4582 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4583 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4584 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4585 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4586 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4588 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4590 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4591 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4593 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4594 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4596 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4598 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4599 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4601 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4603 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4604 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4605 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4606 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4607 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4608 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4611 *** Support for the varioref package
4613 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4617 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4618 and citations are created. These hooks are
4619 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4620 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
4622 *** Citations outside LaTeX
4624 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4625 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4627 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
4629 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4630 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4633 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4635 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4636 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4637 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4638 directories that contain the same file name.
4640 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4641 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4642 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4643 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4644 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4645 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4646 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4649 ** New modes and packages
4651 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4652 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4653 it, but some do not.
4655 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4658 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4659 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4662 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4664 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4665 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4666 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4667 established system of notation similar to Chess.
4669 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4670 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4671 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4673 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4674 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4675 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4676 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4677 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4680 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4681 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4683 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4684 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4685 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4686 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4688 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4690 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4691 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4692 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4693 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4694 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4695 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4696 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4697 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4698 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4699 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4700 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4702 Platform-specific modes:
4704 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4705 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4706 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4707 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4708 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4709 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4710 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4711 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4712 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4714 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4716 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4717 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4718 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4719 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4721 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4722 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4723 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4725 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4726 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4727 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4728 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4730 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4731 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4732 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4735 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4736 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4737 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4738 current input method for reading this one event.
4740 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4741 now control whether to output certain characters as
4742 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4743 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4744 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4745 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4747 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4749 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4750 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4752 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4753 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4754 always increases point by 1.
4756 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4757 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4759 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4761 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4762 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4763 default value changed. For example,
4765 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4770 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
4773 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
4774 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
4775 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
4776 `:version' in the top level group.
4778 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
4780 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
4781 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
4783 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
4784 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
4785 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
4788 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
4789 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
4792 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
4793 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
4794 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
4796 ** Frame-local variables.
4798 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
4799 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
4800 local bindings for that variable.
4802 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
4803 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
4804 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
4807 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
4808 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
4809 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
4810 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4812 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4813 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4814 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4815 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4817 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4818 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4819 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4820 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4821 See the documentation in sregex.el.
4823 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4824 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4825 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4826 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4828 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4829 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4831 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4832 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4833 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4835 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4836 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4837 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4838 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4840 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4841 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4844 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4845 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4846 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4847 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4848 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4850 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4851 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4852 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4853 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4855 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4856 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4857 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4858 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4859 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4861 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4862 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4863 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4864 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4866 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4867 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4868 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4870 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4871 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4872 was directed to display this buffer.
4874 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4875 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4876 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4877 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4878 set-window-configuration.
4880 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4881 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4882 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
4883 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
4885 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
4886 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
4887 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
4889 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
4890 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
4891 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
4893 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
4894 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
4896 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
4897 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
4899 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
4900 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
4901 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
4903 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
4904 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
4905 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
4906 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
4910 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
4911 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
4914 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
4915 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
4916 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
4917 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
4918 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
4920 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
4922 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
4923 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
4924 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
4925 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
4928 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
4929 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
4930 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
4931 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
4932 The supported properties include
4934 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4936 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4937 item should appear in the menu.
4939 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
4940 which will be REAL-BINDING.
4941 It should return a binding to use instead.
4943 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
4944 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
4945 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
4946 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
4947 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
4950 This means that the command normally has no
4951 keyboard equivalent.
4952 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
4953 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
4954 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
4955 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
4956 value says whether this button is currently selected.
4958 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
4959 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
4961 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
4965 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
4966 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
4967 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
4968 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
4970 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
4972 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4973 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
4974 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
4975 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
4976 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
4977 forward, away from the user.
4979 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4981 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
4982 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
4983 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
4984 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
4985 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
4987 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
4989 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4990 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
4991 that were dragged and dropped.
4993 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4995 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
4997 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
4998 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
4999 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
5001 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
5002 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
5003 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
5005 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
5006 in Emacs 19 and before.
5008 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
5009 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
5011 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
5012 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
5013 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
5014 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
5016 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
5017 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
5018 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
5019 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
5020 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
5022 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5023 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5024 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5025 consistent with the new representation.
5027 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5028 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5029 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5030 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5032 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5033 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5034 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5036 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5037 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5038 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5040 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5041 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5042 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5044 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5045 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5047 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5048 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5050 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5051 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5052 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5053 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5055 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5056 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5058 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5059 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5060 buffer or string being searched.
5062 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5063 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5064 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5065 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5066 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5067 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5068 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5070 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5072 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5073 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5074 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5075 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5076 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5077 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5078 define-coding-system-alias.
5080 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5081 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5082 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5083 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5084 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5085 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5086 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5089 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5090 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5091 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5092 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5094 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5095 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5096 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5097 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5099 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5100 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5101 This function requires a user interaction.
5103 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5104 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5105 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5106 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5107 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5108 select-safe-coding-system.
5110 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5111 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5112 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5115 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5116 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5117 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5119 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5120 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5121 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5122 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5124 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5125 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5126 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5129 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5130 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5132 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5133 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5134 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5135 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5136 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5137 range of characters.
5139 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5140 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5142 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5143 in the current buffer at position POS.
5145 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5146 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5147 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5148 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5149 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5150 binding input-method-function to nil.
5152 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5153 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5154 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5155 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5156 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5158 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5159 subsequent events of a key sequence.
5161 *** You can customize any language environment by using
5162 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5164 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5165 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5166 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5167 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5168 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5170 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
5172 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5173 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5174 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5177 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5178 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5180 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5181 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5182 in your .emacs file.)
5184 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5185 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5187 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5188 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5190 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5191 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5194 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5195 delete the character before point, as usual.
5197 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5198 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5199 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5201 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5202 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5203 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5204 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5205 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5208 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5209 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5210 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5211 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5212 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5214 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5215 and is an alias for it.
5217 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5218 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5220 ** Scrolling changes
5222 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5223 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5225 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5226 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5229 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5230 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5231 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5232 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5234 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5235 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5236 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5237 recenters the window.
5239 ** International character set support (MULE)
5241 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5242 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5243 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5244 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5245 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5246 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5248 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5249 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5250 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5251 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5252 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5254 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5255 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5256 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5257 language, to make it possible to type them.
5259 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5260 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5262 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5263 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5265 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5267 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5269 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5270 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5271 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5272 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5273 characters for their work until they want to change.
5277 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5278 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5279 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5280 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5281 support several input methods.
5283 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5284 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5287 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5288 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5289 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5290 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5291 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5294 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5295 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5296 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5297 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5298 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5300 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5301 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5302 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5303 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5305 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5306 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5307 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5308 the first guess is wrong.
5310 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5311 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5313 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5314 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5315 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5316 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5318 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5319 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5320 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5321 translate automatically to and from either one.
5323 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5325 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5326 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5327 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5330 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5331 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5332 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5333 multibyte characters in that buffer.
5335 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5336 character conversion as well.
5338 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5340 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5341 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5342 requires using many fonts.
5344 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5345 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5347 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5348 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5349 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5350 you would use a font.
5352 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5353 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5354 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5356 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5357 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5358 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5359 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5360 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5362 *** Defining fontsets.
5364 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5365 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5366 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5368 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5369 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5370 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5371 standard fontset are created automatically.
5373 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5374 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5375 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5376 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5377 name is `fontset-startup'.
5379 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5380 The resource value should have this form:
5381 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5382 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5383 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5384 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5385 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5386 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5387 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5388 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5389 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5391 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5392 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5393 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5395 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5396 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5398 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5399 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5400 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5401 Here is the substitution rule:
5402 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5403 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5404 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5405 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5406 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5408 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5409 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5410 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5412 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5413 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5414 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5415 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5418 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5419 defaults for a particular choice of language.
5421 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5422 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5423 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5424 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5425 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5426 system for new files that you create.
5428 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5429 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5430 whole Emacs session.
5432 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5433 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5434 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5436 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5437 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5438 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5439 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5440 coding systems that Emacs supports.
5442 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5443 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5444 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5445 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5446 is used for *the immediately following command*.
5448 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5449 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5451 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5452 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5454 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5455 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5457 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5458 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5459 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5460 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5463 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5464 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5465 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5466 translated into that character code.
5468 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5469 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5471 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5473 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5474 the coding system for keyboard input.
5476 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5477 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5478 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5480 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5482 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5483 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5484 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5485 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5486 designed to work with terminals.
5488 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5489 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5490 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5491 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5492 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5493 in the corresponding buffer.
5495 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5497 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5498 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5499 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5501 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5502 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5503 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5506 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5507 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5509 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5510 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5511 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5512 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5514 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5515 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5516 related information.
5518 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5519 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5522 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5523 information about the support for a particular language.
5524 You specify the language as an argument.
5526 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5527 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5530 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5531 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5532 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
5533 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5535 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5537 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5538 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5539 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5540 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5541 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5542 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5543 K euc-korea (Korean)
5546 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5549 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5550 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5551 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5555 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5556 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5557 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5558 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5560 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5561 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5563 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5564 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5565 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5566 Rmail files themselves.
5568 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5569 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5571 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5574 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5575 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5576 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5577 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5578 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5580 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5581 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5582 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5585 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5586 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5587 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5588 without any conversion.
5590 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5591 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5592 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5593 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5595 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5596 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5598 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5599 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5601 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5602 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5604 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5605 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5606 in the buffer before point.
5608 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5609 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5612 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5613 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5615 ** File locking works with NFS now.
5617 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5618 in the same directory as FILENAME.
5620 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5621 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5622 can become a bottleneck.
5624 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5625 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5626 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5627 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5628 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5629 so useful that the change is worth while.
5631 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5632 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5633 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5634 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5636 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5637 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5640 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5641 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5642 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5644 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5645 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5646 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5648 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5649 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5650 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5652 ** Changes in View mode.
5654 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5655 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5657 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5658 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5660 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5663 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5664 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5666 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5667 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5668 not just the selected window.
5670 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5671 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5672 turns View mode on or off.
5674 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5675 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5676 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5678 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5679 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5681 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5682 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5683 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5684 which version to compare with.
5686 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
5687 blocks if a match is inside the block.
5689 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5690 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5691 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5692 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5694 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5695 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5696 blocks, all of them or none.
5698 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5699 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5702 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5703 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5704 However, the mode will not be changed if
5705 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5706 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5707 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5708 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5710 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5712 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5713 these commands do not change the major mode.
5715 ** M-x occur changes.
5717 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5718 it performs a case-sensitive search.
5720 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5721 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5722 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5724 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5725 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5726 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5727 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5728 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5730 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5731 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5732 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5733 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5735 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5736 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5737 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5739 ** Outline mode changes.
5741 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5743 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5745 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5746 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5747 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5750 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5751 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5754 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5755 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5757 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5759 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5760 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5761 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5762 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5764 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5765 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5766 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5768 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5769 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5772 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
5773 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
5774 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
5775 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
5777 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
5778 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
5779 can be. The default value is 30.
5781 ** Changes in Mail mode.
5783 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
5784 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
5785 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
5786 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
5787 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
5790 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
5791 compose-mail-other-frame.
5793 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
5794 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
5795 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
5796 buffer that shows the original message.
5798 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
5799 with separator lines around the contents.
5801 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
5802 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
5803 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
5804 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
5806 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
5808 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
5809 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
5810 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5811 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5813 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5814 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5817 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5818 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5821 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5822 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5823 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5824 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5826 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5827 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5828 be taken to be magic.
5830 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5831 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5832 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5834 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5835 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5837 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5838 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5840 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5842 new key dired.el binding old key
5843 ------- ---------------- -------
5844 * c dired-change-marks c
5846 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5847 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5848 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5850 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5851 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5852 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5853 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5854 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5855 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5859 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5860 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5861 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5862 each time you run it.
5864 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5865 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5867 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5868 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5869 means to move in the opposite direction.
5871 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5872 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5874 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5875 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5876 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5877 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5882 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
5884 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
5887 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
5888 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
5890 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
5893 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
5895 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
5897 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
5899 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
5900 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
5901 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
5903 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
5905 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
5907 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
5908 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
5910 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
5911 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
5912 used to pick articles.
5914 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
5915 another have been added.
5917 `M-x gnus-change-server'
5919 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
5920 generating lines in buffers.
5922 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
5925 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
5927 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
5929 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
5931 *** Scores can be decayed.
5933 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
5935 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
5936 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
5938 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
5941 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
5943 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
5944 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
5946 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
5948 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
5949 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
5951 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
5952 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
5954 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
5957 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
5958 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
5960 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
5962 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
5964 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
5966 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
5968 Use the `Y c' command.
5970 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
5972 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
5974 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
5976 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
5977 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
5979 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
5981 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
5983 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
5984 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
5986 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
5988 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
5989 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
5990 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
5991 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
5994 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
5995 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
5996 particular news group. This can be done by:
5998 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
6000 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
6001 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
6002 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
6003 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
6004 for reading and posting).
6006 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
6007 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
6008 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
6009 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
6012 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
6013 default. Here are some of these default settings:
6015 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
6016 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
6017 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
6018 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
6019 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
6021 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
6022 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6026 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6027 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6028 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6029 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6030 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6033 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6034 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6035 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6036 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6037 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6038 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6040 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6041 of the current buffer.
6043 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6044 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6045 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6047 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6048 style that the Python developers like.
6050 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6051 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6052 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6056 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6057 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6058 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6060 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6061 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6064 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6065 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6067 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6068 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6069 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6070 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6072 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6073 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6075 ** Calendar changes.
6077 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6078 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6079 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6083 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6085 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6087 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6088 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6089 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6090 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6091 It defaults to `letter'.
6092 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6094 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6095 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6096 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6098 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6099 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6102 *** Horizontal layout
6104 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6105 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6106 All are measured in points.
6110 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6111 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6112 All are measured in points.
6116 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6117 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6118 margin above the text.
6120 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6121 framing box is printed around the header.
6123 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6124 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6126 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6127 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6128 `ps-header-font-size'.
6132 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6133 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6134 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6135 elements to this alist.
6137 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6138 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6140 ** hideshow changes.
6142 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6145 *** Support for java-mode added.
6147 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6148 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6150 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6151 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6152 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6154 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6155 robust and a lot faster.
6157 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6159 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6160 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6161 documentation for more details.
6163 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
6165 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6166 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6167 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6168 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6169 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6171 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6172 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6173 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6174 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6180 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6181 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6182 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6183 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6184 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6185 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6187 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6189 *** Maximum decoration
6191 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6192 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6193 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6194 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6195 to get the old behavior.
6199 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6201 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6202 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6204 *** Configurable support
6206 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6207 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6208 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6209 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6210 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6211 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6212 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6214 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6215 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6216 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6218 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6220 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6221 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6224 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6226 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6232 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6233 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6234 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6235 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6237 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6239 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6240 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6241 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6243 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6245 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6246 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6247 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6248 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6249 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6250 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6251 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6253 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6254 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6255 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6256 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6257 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6258 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6260 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6262 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6263 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6264 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6265 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6267 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6270 ** Ada mode changes.
6272 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6273 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6274 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6275 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6278 *** There are two new commands:
6279 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6280 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6282 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6283 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6284 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6286 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6287 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6288 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6290 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6291 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6292 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6293 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6295 ** Scheme mode changes.
6297 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6298 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6299 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6300 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6303 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6304 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6305 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6306 variables as buffer-local variables.
6308 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6311 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
6313 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6314 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6315 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6316 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6318 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6319 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6322 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6323 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6324 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6325 option takes precedence.
6327 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6328 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6329 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6331 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6332 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6335 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6336 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6338 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6339 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6342 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6343 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6344 these register values no longer become completely useless.
6345 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6346 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6347 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6349 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6350 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6351 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6352 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6354 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6355 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6356 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6357 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6358 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6360 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6361 since it applies only to the current frame.
6363 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6364 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6365 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6367 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6368 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6369 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6370 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6371 instead of just the file you are editing.
6375 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6376 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6377 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6378 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6379 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6382 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6383 knows which kind of label is needed.
6385 C-c ) reftex-reference
6386 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6387 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6389 C-c [ reftex-citation
6390 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6391 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6393 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6394 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6397 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6398 can quickly jump to every section.
6400 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6401 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6402 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6403 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6404 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6406 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6408 *** Info documentation is now available.
6410 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6411 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6413 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6414 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6416 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6417 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6419 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6420 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6421 appropriate functions.
6423 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6424 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6426 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6429 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6430 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6432 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6435 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6436 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6437 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6439 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6440 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6441 prefixed with `ALT'.
6443 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6444 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6445 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6448 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6449 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6450 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6452 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6453 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6455 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6456 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6457 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6459 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6461 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6463 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6466 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6467 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6470 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6473 *** Added support for imenu.
6475 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6476 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6477 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6478 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6480 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6481 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6483 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6485 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
6487 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6488 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6489 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6492 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6493 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6495 ** browse-url changes
6497 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6498 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6499 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6500 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6501 customization variables.
6503 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6505 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6506 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6507 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6511 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6512 pops up the Info file for this command.
6514 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6515 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6516 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6519 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6520 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6521 files in the same directory.
6523 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6524 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6525 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6529 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
6530 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
6532 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
6533 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
6534 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6535 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6536 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6537 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6538 color when Viper is in insert state.
6539 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6540 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6541 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6545 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6546 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6547 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6548 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6549 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6551 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6553 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6554 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6556 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6557 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6558 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6560 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6561 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6562 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6563 methods and protocols.
6565 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6566 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6567 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6570 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6571 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6572 at least M times and as many as N times.
6574 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6575 in files has changed slightly.
6577 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6578 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6579 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6580 with old time-stamp-format values.
6582 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6583 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6584 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6587 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6588 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6589 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6590 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6591 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6592 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6594 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6595 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6596 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6598 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6599 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6600 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6601 recommended now will continue to work then.
6603 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6606 ** There are some additional major modes:
6608 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6609 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6610 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6612 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6613 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6616 ** New Lisp packages include:
6618 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6620 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6621 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6623 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6625 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6628 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6629 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6632 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6633 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6634 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6635 strings or comments.
6637 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6638 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6639 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6640 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6643 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6644 can visit them by short forms of their names.
6646 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6647 Emacs Lisp function at point.
6649 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6651 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6652 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6654 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6656 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6658 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6660 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6661 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6663 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6664 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6665 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6666 original place after inserting the copy.
6668 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6671 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6672 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6673 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6675 Enable mouse-drag with:
6676 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6678 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6680 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6681 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6683 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6684 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6688 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6689 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6690 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6691 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6692 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6693 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6694 instance) and vice versa.
6696 To use this package load it using
6697 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6698 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
6699 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
6700 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6701 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6702 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6704 *** Interface to ph.
6706 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6708 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6709 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6712 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6714 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6715 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6716 while the real cursor does not move.
6718 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6719 for visiting your favorite web sites.
6721 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6722 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6726 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6727 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6728 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6729 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6731 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6733 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6735 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6737 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6738 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6739 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6740 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6741 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6743 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6744 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6745 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6746 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6747 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6748 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6750 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6752 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6753 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6754 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6755 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6757 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6758 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6760 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6761 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6764 ** Basic Lisp changes
6766 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6767 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6769 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6770 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
6773 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
6775 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
6777 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
6778 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
6780 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
6781 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
6784 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
6786 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
6788 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
6790 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
6791 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
6792 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
6795 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
6796 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
6797 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
6799 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
6800 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
6801 adding one of these suffixes.
6803 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
6804 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
6805 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
6807 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
6808 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
6810 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6812 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6813 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6815 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6816 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6818 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6820 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6821 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6823 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6824 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6825 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6826 works using `save-current-buffer'.
6828 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6829 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6832 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6833 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6834 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6837 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6838 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6841 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6843 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6844 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6845 Then it returns that string.
6847 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6849 (with-output-to-string
6850 (princ "The buffer is ")
6851 (princ (buffer-name)))
6853 returns "The buffer is foo".
6855 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6858 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6859 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6860 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6862 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6863 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6865 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6866 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6867 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6868 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6869 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6870 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6872 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6873 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6874 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6877 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6878 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6879 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6880 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6881 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
6883 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
6884 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
6885 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
6886 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
6888 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
6889 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
6891 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
6893 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
6894 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
6895 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
6896 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
6899 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
6900 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
6903 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
6905 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
6906 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
6907 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
6908 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
6909 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
6911 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
6913 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
6914 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
6915 more than the number of characters.
6917 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
6918 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
6919 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
6920 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
6921 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
6922 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
6924 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
6925 and returns a string containing those characters.
6927 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
6928 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
6929 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
6930 character, sref signals an error.
6932 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
6933 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
6934 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6936 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
6937 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
6938 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6940 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
6941 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
6942 to a vector of the characters in it.
6944 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
6945 of a string. You call it as follows:
6947 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
6949 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
6950 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
6951 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
6952 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
6953 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
6955 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
6956 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6958 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
6959 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6961 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
6962 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
6963 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
6964 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
6966 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
6968 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
6970 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
6971 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
6972 are not included in the resulting value.
6974 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
6975 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
6976 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
6977 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
6979 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
6980 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
6981 character extends across that column), then the padding character
6982 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
6983 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
6984 column START-COLUMN.
6986 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
6987 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
6988 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
6989 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
6990 changed text, before the change.
6992 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
6993 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
6994 one character set for each script, not for each language.
6996 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
6998 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
7000 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
7001 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
7003 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
7004 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
7005 which identify the character within that character set.
7007 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
7008 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
7009 opposite of split-char.
7011 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
7012 of all the characters between BEG and END.
7014 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
7015 of all the characters in a string.
7017 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
7018 and specifying coding systems.
7020 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
7021 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
7022 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7023 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7024 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7025 as what to do about code conversion.)
7027 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7028 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7030 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7031 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7032 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7034 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7035 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7036 to match against a file name.
7038 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7039 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7040 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7041 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7042 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7043 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7045 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7046 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7048 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7049 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7051 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7052 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7053 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7056 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7057 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7058 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7059 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7060 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7061 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7063 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7064 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7066 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7067 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7068 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7069 start the subprocess.
7071 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7072 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7073 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7074 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7075 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7077 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7078 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7081 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7082 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7083 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7084 connection permanently or until overridden.
7086 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7087 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7088 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7089 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7090 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7091 system for one operation at a time.
7093 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7094 files, subprocesses or network connections.
7096 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7097 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7098 The value is a cons cell,
7099 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7100 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7101 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7102 input to the subprocess.
7104 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7105 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7107 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7108 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7109 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7111 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7112 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7113 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7114 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7117 Thus, instead of writing
7119 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7120 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7122 you would now write this:
7124 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7125 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7129 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7130 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7131 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7132 for a description of them.
7134 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7135 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7137 (defgroup ispell nil
7138 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7141 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7142 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7143 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7144 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7145 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7147 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7148 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7149 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7150 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7151 first-level subgroups.
7153 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7155 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7156 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7160 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7161 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7162 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7163 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7164 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7165 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7167 ** Text property changes
7169 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7172 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7173 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7174 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7175 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7176 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7178 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7179 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7180 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7181 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7183 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7184 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7185 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7187 ** Changes in invisibility features
7189 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7190 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7191 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7192 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7193 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7194 make the overlay visible.
7196 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7197 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7198 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7199 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7200 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7201 t when it should hide it.
7203 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7205 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7206 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7207 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7208 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7209 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7210 Here is an example of how to do this:
7212 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7213 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7214 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7215 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7218 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7221 ;; When done with the overlays:
7222 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7224 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7226 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
7228 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7229 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7230 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7231 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7233 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7234 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7235 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7237 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7238 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7240 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7241 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7243 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7244 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7245 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7247 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7248 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7249 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7250 determine the syntax type of the character.
7252 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7253 of the current buffer.
7255 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7256 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7257 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7259 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7260 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7261 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7262 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7263 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7265 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7268 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7269 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7270 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7272 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7273 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7274 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7275 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7276 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7278 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7279 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7280 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7282 ** Changes in face features
7284 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7285 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7287 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7288 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7290 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7291 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7293 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7294 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7296 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7297 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7298 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7299 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7302 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7303 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7305 ** Changes in file-handling functions
7307 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7308 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7309 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7310 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7312 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7315 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7316 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7318 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7319 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7321 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7322 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7324 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7325 character code conversion as well as other things.
7327 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7328 (formerly it did not).
7330 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7331 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7333 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7334 instead of constant strings.
7336 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7337 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7338 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7340 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7341 in the same way as before.
7343 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7344 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7345 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7347 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7348 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7349 else, and returns nil.
7351 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7352 directory cannot be listed.
7354 ** Changes in minibuffer input
7356 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7357 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7358 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7359 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7362 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7363 It is available through the history command M-n.
7365 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7366 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7367 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7368 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7369 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7371 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7372 argument in this way.
7374 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7375 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7376 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7378 ** Echo area features
7380 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7381 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7382 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7383 after the echo area is cleared.
7385 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7386 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7388 ** Keyboard input features
7390 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7391 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7393 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7394 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7397 ** Frame-related changes
7399 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7400 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7401 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7403 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7404 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7405 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7407 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7408 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7409 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7410 in the selected frame.
7412 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7413 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7414 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7416 ** X Windows features
7418 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7419 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7420 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7422 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7423 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7425 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7426 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7427 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7429 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7430 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7432 ** Subprocess features
7434 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7435 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7438 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7439 and returns the output from the command as a string.
7441 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7442 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7444 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7445 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7447 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7448 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7449 goes after the other menu items.
7451 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
7452 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
7453 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7456 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7457 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7459 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7460 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7463 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7464 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7465 but its hook is still run.
7467 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7468 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7470 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7471 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7472 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7474 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7475 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7476 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7479 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7480 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7482 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7483 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7484 functions like display-time.
7486 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7487 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7489 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7490 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7491 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7493 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7494 if there is an error in compilation.
7496 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7497 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7498 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7499 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7501 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7502 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7503 the *scratch* buffer.
7505 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7506 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7507 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7508 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7510 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7511 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7512 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7514 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7515 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7516 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7517 and compose-mail-other-frame.
7519 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7520 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7521 full name of the specified user will be returned.
7523 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7524 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7525 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7526 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7527 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7530 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7531 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7532 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7533 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7535 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7536 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7537 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7538 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7540 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7542 ** imenu.el changes.
7544 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
7545 item from menu created by imenu.
7547 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7548 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7549 select one of those items.
7551 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7553 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7555 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7556 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7558 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7559 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7560 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7562 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7564 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7565 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7567 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7568 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7569 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7570 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7571 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7574 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7575 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7577 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7578 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7579 as in previous Emacs versions.
7581 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7582 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7583 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7586 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7587 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7588 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7589 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7592 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7593 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7594 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7595 line and then executing the macro.
7597 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7599 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7600 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7601 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7606 *** Font Lock support modes
7608 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7609 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7610 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7611 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7612 Font Lock mode is enabled.
7614 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7616 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7622 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7623 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7624 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7625 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7626 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7627 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7628 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7630 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7632 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7634 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7636 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7638 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7641 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7646 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7647 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7648 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7649 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7651 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7652 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7654 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
7655 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7658 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7659 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7661 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7663 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7665 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7667 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
7670 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7672 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7674 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7676 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7678 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
7681 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7683 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7685 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7687 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7689 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7691 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7693 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7695 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7698 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7700 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7703 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7705 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
7706 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
7708 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7710 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7712 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7714 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7716 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7719 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7721 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7722 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7724 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7725 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7726 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7728 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7729 articles with the `*' command.
7731 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7733 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
7735 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7737 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7739 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
7740 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7742 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
7745 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7747 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7749 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7751 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7753 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
7755 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7757 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
7759 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7761 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
7763 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7764 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7766 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
7769 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7771 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
7772 buffer to allow easier treatment.
7774 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
7776 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
7778 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
7780 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
7783 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
7785 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
7787 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
7788 cited text to hide is now customizable.
7790 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
7792 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
7794 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
7796 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
7798 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
7800 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
7803 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
7805 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
7806 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
7807 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
7810 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7813 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7816 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7817 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7820 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7821 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7822 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7823 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7824 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7827 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7829 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7831 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7832 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7833 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7834 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7835 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7837 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7838 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7839 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
7841 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7843 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7844 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7845 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7846 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7847 chapter of the manual for details.
7849 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7850 customization variables take effect.
7852 ** Marking with the mouse.
7854 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7855 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7856 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7858 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7860 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7862 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7863 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7865 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7866 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7867 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7868 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7869 applications, these problems are significant.
7871 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7872 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7873 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7874 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7875 other DOS application as a subprocess.
7877 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7878 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7880 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7881 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7882 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
7883 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
7884 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
7885 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
7887 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
7889 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
7890 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
7891 minibuffer contains.
7893 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
7895 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
7896 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
7897 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
7898 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
7900 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
7901 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
7902 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
7903 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
7905 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
7906 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
7908 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
7909 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
7910 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
7912 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
7913 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
7914 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
7915 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
7917 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
7919 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
7920 to replace the characters it "deletes".
7922 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
7924 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
7925 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
7926 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
7927 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
7928 immediately after the selected one.
7930 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
7931 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
7933 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
7935 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
7936 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
7937 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
7938 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
7941 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
7942 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
7945 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
7946 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
7947 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
7948 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
7949 now that the bug is fixed.
7951 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
7953 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
7954 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
7955 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
7956 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
7958 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
7959 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
7960 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
7961 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
7963 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
7964 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
7965 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
7967 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
7968 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
7969 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
7970 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
7973 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
7974 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
7976 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
7977 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
7978 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
7979 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
7981 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
7982 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
7983 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
7984 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
7985 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
7986 `mail-directory-stream'.)
7988 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
7989 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
7990 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
7991 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
7993 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
7994 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
7995 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
7997 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
7998 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
7999 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
8000 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
8001 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
8002 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
8003 to a limitation in font-lock).
8005 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
8007 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
8008 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
8009 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
8012 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
8013 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
8015 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8017 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
8019 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
8021 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8023 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8024 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8025 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8026 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8027 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8028 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8030 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8033 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8034 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8036 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8041 *** Global Font Lock mode
8043 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8044 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8045 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8046 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8047 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8049 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8051 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8055 *** Local Refontification
8057 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8058 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8059 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8060 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8062 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8063 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8064 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8065 above and below point.
8067 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8071 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8072 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8073 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8074 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8075 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8078 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8080 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8081 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8083 ** hide-show changes.
8085 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8086 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8089 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8090 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8092 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8093 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8094 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8098 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8099 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8101 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8102 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8104 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8106 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8107 pressing both mouse buttons.
8109 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8110 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8113 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8116 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8118 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8119 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8121 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8123 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8125 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
8127 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8129 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8131 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8133 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8134 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8135 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8136 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8137 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8139 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8141 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8142 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8143 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8146 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8149 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8151 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8152 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8154 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8155 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8157 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8158 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8159 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8161 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8162 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8165 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8167 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8168 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8169 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8171 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8172 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8173 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8175 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8176 up if too much time passes.
8178 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8180 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8181 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8182 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8185 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8186 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8187 call looks like this:
8189 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8191 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8192 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8193 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8196 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8197 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8200 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8201 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8202 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8203 each time Emacs becomes idle.
8205 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8206 idle for SECS seconds.
8208 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8209 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8210 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8213 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8214 there is no answer within a certain time.
8216 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8218 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8219 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8220 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8222 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8223 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8224 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8225 arguments in between are ignored.
8227 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8228 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8230 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8231 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8232 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8233 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8236 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8237 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8238 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8239 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8240 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8241 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8243 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8244 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8245 systems with limited file name syntax.
8247 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8248 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8249 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8252 (defvar save-completions-file-name
8253 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8254 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8256 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8257 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8258 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8259 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8260 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8262 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8263 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8264 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8266 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8267 marker from its buffer position.
8269 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8270 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8271 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8273 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8274 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8275 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8276 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8277 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8278 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8280 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8281 errors that happen often during editing.
8283 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8284 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8285 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8287 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8288 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8290 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8291 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8292 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8293 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8294 and not get-buffer-window.
8296 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8297 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8298 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8300 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8301 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8302 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8303 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8304 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8305 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8306 over and over for the same text.
8308 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8310 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8311 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8313 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
8316 in addition to the normal
8320 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8321 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8322 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8324 * For older news, see the file ONEWS.
8326 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8327 Copyright information:
8329 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8331 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8332 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8333 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8334 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8336 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8337 of this document, or of portions of it,
8338 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8339 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8343 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"