1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-03-15
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 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 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
10 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
11 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.3
17 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
18 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
22 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
23 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
26 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
29 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
32 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
34 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
35 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
36 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
37 screen size. (For now, this works only on GNU and Unix systems, and
38 not with every window manager.)
40 ** Info-index finally offers completion.
42 ** Controlling the left and right fringe widths.
44 The left and right fringe widths can now be controlled by setting the
45 `left-fringe' and `right-fringe' frame parameters to an integer value
46 specifying the width in pixels. Setting the width to 0 effectively
47 removes the corresponding fringe.
49 The actual fringe widths may deviate from the specified widths, since
50 the combined fringe widths must match an integral number of columns.
51 The extra width is distributed evenly between the left and right fringe.
52 For force a specific fringe width, specify the width as a negative
53 integer (if both widths are negative, only the left fringe gets the
56 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
57 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
58 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
59 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
61 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
62 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
63 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
64 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
66 ** In GUD mode when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
67 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
69 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
70 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
71 changes the behavior of motion commands line C-e and C-p.
73 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
74 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
75 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
76 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
77 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
78 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
80 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
81 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
82 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
83 is only rarely needed.
85 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
87 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
88 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
89 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
90 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
92 ** If you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp) repeatedly, the marked region
93 will now be extended each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with
94 M-C-SPC M-C-SPC, for example.
96 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
97 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
100 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
101 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
102 affects the initial frame.
105 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
106 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
107 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
110 ** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
113 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
114 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
115 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
116 directory listing into a buffer.
118 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
119 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
121 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on
122 your current locale settings. If it turns out that your terminal
123 does not support the encoding implied by your locale (for example,
124 it inserts non-ASCII chars if you hit M-i), you will need to add
126 (set-keyboard-coding-system nil)
128 to your .emacs to revert to the old behavior.
130 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
131 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
132 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
135 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
136 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
137 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
138 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
139 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
141 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
142 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
145 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
148 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
149 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
153 *** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
155 *** In Perl, packages are tags. Subroutine tags are named from their
156 package. You can jump to sub tags as you did before, by the sub name, or
157 additionally by looking for package::sub.
159 *** New language PHP: tags are functions, classes and defines. If
160 the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
163 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
164 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
166 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
167 with a space, if they visit files.
169 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
170 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
171 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
173 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
174 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
175 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
177 ** New user option `sgml-xml'.
178 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
179 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
180 When not customized, it becomes buffer-local when it can be inferred
181 from the file name or buffer contents.
183 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
184 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behaviour of isearch
185 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
187 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
188 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
189 instead of using default-major-mode.
191 ** Byte compiler warning and error messages have been brought more
192 in line with the output of other GNU tools.
194 ** Lisp-mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
196 ** perl-mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
198 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
199 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
202 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
203 much pure storage it will approximately need.
205 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
206 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
207 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
210 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
211 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
212 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
213 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
214 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
215 candidate is a directory.
217 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
218 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
219 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
221 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
223 ** When using M-x revert-buffer in a compilation buffer to rerun a
224 compilation, it is now made sure that the compilation buffer is reused
225 in case it has been renamed.
227 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
228 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
229 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
231 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
232 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
234 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
235 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
236 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
237 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
240 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
243 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
245 ** New modes and packages
248 *** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
250 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
251 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
252 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
253 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
256 *** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
258 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
259 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
260 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
261 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
263 *** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
266 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
267 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
268 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
269 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
271 *** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
272 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
273 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
276 *** The reveal.el package provides the minor modes `reveal-mode' and
277 `global-reveal-mode' which will make text visible on the fly as you
278 move your cursor into hidden region of the buffer.
279 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
280 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
282 *** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
283 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
285 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
286 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
287 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
290 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
291 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
294 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
297 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
298 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
300 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
303 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.3
305 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
307 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
308 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
309 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
312 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
314 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
315 the time it takes to convert the format.
317 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
320 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
321 over minor mode keymaps.
323 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
324 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
326 ** The position after an invisible, intangible character
327 is considered an unacceptable value for point;
328 intangibility processing effectively treats the following character
329 as part of the intangible region even if it is not itself intangible.
331 Thus, point can go before an invisible, intangible region, but not
332 after it. This prevents C-f and C-b from appearing to stand still on
336 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
337 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
338 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
339 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
342 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
344 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
346 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
347 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
348 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
349 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
350 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
351 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
353 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
354 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
355 bindings of the parent keymap.
357 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
358 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
359 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
360 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
361 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
362 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
370 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
371 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
372 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
373 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
375 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
376 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
378 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
379 (the last group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
381 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
382 it receives a request from emacsclient.
384 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
385 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
386 than 3 levels of nesting.
388 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
389 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
390 in Indented-Text mode.
392 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
393 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
396 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
397 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
398 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
400 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
401 properties from surrounding text.
403 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
405 - Function: buffer-local-value variable buffer
407 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
408 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
409 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
411 ** The default value of `paragraph-start' and `indent-line-function' has
412 been changed to reflect the one used in Text mode rather than the one
413 used in Indented Text mode.
415 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
416 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
419 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
420 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
421 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP@ VAL2 ...) so you can set
422 other properties than `face'.
423 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
424 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
426 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
427 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
428 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
430 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
431 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
432 and run any code associated with the provided feature.
434 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
435 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
438 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
439 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
440 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
442 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
443 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
444 accepts a float as UID parameter.
446 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
448 ** `define-derived-mode' now accepts nil as the parent.
450 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
452 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
454 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
456 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
457 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
459 ** Variable aliases have been implemented
461 - Macro: defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR
463 This defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for symbol
464 BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR returns
465 the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR changes the
468 - Function: indirect-variable VARIABLE
470 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
471 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
472 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
474 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
475 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
477 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
478 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
480 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
481 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
483 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
484 have been moved from the CL package to the core.
486 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
487 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
488 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
492 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
493 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
495 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
496 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
498 *** The new package Ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
499 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
502 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
504 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
505 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
506 charsets in this release.
508 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
510 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
512 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
513 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
516 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
517 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
518 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
519 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
520 necessary changes to unexec.
522 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
523 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
525 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
526 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
528 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
529 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
531 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
532 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
533 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
534 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
535 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
537 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
538 new display features described below.
541 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
543 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
545 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
546 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
547 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
548 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
551 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
553 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
554 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
555 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
556 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
559 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
560 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
561 under Lisp changes, below.
563 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
565 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
566 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
567 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
568 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
569 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
570 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
573 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
574 supported on character terminals.
576 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
577 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
578 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
579 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
581 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
585 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
586 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
587 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
588 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
591 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
593 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
594 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
595 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
596 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
598 - User option: max-mini-window-height
600 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
601 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
602 specifies a number of lines.
606 - User option: resize-mini-windows
608 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
609 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
610 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
613 Default is `grow-only'.
617 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
618 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
620 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
622 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
623 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
626 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
628 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
629 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
630 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
632 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
634 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
635 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
636 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
637 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
638 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
641 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
642 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
643 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
644 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
645 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
646 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
648 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
649 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
650 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
651 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
652 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
653 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
655 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
656 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
657 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
658 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
659 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
663 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
664 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
665 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
666 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
667 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
670 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
671 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
675 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
676 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
677 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
679 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
680 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
681 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
682 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
684 ** Automatic Hscrolling
686 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
687 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
690 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
691 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
692 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
693 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
694 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
696 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
697 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
698 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
699 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
700 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
701 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
703 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
704 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
705 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
706 customizing face `fringe'.
708 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
709 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
710 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
711 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
712 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
713 the window to be partially obscured.)
715 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
716 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
717 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
718 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
720 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
722 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
723 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
724 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
725 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
726 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
729 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
731 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
733 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
735 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
736 `*') toggles the status.
738 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
742 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
743 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
747 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
748 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
749 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
752 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
754 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
755 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
756 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
759 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
760 have to do anything to activate it.
762 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
764 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
765 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
767 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
768 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
769 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
770 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
771 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
772 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
773 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
774 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
776 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
777 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
778 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
779 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
780 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
781 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
783 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
784 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
786 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
787 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
790 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
791 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
792 beginning and end of the buffer.
794 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
795 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
798 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
799 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
801 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
802 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
805 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
806 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
809 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
811 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
812 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
813 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
815 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
816 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
817 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
819 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
822 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
824 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
825 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
826 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
827 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
828 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
831 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
832 all frames except the selected one.
834 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
835 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
837 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
838 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
839 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
840 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
841 `Info-use-header-line'.
843 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
844 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
845 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
847 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
849 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
850 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
853 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
854 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
855 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
856 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
858 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
860 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
861 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
862 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
863 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
865 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
866 point in a pop-up window.
868 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
869 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
870 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
872 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
873 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
875 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
876 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
877 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
878 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
880 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
882 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
883 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
885 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
886 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
887 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
889 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
890 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
893 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
894 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
895 file that is already visited under a different name.
897 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
898 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
900 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
901 and displays information about that.
903 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
904 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
906 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
907 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
908 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
909 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
910 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
911 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
913 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
914 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
916 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
917 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
918 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
919 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
920 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
921 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
922 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
924 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
925 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
927 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
928 system for keyboard input.
930 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
931 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
932 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
933 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
934 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
935 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
936 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
937 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
938 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
940 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
941 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
943 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
944 displays all characters in that character set.
946 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
947 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
949 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
950 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
951 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
953 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
954 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
955 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
956 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
957 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
958 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
961 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
962 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
965 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
966 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
967 Lisp Coding Convention".
969 new command old-binding
970 --- ------- -----------
971 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
972 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
973 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
975 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
976 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
977 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
979 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
980 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
981 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
982 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
983 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
984 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
986 ** There are new Leim input methods.
987 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
988 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
991 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
992 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
993 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
994 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
995 "`", you must type "=q".
997 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
998 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
999 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
1000 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
1001 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
1004 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
1005 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
1006 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
1007 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
1009 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
1010 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
1011 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
1012 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
1014 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
1015 on the display using several methods
1017 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
1018 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
1019 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
1021 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
1022 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
1024 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
1026 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
1027 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
1029 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
1030 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
1031 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
1032 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
1034 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
1035 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
1036 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
1038 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
1039 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
1041 ** New X resources recognized
1043 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
1044 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
1045 is useful for debugging X problems.
1049 emacs.synchronous: true
1051 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
1052 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
1053 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
1054 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
1055 visual class names are
1064 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
1065 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
1068 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
1069 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
1070 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
1075 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
1077 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
1078 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
1079 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
1080 resource values are `true' or `on'.
1084 emacs.privateColormap: true
1086 ** Faces and frame parameters.
1088 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
1089 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
1090 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
1091 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
1092 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
1093 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
1094 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
1096 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
1097 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
1098 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
1099 `default' face and vice versa.
1103 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
1105 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
1107 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
1108 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
1109 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
1110 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
1112 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
1113 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
1114 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
1116 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
1119 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
1121 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
1122 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
1123 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
1124 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
1126 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
1128 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
1130 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
1132 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
1135 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
1138 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
1140 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
1141 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
1142 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
1144 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
1145 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
1147 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
1148 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
1149 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
1151 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
1153 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
1154 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
1155 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
1156 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
1158 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
1159 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
1160 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
1161 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
1163 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
1164 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
1165 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
1168 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
1170 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
1171 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
1172 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
1174 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
1175 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
1176 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
1177 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
1178 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
1179 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
1181 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
1183 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
1184 notably at the end of lines.
1186 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
1187 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
1189 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
1191 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
1192 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
1194 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
1195 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
1196 after each match to get the replacement text.
1198 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
1199 you edit the replacement string.
1201 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
1202 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
1203 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
1205 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
1207 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
1208 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
1210 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
1211 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
1212 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
1213 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
1216 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
1217 read mail from the menu etc.
1219 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
1220 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
1221 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
1222 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
1224 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
1225 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
1227 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
1228 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
1229 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
1230 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
1231 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
1234 ** Customize changes
1236 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
1237 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
1238 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
1239 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
1240 earlier versions of Emacs.
1242 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
1243 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
1246 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
1247 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
1248 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
1249 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
1252 ** New features in evaluation commands
1254 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
1255 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
1256 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
1257 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
1258 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
1260 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
1261 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
1262 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
1263 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
1266 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
1267 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
1269 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
1270 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
1272 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
1273 code when called with a prefix argument.
1277 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
1278 current user setups (although it's believed that these
1279 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
1280 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
1281 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
1282 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
1285 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
1286 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
1287 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
1290 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
1291 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
1292 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
1293 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
1295 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
1296 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
1298 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
1299 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
1301 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
1302 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
1303 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
1304 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
1306 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
1307 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
1308 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
1309 earlier statement. An example:
1311 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
1313 res += a[i]->offset;
1316 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
1317 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
1318 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
1319 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
1322 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
1325 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
1326 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
1327 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
1328 documentation or other natural language text.
1330 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
1331 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
1332 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
1333 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
1334 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
1335 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
1336 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
1338 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
1339 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
1340 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
1341 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
1343 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
1344 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
1345 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
1346 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
1349 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
1350 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
1351 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
1352 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
1353 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
1354 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
1355 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
1356 is reported afterwards.
1358 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
1359 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
1360 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
1362 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
1363 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
1364 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
1365 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
1366 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
1367 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
1370 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
1371 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
1372 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
1373 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
1374 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
1377 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
1378 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
1379 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
1380 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
1381 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
1382 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
1384 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
1385 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
1386 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
1387 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
1388 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
1389 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
1390 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
1391 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
1393 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
1394 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
1395 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
1396 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
1399 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
1400 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
1401 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
1402 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
1403 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
1404 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
1405 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
1406 function documentation for more info.
1408 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
1409 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
1410 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
1411 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
1412 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
1413 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
1414 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
1415 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
1417 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
1419 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
1420 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
1422 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
1423 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
1424 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
1425 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
1426 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
1429 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
1430 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
1431 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
1434 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
1435 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
1436 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
1437 chapter about this in the manual.
1439 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
1440 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
1441 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
1442 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
1443 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
1445 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
1446 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
1447 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
1449 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
1450 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
1452 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
1453 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
1454 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
1457 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
1458 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
1459 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
1460 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
1463 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
1464 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
1465 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
1466 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
1467 they were before the filling.
1469 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
1470 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
1471 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
1474 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
1475 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
1476 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
1477 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
1480 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
1481 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1482 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1483 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1484 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1486 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1487 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1488 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1490 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1492 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1493 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1494 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1495 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1497 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1498 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1499 the column specified by comment-column.
1501 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1502 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1503 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1504 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1505 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1506 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1508 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1509 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1512 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1514 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1515 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1516 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1517 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1520 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1524 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
1525 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
1526 is, delete only empty directories.
1528 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
1529 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
1530 copy directories recursively.
1532 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
1533 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
1534 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
1536 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
1537 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
1540 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
1541 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
1542 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
1543 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
1544 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
1546 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
1549 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
1550 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
1551 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
1552 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
1556 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
1557 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
1558 internationalization and mail-fetching.
1560 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
1561 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
1563 If you used procmail like in
1565 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
1566 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
1567 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
1568 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
1570 this now has changed to
1573 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
1576 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
1577 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
1579 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
1580 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
1581 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
1582 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
1584 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
1585 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
1586 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
1588 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
1589 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
1590 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
1591 now just a compatibility layer.
1593 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
1596 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
1597 called to position point.
1599 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
1600 summary buffers and NOV files.
1602 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
1603 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
1605 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
1606 subtly different manner.
1608 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
1609 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
1610 ever-changing layouts.
1612 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
1614 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
1616 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
1618 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
1622 -------------------------
1626 C-c C-c q @quotation
1628 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
1631 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
1633 ** Changes in Outline mode.
1635 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
1636 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
1637 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
1639 ** Changes to Emacs Server
1641 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
1642 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
1643 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
1644 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
1645 buffers to kill, as before.
1647 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
1648 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
1651 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
1652 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
1654 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
1656 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
1657 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
1658 use. Default is 1000.
1660 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
1661 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
1663 ** Changes to hideshow.el
1665 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
1667 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
1668 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
1669 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
1670 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
1672 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
1673 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
1674 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
1677 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
1678 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
1679 the normal block-hiding function.
1681 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
1683 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
1684 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
1685 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
1686 for `hs-minor-mode'.
1688 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
1689 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
1691 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
1693 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
1694 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
1695 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
1697 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
1700 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
1703 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
1704 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
1705 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
1706 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
1707 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
1708 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
1710 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
1712 ** Changes to cmuscheme
1714 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
1715 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
1717 ** Changes in Font Lock
1719 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
1720 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
1722 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
1723 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
1725 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
1726 the face used for each string/comment.
1728 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
1729 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
1731 ** Changes to Shell mode
1733 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
1734 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
1735 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
1736 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
1738 ** Comint (subshell) changes
1740 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
1741 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
1743 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
1744 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
1745 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
1746 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
1747 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
1748 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
1750 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
1751 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
1752 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
1753 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
1754 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
1755 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
1756 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
1757 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
1759 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
1760 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
1762 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
1763 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
1764 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
1766 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
1767 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
1768 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
1770 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
1771 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
1772 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
1774 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
1775 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
1776 argument, it appends to the file.
1778 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
1779 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
1782 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
1785 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
1786 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
1787 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
1789 ** Changes to Rmail mode
1791 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
1792 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
1793 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
1794 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
1795 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
1798 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
1799 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
1800 regexp matching your mail addresses.
1802 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
1803 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
1804 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
1805 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
1806 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
1808 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
1811 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
1812 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
1815 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
1816 in which folder to put messages automatically.
1818 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
1819 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
1820 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
1822 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
1823 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
1825 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
1826 use the -f option when sending mail.
1828 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
1829 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
1830 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
1831 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
1832 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
1833 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
1835 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
1836 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
1837 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
1839 ** Changes to TeX mode
1841 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
1844 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
1846 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
1848 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
1850 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
1852 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
1853 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
1854 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
1855 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
1856 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
1857 can be edited from that buffer.
1859 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
1860 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
1861 `A' to use all marked entries).
1863 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
1864 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
1866 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
1867 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
1868 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
1871 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
1872 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
1873 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
1874 in column 1 are always made leaves.
1876 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
1877 has the following new features:
1879 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
1880 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
1881 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
1882 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
1884 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
1885 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
1886 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
1887 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
1888 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
1891 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
1896 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
1897 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
1898 spell-checks the current buffer.
1900 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
1903 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
1904 correction is made and re-checked.
1906 *** An Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definition has been added.
1908 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
1911 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
1914 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
1917 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
1919 ** Makefile mode changes
1921 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1923 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
1924 Fontlock mode is active.
1928 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1929 so that searches can be resumed.
1931 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
1932 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1933 that started the search.
1935 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1936 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1938 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1940 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1941 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1942 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1943 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1944 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1945 `secondary-selection'.
1947 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1948 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1949 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1950 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1951 usual snappy response.
1953 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1954 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1955 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1956 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1960 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
1961 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
1962 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
1963 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
1964 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
1965 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
1966 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
1967 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
1968 file is registered in that backend.
1970 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
1971 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
1972 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
1973 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
1974 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
1975 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
1977 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
1978 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
1979 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
1980 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
1981 where it doesn't make sense.)
1983 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
1984 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
1985 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
1989 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
1990 checks are always done now.
1992 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
1995 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
1996 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
1997 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
1999 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
2000 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
2001 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
2002 the working file (``merge news'').
2004 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
2005 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
2008 *** Multiple Backends
2010 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
2011 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
2012 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
2013 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
2016 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
2017 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
2018 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
2019 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
2021 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
2022 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
2023 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
2024 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
2025 current revision number from the more remote backend.
2027 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
2028 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
2029 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
2030 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
2032 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
2033 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
2034 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
2035 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
2039 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
2040 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
2041 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
2042 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
2043 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
2044 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
2045 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
2047 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
2048 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
2049 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
2050 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
2051 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
2052 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
2053 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
2054 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
2055 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
2056 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
2057 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
2060 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
2061 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
2062 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
2063 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
2064 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
2065 entire directory tree.
2067 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
2068 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
2069 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
2070 "watched" by other developers.)
2072 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
2073 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
2074 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
2075 starting at the given directory.
2077 *** Lisp Changes in VC
2079 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
2080 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
2081 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
2082 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
2083 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
2084 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
2085 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
2086 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
2087 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
2089 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
2090 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
2091 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
2092 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
2094 ** New modes and packages
2096 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
2097 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
2098 the default is not applicable.
2100 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
2101 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
2102 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
2106 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
2107 drawn, like this: | \ /
2111 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
2112 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
2113 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
2114 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
2115 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
2118 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
2119 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
2121 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
2124 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
2125 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
2126 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
2127 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
2129 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
2130 also do without the mouse.
2132 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
2133 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
2134 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
2135 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
2136 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
2138 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
2140 lines straight-lines
2142 poly-lines straight poly-lines
2144 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
2145 spray-can setting size for spraying
2146 vaporize line vaporize lines
2147 erase characters erase rectangles
2149 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
2150 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
2151 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
2154 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
2155 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
2156 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
2157 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
2159 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
2162 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
2163 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
2164 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
2165 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
2166 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
2167 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
2168 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
2169 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
2170 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
2172 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
2173 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
2174 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
2175 on certain projects.
2177 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
2178 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
2180 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
2182 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
2183 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
2184 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
2185 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
2186 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
2187 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
2188 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
2189 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
2191 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
2194 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
2195 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
2197 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
2198 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
2200 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
2201 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
2202 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
2203 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
2204 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
2206 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
2207 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
2208 separate Texinfo file.
2210 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
2211 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
2212 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
2213 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
2214 enter check-in log messages.
2216 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
2217 without invoking external programs.
2219 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
2220 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
2221 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
2222 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
2223 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
2225 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
2226 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
2228 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
2229 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
2231 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
2232 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
2233 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
2234 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
2235 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
2238 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
2239 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
2240 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
2241 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
2243 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
2244 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
2245 actually modifying content of a buffer.
2247 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
2250 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
2252 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
2254 ; comment (until end of line)
2258 $A default non-terminal
2259 $"C" default terminal
2260 $?C? default special
2261 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
2262 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
2263 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
2264 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
2265 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
2266 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
2267 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
2268 C+ one or more occurrences of C
2269 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
2270 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
2271 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
2272 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
2273 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
2274 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
2275 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
2277 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
2279 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
2280 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
2281 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
2282 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
2283 equal signs of assignments.
2285 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
2286 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
2288 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
2289 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
2290 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
2292 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
2294 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
2295 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
2296 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
2297 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
2298 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
2299 which answers different needs.
2301 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
2302 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
2303 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
2304 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
2305 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
2308 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
2309 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
2311 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
2313 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
2314 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
2315 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behaviour in all buffers.
2317 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
2319 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
2320 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
2321 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
2322 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
2323 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
2324 and background colors.
2326 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
2329 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
2332 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
2334 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
2336 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
2337 whitespace in a file.
2339 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
2340 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
2341 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
2342 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
2343 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
2344 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
2345 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
2347 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
2349 Here is an example of columns:
2352 dog pineapple car EXTRA
2353 porcupine strawberry airplane
2355 Doing the following settings:
2357 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
2358 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
2359 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
2360 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
2363 Selecting the lines above and typing:
2365 M-x delimit-columns-region
2369 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
2370 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
2371 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
2373 delim-col has the following options:
2375 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
2378 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
2379 between each column.
2381 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
2384 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
2387 delim-col has the following commands:
2389 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
2390 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
2392 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
2393 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
2394 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
2395 recent file list can be displayed:
2397 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
2398 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
2399 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
2401 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
2402 dynamically change the menu appearance.
2404 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
2407 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
2408 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
2409 specific to Message mode.
2411 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
2412 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
2413 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
2415 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
2416 interface to access directory servers using different directory
2417 protocols. It has a separate manual.
2419 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
2420 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
2422 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
2424 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
2425 minibuffer with completion.
2427 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
2428 with the diary features.
2430 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
2431 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
2433 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
2436 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
2437 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
2438 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
2439 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
2441 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
2442 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
2445 ** Changes in sort.el
2447 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
2448 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
2449 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
2452 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
2454 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
2455 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
2456 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
2458 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
2459 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
2461 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
2462 output ^M at the end of lines.
2464 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
2465 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
2467 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
2468 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
2471 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
2474 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
2475 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
2478 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
2479 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
2480 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
2481 nil -- just delete one character.
2483 Default value is `untabify'.
2485 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
2487 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
2488 symbol, not double-quoted.
2490 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
2491 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
2492 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
2493 moved to lisp/obsolete.
2495 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
2496 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
2497 `auto-compression-mode' command.
2499 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
2500 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
2501 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
2503 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
2504 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
2506 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
2507 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
2509 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
2510 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
2512 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
2513 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
2514 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
2515 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
2516 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
2517 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
2519 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
2520 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
2522 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
2524 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
2525 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
2527 ** Shell script mode changes.
2529 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
2530 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
2531 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
2535 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
2537 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
2538 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
2539 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
2540 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
2541 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
2543 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
2544 declarations when given the --declarations option.
2546 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
2547 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
2549 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
2550 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
2551 `template' keywords.
2553 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
2554 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
2556 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
2559 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
2561 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
2563 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
2566 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
2568 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
2569 variables are tagged.
2571 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
2573 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
2576 ** Changes in etags.el
2578 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
2579 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
2580 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
2582 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
2583 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
2585 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
2586 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
2587 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
2588 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
2590 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
2592 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
2593 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
2595 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
2597 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
2598 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
2599 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
2601 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
2602 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
2604 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
2605 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
2607 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
2608 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
2609 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
2610 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
2611 point will go to the beginning of the file.
2613 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
2614 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
2615 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
2617 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
2618 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
2619 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
2621 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
2622 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
2623 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
2625 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
2627 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
2629 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
2630 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
2631 expression from that list, are not checked.
2633 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
2634 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
2635 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
2636 the buffer, just like for the local files.
2638 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
2640 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
2641 displays local abbrevs, only.
2643 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
2644 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
2646 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
2647 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
2648 is measured in pixels.
2650 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
2651 to be visited as images.
2653 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
2654 were added to compile.el.
2656 ** Withdrawn packages
2658 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
2659 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
2661 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
2663 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
2666 * Incompatible Lisp changes
2668 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
2669 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
2670 See the sections below for details.
2672 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
2673 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
2674 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
2675 to remove the properties of the copy.
2677 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
2678 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
2679 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
2680 these properties are active.
2682 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
2683 ranges may affect some code.
2685 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
2686 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
2687 make a difference to some code.
2689 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
2690 operates on the minibuffer.
2692 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
2693 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
2694 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
2695 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
2696 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
2697 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
2698 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
2699 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
2700 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
2701 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
2702 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
2703 the buffer as multibyte characters.
2705 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
2706 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
2707 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
2709 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
2710 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
2711 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
2713 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
2716 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
2719 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
2720 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
2721 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
2722 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
2723 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
2724 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
2725 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
2726 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
2728 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
2729 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
2730 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
2731 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
2732 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
2733 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
2734 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
2735 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
2736 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
2737 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
2740 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
2741 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
2743 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
2745 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
2746 allows the animated display of strings.
2748 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
2749 interactive form of a function.
2751 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
2752 between custom options. Example:
2754 (defcustom default-input-method nil
2755 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
2756 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
2757 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
2759 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
2760 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
2762 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
2763 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
2764 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
2766 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
2767 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
2768 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
2769 (signal or normal termination).
2771 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
2772 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
2774 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
2775 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
2777 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
2778 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
2780 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
2782 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
2783 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
2786 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
2788 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
2789 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
2790 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
2791 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
2792 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
2795 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
2796 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
2799 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
2800 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
2802 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
2803 with the more general `:mask' property.
2805 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
2807 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
2810 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
2811 is running in batch mode. For example,
2813 (message "%s" (read t))
2815 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
2818 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
2819 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
2821 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
2822 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
2825 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
2828 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
2830 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
2831 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
2833 - Function: remq ELT LIST
2835 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
2836 comparison is done with `eq'.
2838 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
2840 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
2841 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
2842 `key-and-value', in addition the `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
2844 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
2845 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
2846 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
2848 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
2849 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
2851 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
2852 function was declared obsolete.
2854 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
2855 retained as an alias).
2857 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
2858 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
2859 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
2861 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
2863 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
2865 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
2866 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
2867 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
2868 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
2869 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
2870 means never include the minibuffer window.
2872 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
2874 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
2876 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
2878 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
2879 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
2880 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
2881 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
2884 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
2885 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
2886 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
2887 minibuffer even if it is active.
2889 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
2890 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
2891 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
2892 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
2893 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
2894 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
2896 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
2897 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
2898 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
2899 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
2900 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
2901 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
2902 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
2904 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
2905 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
2906 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
2908 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
2909 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
2910 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
2911 Default value is nil.
2913 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
2916 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
2917 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
2918 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
2920 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
2921 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
2922 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
2924 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
2925 list of a primitive.
2927 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
2929 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
2930 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
2931 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
2932 than replacing the local map.
2934 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
2935 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
2936 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
2939 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
2941 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
2942 as promised long ago.
2944 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
2946 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
2947 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
2948 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
2951 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
2953 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
2954 regular expressions.
2956 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
2958 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
2962 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
2964 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
2968 matches string STRING literally.
2971 matches character CHAR literally.
2974 matches any character except a newline.
2977 matches any character
2980 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
2981 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
2987 matches any character not in SET
2990 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
2991 in the text being matched
2994 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
2997 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
2998 string being matched against.
3001 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
3002 string being matched against.
3005 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
3006 buffer being matched against.
3009 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
3010 buffer being matched against.
3013 matches the empty string, but only at point.
3016 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
3020 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
3023 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
3026 `(not word-boundary)'
3027 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
3031 matches 0 through 9.
3034 matches ASCII control characters.
3037 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
3040 matches space and tab only.
3043 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
3047 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
3051 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3052 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3055 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3056 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3059 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
3062 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
3065 matches anything lower-case.
3068 matches anything upper-case.
3071 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3072 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
3075 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
3078 matches anything that has word syntax.
3081 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
3082 of the following symbols.
3084 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
3085 `punctuation' (\\s.)
3088 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
3089 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
3090 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
3091 `string-quote' (\\s\")
3092 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
3094 `character-quote' (\\s/)
3095 `comment-start' (\\s<)
3096 `comment-end' (\\s>)
3098 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
3099 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
3101 `(category CATEGORY)'
3102 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
3103 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
3105 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
3107 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
3108 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
3112 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
3114 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
3115 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
3116 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
3117 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
3118 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
3119 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
3120 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
3121 `indian-tow-byte' (\\cI)
3122 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
3123 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
3124 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
3133 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
3137 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
3144 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
3145 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
3147 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3148 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
3150 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3151 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
3152 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
3154 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3155 another name for `submatch'.
3157 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3158 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
3159 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
3162 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
3163 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
3164 zero or more occurrances of something are \"greedy\" in that they
3165 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
3166 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
3168 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
3169 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
3171 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
3172 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3175 like `zero-or-more'.
3178 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3181 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3183 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
3184 matches one or more occurrences of A.
3190 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3193 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3195 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
3196 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
3202 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3205 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3208 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3211 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3214 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
3218 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
3220 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
3222 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
3223 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
3224 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
3225 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
3227 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
3228 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
3229 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
3230 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
3232 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
3233 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
3234 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
3236 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
3237 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
3238 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
3239 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
3240 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
3241 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
3242 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
3245 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
3247 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
3248 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
3249 character set as previously.
3251 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
3252 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
3253 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
3255 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
3256 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
3257 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
3258 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
3260 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
3261 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
3263 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
3264 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
3267 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
3268 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
3270 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
3271 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
3272 buffers and strings.
3274 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
3275 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
3276 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
3277 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
3278 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
3279 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
3280 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
3283 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
3284 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
3285 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
3287 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
3288 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
3289 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
3290 may differ between buffer and string text.
3292 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
3293 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
3295 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
3296 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
3297 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
3298 `composition' from STRING.
3300 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
3301 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
3303 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
3306 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
3307 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
3309 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
3310 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
3311 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
3312 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
3314 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
3315 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
3316 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
3317 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
3318 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
3319 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
3321 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
3322 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
3323 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
3325 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
3326 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
3327 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
3329 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
3330 have been introduced.
3332 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
3333 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
3334 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
3335 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
3336 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
3337 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
3338 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
3339 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
3340 their multibyte equivalent.
3342 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
3343 that offset in the file before writing.
3345 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
3346 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
3348 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
3349 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
3350 from which the command was issued.
3352 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
3353 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
3354 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
3355 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
3358 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
3359 to `window-buffer-height'.
3361 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
3363 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
3364 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
3365 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
3367 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
3370 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
3371 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
3373 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
3374 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
3375 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
3377 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
3378 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
3379 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
3380 is currently displayed in some window.
3382 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
3383 argument function's results.
3385 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
3386 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
3387 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
3388 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
3391 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
3392 header in the list of headers passed to it.
3394 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
3395 ignores differences in case and text representation.
3397 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
3398 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
3401 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
3402 nil don't display a cursor
3403 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
3404 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
3405 others display a box cursor.
3407 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
3408 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
3409 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
3410 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
3412 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
3413 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
3414 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
3415 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
3419 (string-to-syntax "()")
3422 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
3425 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
3426 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
3433 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
3438 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
3443 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
3450 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
3451 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
3454 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
3455 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
3456 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
3457 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
3459 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
3461 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
3462 for a regexp in a string.
3464 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
3465 `mouse-position-function'.
3467 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
3468 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
3470 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
3471 Keywords are now always considered constants.
3473 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
3476 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
3477 returned by function `recent-keys'.
3479 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
3480 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
3481 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
3482 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
3485 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
3486 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
3488 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
3489 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
3490 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
3491 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
3494 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
3495 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
3496 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
3497 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
3499 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
3500 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
3501 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
3503 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
3504 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
3507 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
3509 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
3510 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
3511 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
3514 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
3515 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
3516 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
3517 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
3518 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
3520 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
3521 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
3523 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
3524 instead of being optional.
3526 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
3527 modify read-only text.
3529 ** New functions and variables for locales.
3531 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
3532 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
3533 time functions like strftime. The new variables
3534 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
3535 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
3537 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
3538 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
3539 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
3540 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
3541 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
3542 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
3543 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
3545 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
3546 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
3547 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
3550 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
3551 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
3553 ** New function `propertize'
3555 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
3556 strings with text properties.
3558 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
3560 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
3561 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
3562 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
3563 specified value of that property. Example:
3565 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
3567 ** push and pop macros.
3569 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
3570 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
3571 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
3573 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
3574 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
3575 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
3577 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
3579 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
3580 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
3582 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
3583 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
3584 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
3585 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
3587 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
3588 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
3589 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
3590 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
3592 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
3593 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
3594 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
3597 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
3598 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
3599 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
3600 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
3601 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
3603 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
3605 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
3606 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3607 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3608 [:alpha:] matches letters.
3609 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3610 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3611 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
3612 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
3613 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
3614 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
3615 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3616 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
3617 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
3618 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
3619 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
3621 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
3623 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
3625 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
3627 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
3628 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
3632 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
3633 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
3634 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
3638 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
3639 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
3641 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
3643 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
3644 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
3645 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
3646 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
3647 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
3649 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
3651 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
3652 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
3653 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
3657 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
3658 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
3659 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
3660 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
3661 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
3663 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
3665 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
3667 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
3669 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
3671 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
3673 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
3676 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
3678 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
3680 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
3682 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
3684 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
3686 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
3688 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
3690 Returns the size of TABLE.
3692 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
3694 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
3696 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
3698 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
3700 - Function: clrhash TABLE
3704 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
3706 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
3709 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
3711 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
3712 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
3714 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
3716 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
3718 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
3720 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
3721 arguments KEY and VALUE.
3723 - Function: sxhash OBJ
3725 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
3727 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
3729 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
3730 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
3731 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
3732 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
3733 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
3735 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
3737 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
3738 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
3739 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
3741 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
3742 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
3744 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
3745 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
3747 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
3748 (sxhash (upcase a)))
3750 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
3751 'case-fold-string-hash))
3753 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
3755 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
3757 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
3758 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
3759 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
3761 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
3763 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
3764 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
3766 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
3767 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
3768 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
3769 is too short to reach that column.
3771 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
3772 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
3773 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
3774 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
3776 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
3777 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
3778 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
3780 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
3781 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
3783 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
3784 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
3786 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
3787 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
3788 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
3789 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
3790 temporary-file-directory instead.
3792 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
3793 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
3794 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
3795 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
3797 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
3798 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
3800 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
3802 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
3803 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
3804 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
3806 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
3808 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
3809 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
3810 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
3811 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
3812 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
3813 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
3815 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
3816 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
3817 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
3818 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
3820 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
3822 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
3823 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
3824 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
3827 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
3828 string where arguments appear in the result string.
3832 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
3834 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
3835 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
3838 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
3840 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
3842 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
3843 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
3846 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
3848 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
3849 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
3854 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
3855 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
3857 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
3858 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
3859 to enable sound support.
3861 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
3862 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
3863 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
3864 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
3865 sound to play, before playing the sound.
3867 The following sound properties are supported:
3871 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
3872 searched relative to `data-directory'.
3876 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
3877 may be present, but not both.
3881 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
3882 0..1. This property is optional.
3886 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
3887 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
3889 Other properties are ignored.
3891 An alternative interface is called as
3892 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
3894 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
3896 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
3899 ** Changes to garbage collection
3901 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
3902 of live and free strings.
3904 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
3905 strings that have been consed so far.
3908 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
3911 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
3914 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
3915 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
3916 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
3918 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
3920 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
3922 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
3925 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
3927 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
3929 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
3930 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
3931 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
3932 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
3933 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
3935 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
3938 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
3940 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
3941 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
3942 or omitted means use the selected frame.
3944 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
3945 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
3947 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
3950 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
3954 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
3956 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
3957 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
3959 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
3960 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
3961 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
3962 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
3963 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
3964 just display it black instead.
3966 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
3969 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
3973 ** New face implementation.
3975 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
3976 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
3980 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
3982 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
3984 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
3985 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
3987 3. Font height in 1/10pt
3989 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
3991 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
3993 6. Foreground color.
3995 7. Background color.
3997 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
3999 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
4001 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
4003 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
4005 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
4008 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
4009 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
4011 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
4012 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
4013 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
4014 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
4015 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
4016 attributes mentioned above.
4018 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
4019 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
4022 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
4023 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
4028 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
4029 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
4030 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
4031 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
4032 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
4033 results in a fully-specified face.
4035 *** Face realization.
4037 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
4038 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
4039 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
4040 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
4041 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
4042 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
4044 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
4045 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
4046 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
4047 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
4049 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
4050 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
4051 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
4052 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
4053 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
4055 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
4056 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
4057 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
4058 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
4059 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
4062 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
4063 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
4064 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
4065 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
4067 **** Clearing face caches.
4069 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
4070 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
4075 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
4076 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
4077 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
4079 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
4080 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
4081 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
4082 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
4083 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
4085 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
4086 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
4087 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
4089 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
4091 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
4092 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
4093 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
4094 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
4095 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
4096 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
4097 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
4099 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
4100 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
4103 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
4104 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
4107 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
4110 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
4115 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
4116 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
4119 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
4120 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
4121 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
4122 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
4123 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
4126 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
4128 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
4130 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
4132 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
4134 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
4135 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
4136 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
4138 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
4139 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
4140 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
4141 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
4142 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
4143 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
4144 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
4145 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
4146 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
4147 of the face font sort order.
4149 - Function: x-font-family-list
4151 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
4152 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
4153 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
4154 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
4156 - Variable: font-list-limit
4158 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
4159 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
4160 matching font. The default is currently 100.
4162 *** Setting face attributes.
4164 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
4165 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
4166 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
4169 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
4170 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
4172 The following attributes are recognized:
4176 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
4177 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
4178 and `?' are allowed.
4182 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
4183 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
4184 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
4185 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
4189 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
4190 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
4191 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
4192 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
4196 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
4197 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
4198 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
4202 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
4203 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
4206 `:foreground', `:background'
4208 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
4212 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
4213 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
4214 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
4219 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
4220 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
4221 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
4226 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
4227 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
4228 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
4229 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
4233 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
4234 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
4235 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
4236 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
4237 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
4238 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
4239 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
4240 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
4241 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
4242 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
4243 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
4244 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
4245 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
4246 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
4247 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
4248 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
4253 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
4254 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
4258 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
4259 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
4260 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
4261 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
4262 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
4263 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
4265 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
4266 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
4270 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
4271 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
4272 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
4275 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
4276 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
4277 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
4279 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
4284 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
4285 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
4286 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
4288 *** Face attributes and X resources
4290 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
4293 Face attribute X resource class
4294 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
4295 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
4296 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
4297 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
4298 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
4299 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
4300 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
4301 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
4302 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
4303 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
4304 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
4305 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
4306 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
4307 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
4308 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
4309 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
4310 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
4311 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
4312 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
4313 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
4315 *** Text property `face'.
4317 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
4318 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
4319 specification can be
4321 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
4323 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
4324 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
4325 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
4326 for face attribute names.
4328 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
4329 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
4330 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
4332 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
4334 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
4335 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
4336 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
4337 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
4338 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
4339 used to clear the mapping table.
4341 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
4343 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
4344 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
4345 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
4346 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
4347 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
4348 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
4349 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
4350 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
4351 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
4352 modify their color-related behavior.
4354 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
4357 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
4359 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
4360 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
4361 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
4362 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
4363 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
4364 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
4365 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
4366 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
4367 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
4369 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
4370 display can display image files.
4372 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
4374 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
4375 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
4376 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
4377 `Inviolable' option.
4379 The function minibuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
4380 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
4381 Otherwise, it returns zero.
4383 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
4385 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
4386 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
4387 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
4389 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
4390 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
4391 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
4392 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
4393 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
4394 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
4395 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
4398 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
4399 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
4400 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
4402 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
4404 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
4406 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
4408 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4409 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
4410 constrained position if that is different.
4412 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
4413 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
4414 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
4415 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
4416 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4417 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
4418 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
4419 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
4420 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
4422 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
4423 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
4424 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
4425 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
4426 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
4428 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
4429 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
4431 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
4433 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
4435 Delete the field surrounding POS.
4436 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4437 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4439 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4441 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
4442 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4443 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4444 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
4445 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
4447 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4449 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
4450 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4451 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4452 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
4453 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
4455 - Function: field-string &optional POS
4457 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
4458 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4459 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4461 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
4463 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
4464 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4465 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4469 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
4470 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
4471 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
4472 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
4474 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
4475 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
4476 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
4477 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
4480 IMAGE is an image specification.
4482 *** Image specifications
4484 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
4485 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
4486 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
4487 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
4488 described below are ignored.
4490 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
4494 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
4495 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
4496 to use for its ascent.
4498 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
4499 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
4501 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
4502 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
4503 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
4504 overlays that apply to the image.
4508 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
4509 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
4510 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
4514 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
4519 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
4521 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
4522 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
4524 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
4525 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
4526 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
4527 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
4528 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
4529 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
4530 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
4531 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
4534 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
4536 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
4538 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
4539 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
4540 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
4541 of the factors' absolute values.
4543 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
4549 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
4555 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
4560 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
4561 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
4562 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
4563 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
4564 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
4565 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
4566 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
4569 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
4570 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
4575 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
4576 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
4577 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
4578 may be present in the image specification.
4582 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
4583 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
4584 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
4585 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
4587 *** Supported image types
4589 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
4591 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
4592 properties supported are
4596 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4597 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
4601 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4602 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
4604 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
4605 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
4606 instead of a `:file' property.
4610 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
4614 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
4620 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
4621 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
4623 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
4625 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
4628 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
4629 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
4632 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
4634 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
4635 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
4636 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
4637 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
4639 Additional image properties supported are:
4641 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
4643 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
4644 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
4647 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
4648 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
4650 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
4651 to display compressed images.
4653 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
4655 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
4656 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
4661 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4662 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
4666 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4667 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
4669 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
4671 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
4672 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
4675 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
4677 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
4678 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
4681 **** GIF, image type `gif'
4683 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
4684 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
4686 Additional image properties supported are:
4690 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
4691 multi-image GIF file. An error is signaled if INDEX is too large.
4693 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
4694 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
4695 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
4698 (defun show-anim (file max)
4699 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
4700 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
4702 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
4705 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
4708 (goto-char (point-min))
4709 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
4710 (insert-image img "x"))
4711 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
4713 **** PNG, image type `png'
4715 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
4716 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
4719 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
4721 Additional image properties supported are:
4725 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
4726 integer. This is a required property.
4730 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
4731 must be a integer. This is an required property.
4735 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
4736 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
4737 files. This is an required property.
4739 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
4744 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
4745 which are supported in the current configuration.
4747 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
4748 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
4749 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
4750 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
4751 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
4753 *** Simplified image API, image.el
4755 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
4756 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
4757 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
4758 define an image based on available image types. The functions
4759 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
4764 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
4767 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
4768 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
4769 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
4770 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
4771 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
4772 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
4773 of the display margins.
4775 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
4776 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
4777 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
4778 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
4783 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
4784 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
4785 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
4786 that have a `help-echo' property.
4788 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
4789 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
4790 the window in which the help was found.
4792 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
4793 `help-echo' text property was found.
4795 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
4796 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
4798 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
4799 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
4802 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
4803 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
4805 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
4806 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
4807 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
4808 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
4809 used as help string.
4811 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
4812 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
4813 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
4815 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
4817 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
4818 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
4820 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
4821 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
4822 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
4823 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
4826 (global-set-key [A-down]
4829 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
4830 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
4831 (global-set-key [A-up]
4834 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
4835 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
4837 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
4839 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
4840 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
4841 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
4842 is called with one argument, POS.
4844 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
4845 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
4846 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
4847 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
4848 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
4850 ** Tool bar support.
4852 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
4853 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
4854 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
4855 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
4856 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
4857 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
4859 *** Tool bar item definitions
4861 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
4862 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
4863 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
4865 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
4866 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
4867 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
4868 property (see below).
4870 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
4871 binding are currently ignored.
4873 The following properties are recognized:
4877 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
4882 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
4886 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
4887 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
4888 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
4890 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
4892 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
4893 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
4897 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
4898 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
4899 meaning of each of the four elements:
4901 Index Use when item is
4902 ----------------------------------------
4903 0 enabled and selected
4904 1 enabled and deselected
4905 2 disabled and selected
4906 3 disabled and deselected
4908 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
4909 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
4911 `:help HELP-STRING'.
4913 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
4914 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
4916 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
4917 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
4918 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
4921 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
4922 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
4923 buffer-locally to override the global map.
4925 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
4927 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
4928 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
4929 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
4931 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
4932 raised when the mouse moves over them.
4934 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
4935 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
4936 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
4937 vertical margins . Default is 1.
4939 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
4940 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
4942 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
4944 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
4947 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
4948 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
4949 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
4951 is the original tool bar item definition, then
4953 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
4955 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
4958 ** Mode line changes.
4960 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
4962 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
4963 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
4964 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
4966 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
4967 a `local-map' text property.
4969 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
4970 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
4972 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
4973 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
4974 `local-map' property.
4976 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
4977 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
4980 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
4981 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
4983 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
4984 variable mode-line-format to nil.
4986 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
4988 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
4989 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
4990 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
4991 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
4994 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
4997 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
4998 position in the header-line.
5000 ** Text property `display'
5002 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
5003 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
5004 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
5005 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
5006 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
5008 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
5010 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
5011 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
5013 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
5014 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
5015 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
5016 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
5017 simpler form STRING as property value.
5019 *** Variable width and height spaces
5021 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
5022 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
5023 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
5024 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
5025 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
5026 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
5027 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
5029 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
5030 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
5031 properties described below.
5033 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
5034 characters having the `display' property.
5038 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
5039 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
5041 - :relative-width FACTOR
5043 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
5044 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
5045 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
5046 width of that character by FACTOR.
5050 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
5051 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
5053 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
5057 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
5060 - :relative-height FACTOR
5062 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
5063 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
5067 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
5068 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
5069 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
5072 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
5076 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
5077 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
5078 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
5079 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
5080 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
5081 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
5082 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
5083 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
5084 as display specification.
5086 *** Other display properties
5088 - (space-width FACTOR)
5090 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
5091 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
5096 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
5098 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
5099 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
5100 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
5101 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
5102 a font is available counts as a step.
5104 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
5105 as tall as the frame's default font.
5107 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
5108 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
5110 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
5111 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
5115 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
5116 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
5117 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
5118 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
5119 `height' subproperty.
5121 *** Conditional display properties
5123 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
5124 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
5125 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
5126 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
5127 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
5128 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
5129 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
5130 different when object is a string.
5132 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
5135 ** New menu separator types.
5137 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
5138 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
5139 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
5140 to specify other menu separator types.
5142 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
5144 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
5147 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
5149 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
5151 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
5153 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
5155 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
5157 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
5159 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
5161 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
5163 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
5165 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
5166 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
5168 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
5170 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
5172 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
5174 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
5176 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
5178 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
5180 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
5182 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
5184 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
5186 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
5188 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
5190 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
5192 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
5194 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
5196 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
5197 the corresponding single-line separators.
5199 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
5201 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
5202 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
5203 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
5204 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
5205 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
5206 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
5207 default foreground is black.
5209 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
5210 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
5211 `ScrollBarBackground').
5213 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
5214 settings for scroll bar colors.
5216 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
5217 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
5219 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
5220 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
5221 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
5222 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
5223 the original window start.
5225 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
5226 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
5227 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
5229 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
5231 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
5232 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
5233 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
5234 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
5236 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
5237 fixed-width and fixed-height.
5239 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
5241 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
5242 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
5243 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
5244 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
5245 temporarily to nil, for example
5247 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
5248 (enlarge-window 10))
5250 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
5251 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
5253 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
5254 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
5255 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
5256 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
5257 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
5258 support a vertical-bar cursor).
5262 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
5264 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
5267 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
5269 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
5271 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
5272 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
5273 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
5274 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
5275 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
5277 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
5281 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
5283 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
5287 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
5289 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
5290 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
5292 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
5294 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
5296 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
5297 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
5298 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
5300 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
5301 is the one that is used.
5303 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
5304 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
5305 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
5306 separate from the command's regular output.
5307 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
5308 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
5309 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
5312 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
5313 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
5314 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
5315 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
5317 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
5318 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
5319 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
5320 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
5322 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
5323 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
5324 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
5325 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
5327 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
5328 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
5329 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
5330 they never ignore case.
5332 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
5333 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
5334 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
5335 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
5336 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
5337 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
5338 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
5340 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
5341 the same format that was used in the file before.
5343 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
5344 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
5346 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
5347 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
5348 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
5350 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
5351 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
5352 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
5353 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
5354 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
5355 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
5356 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
5358 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
5359 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
5360 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
5361 format. You can now customize these variables.
5363 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
5364 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
5365 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
5366 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
5368 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
5369 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
5370 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
5372 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
5373 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
5374 doesn't have any effect.
5376 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
5379 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
5380 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
5381 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
5383 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
5384 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
5385 `auto-show-mode' command.
5387 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
5388 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
5389 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
5390 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
5391 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
5393 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
5394 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
5396 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
5397 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
5398 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
5400 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
5401 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
5402 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
5403 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
5405 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
5407 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
5408 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
5409 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
5410 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
5411 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
5413 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
5414 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
5416 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
5417 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
5418 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
5419 `?' on other systems.
5421 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
5422 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
5425 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
5426 current codepage when it starts.
5430 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
5431 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
5432 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
5433 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
5434 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
5435 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
5439 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
5440 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
5442 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
5443 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
5444 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
5445 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
5446 buffer-file-coding-system.
5448 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
5449 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
5452 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
5453 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
5454 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
5455 list of possible coding systems.
5459 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
5460 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
5461 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
5462 docstring for details.
5464 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
5465 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
5466 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
5467 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
5468 lineup functions use this feature currently.
5470 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
5471 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
5473 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
5474 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
5476 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
5477 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
5478 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
5479 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
5482 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
5483 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
5485 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
5486 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
5487 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
5488 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
5490 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
5491 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
5492 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
5493 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
5494 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
5496 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
5498 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
5500 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
5501 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
5503 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
5505 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
5506 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
5507 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
5508 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
5509 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
5513 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
5514 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
5515 Gnus manual for the full story.
5517 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
5518 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
5519 group, which is created automatically.
5521 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
5524 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
5526 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
5527 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
5529 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
5532 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
5534 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
5535 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
5537 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
5539 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
5540 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
5542 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
5543 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
5545 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
5546 control over simplification.
5548 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
5550 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
5553 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
5555 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
5557 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
5558 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
5559 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
5561 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
5562 `a' forces normal posting method.
5564 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
5567 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
5570 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
5571 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
5573 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
5576 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
5578 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
5580 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
5581 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
5583 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
5584 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
5586 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
5588 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
5591 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
5592 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
5594 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
5595 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
5597 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
5599 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
5601 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
5603 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
5605 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
5606 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
5607 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
5609 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
5610 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
5611 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
5612 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
5613 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
5615 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
5616 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
5617 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
5618 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
5620 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
5621 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
5622 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
5625 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5627 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
5628 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
5630 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
5631 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
5632 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
5633 removed from the label.
5635 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
5636 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
5638 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
5639 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
5641 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
5642 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
5645 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
5647 ** New/deleted modes and packages
5649 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
5650 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
5652 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
5653 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
5654 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
5656 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
5657 changes with a special face.
5659 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
5660 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
5661 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
5663 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
5665 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
5666 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
5667 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
5668 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
5669 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
5671 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
5672 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
5673 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
5675 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
5676 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
5677 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
5678 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
5679 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
5680 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
5681 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
5682 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
5683 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
5685 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
5686 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
5687 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
5688 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
5689 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
5692 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
5693 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
5694 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
5695 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
5696 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
5697 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
5699 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
5700 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
5701 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
5702 was not documented clearly before.
5704 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
5705 This includes Tetris and Snake.
5707 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
5709 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
5710 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
5711 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
5712 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
5714 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
5715 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
5716 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
5718 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
5720 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
5721 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
5723 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
5724 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
5727 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
5728 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
5729 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
5730 file names and attributes are returned.
5732 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
5733 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
5734 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
5735 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
5738 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
5739 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
5741 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
5743 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
5744 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
5745 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
5748 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
5749 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
5752 The new function process-running-child-p
5753 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
5754 terminal to its own child process.
5756 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
5757 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
5758 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
5759 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
5761 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
5762 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
5764 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
5765 :included is an alias for :visible.
5767 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
5768 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
5769 to move or copy menu entries.
5771 ** Multibyte editing changes
5773 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
5774 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
5775 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
5776 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
5777 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
5778 (setq char (sref str idx)
5779 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
5780 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
5782 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
5783 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
5784 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
5786 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
5787 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
5788 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
5790 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
5792 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
5793 across the boundary.
5795 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
5796 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
5797 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
5798 contains 8-bit characters.
5799 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
5800 contains invalid characters.
5802 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
5803 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
5804 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
5805 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
5808 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
5809 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
5810 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
5811 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
5813 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
5814 compose Thai characters in a string.
5816 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
5817 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
5818 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
5819 menus should always use the third argument.
5821 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
5822 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
5823 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
5824 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
5826 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
5827 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
5828 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
5829 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
5831 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
5832 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
5833 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
5836 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
5838 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
5839 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
5840 requested feature cannot be loaded.
5842 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
5843 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
5844 means to clear out that attribute.
5846 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
5847 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
5849 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
5850 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
5851 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
5852 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
5854 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
5855 the gap of the current buffer.
5857 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
5858 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
5861 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
5862 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
5863 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
5864 it back in after any modifications have been made.
5866 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
5868 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
5869 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
5870 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
5871 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
5872 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
5874 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
5875 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
5876 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
5877 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
5878 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
5880 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
5881 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
5882 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
5884 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
5885 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
5886 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
5887 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
5888 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
5891 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
5892 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
5893 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
5894 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
5896 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
5898 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
5899 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
5900 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
5901 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
5903 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
5904 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
5905 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
5906 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
5907 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
5908 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
5909 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
5912 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
5915 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
5916 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
5917 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
5918 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
5919 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
5921 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
5922 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
5923 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
5924 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
5926 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
5927 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
5928 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
5929 something that most users not do.
5931 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
5932 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
5933 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
5936 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
5939 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
5940 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
5941 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
5942 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
5945 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
5946 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
5947 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
5948 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
5949 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
5952 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
5953 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
5954 to be confused by TeX commands.
5956 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
5957 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
5958 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
5959 of various alternative replacements and actions.
5961 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
5962 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
5963 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
5964 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
5965 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
5967 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
5968 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
5970 ** Changes in input method usage.
5972 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
5973 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
5976 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
5978 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
5979 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
5981 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
5982 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
5984 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
5986 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
5988 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
5989 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
5991 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
5992 given in the following case:
5993 o When you are using a complex input method.
5994 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
5996 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
5997 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
5998 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
5999 setting it to t is helpful.
6001 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
6003 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
6005 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
6006 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
6007 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
6008 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
6011 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
6012 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
6013 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
6016 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
6018 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
6020 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
6021 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
6023 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
6024 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
6025 its owner and group.
6027 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
6028 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
6030 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
6031 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
6033 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
6034 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
6035 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
6036 by the left edge of the rectangle.
6038 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
6039 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
6040 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
6041 for writing keyboard macros.
6043 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
6044 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
6045 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
6046 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
6047 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
6050 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
6052 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
6053 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
6056 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
6057 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
6058 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
6059 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
6061 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
6062 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
6063 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
6065 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
6066 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
6067 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
6068 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
6070 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
6071 failure if the command produces no output.
6073 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
6074 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
6077 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
6078 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
6079 function and variable names.
6081 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
6082 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
6083 file-coding-system-alist.
6085 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
6086 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
6087 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
6088 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
6089 according to the current fontset.
6091 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
6093 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
6094 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
6095 nonascii-insert-offset.
6097 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
6098 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
6099 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
6100 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
6102 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
6103 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
6105 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
6106 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
6108 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
6109 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
6112 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
6113 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
6115 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
6116 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
6117 all variables that have documentation.
6119 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
6120 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
6121 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
6122 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
6123 it should show; the default is 20.
6125 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
6126 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
6129 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
6130 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
6131 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
6132 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
6133 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
6134 Newly added options are included as well.
6136 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
6137 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
6138 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
6140 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
6143 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
6144 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
6146 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
6147 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
6150 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
6151 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
6154 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
6155 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
6156 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
6157 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
6160 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
6162 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
6163 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
6164 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
6166 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
6167 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
6168 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
6173 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
6174 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
6176 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
6177 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
6179 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
6180 read and post multi-lingual articles.
6182 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
6183 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
6184 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
6185 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
6186 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
6187 made invisible again.
6189 ** Mail reading and sending changes
6191 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
6192 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
6193 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
6196 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
6197 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
6198 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
6199 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
6200 rmail-default-body-file.
6202 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
6203 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
6204 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
6206 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
6207 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
6208 is evaluated to insert the signature.
6210 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
6211 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
6212 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
6213 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
6214 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
6215 especially interested in trying feedmail.
6217 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
6218 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
6219 provided by feedmail are:
6221 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
6222 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
6223 there is also a queue for draft messages
6225 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
6226 be prompted for confirmation
6228 **** does smart filling of address headers
6230 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
6231 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
6232 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
6234 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
6235 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
6236 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
6237 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
6241 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
6242 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
6244 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
6245 run Dired on the directory name at point.
6247 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
6248 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
6249 for a specified regexp.
6253 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
6256 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
6257 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
6260 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
6261 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
6262 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
6263 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
6265 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
6266 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
6267 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
6268 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
6269 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
6271 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
6272 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
6273 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
6274 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
6275 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
6277 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
6278 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
6279 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
6280 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
6282 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
6283 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
6284 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
6286 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
6287 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
6288 session to resolve them.
6290 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
6291 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
6292 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
6295 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
6296 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
6297 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
6298 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
6299 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
6300 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
6303 ** Changes in Font Lock
6305 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
6306 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
6307 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
6308 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
6309 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
6311 ** Frame name display changes
6313 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
6314 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
6315 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
6316 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
6318 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
6319 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
6322 ** Comint (subshell) changes
6324 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
6325 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
6326 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
6328 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
6330 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
6331 that is, the line after the last line you got.
6332 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
6334 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
6335 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
6338 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
6339 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
6340 previously sent input.
6342 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
6343 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
6344 as the search string.
6346 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
6347 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
6351 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
6352 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
6353 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
6356 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
6357 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
6358 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
6359 style is still the default however.
6361 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
6363 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
6364 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
6365 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
6367 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
6368 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
6370 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
6371 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
6373 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
6374 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
6376 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
6377 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
6379 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
6380 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
6381 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
6382 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
6384 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
6386 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
6387 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
6388 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
6390 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
6391 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
6392 expanding dynamically.
6394 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
6395 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
6397 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
6398 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
6399 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
6400 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
6402 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
6404 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6406 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
6407 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
6408 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
6409 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
6410 against the first word in the title.
6412 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
6413 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
6414 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
6415 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
6416 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
6417 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
6419 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
6420 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
6421 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
6422 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
6424 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
6426 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
6427 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
6428 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
6429 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
6430 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
6431 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
6433 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
6434 Editing group once the package is loaded.
6436 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
6437 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
6438 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
6440 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
6441 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
6445 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
6446 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
6447 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
6449 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
6450 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
6451 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
6452 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
6455 o URLs are automatically skipped
6456 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
6458 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
6460 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6462 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
6463 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
6464 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
6465 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
6467 *** New recursive parser.
6469 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
6470 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
6471 recursive parser scans the individual files.
6473 *** Parsing only part of a document.
6475 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
6476 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
6477 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
6479 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
6481 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
6483 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
6485 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
6487 *** Using multiple selection buffers
6489 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
6490 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
6492 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
6494 *** References to external documents.
6496 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
6497 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
6498 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
6499 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
6500 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
6501 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
6502 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
6504 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
6506 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
6507 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
6509 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
6510 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
6512 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
6514 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
6515 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
6517 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
6519 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
6520 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
6521 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
6522 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
6523 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
6524 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
6527 *** Support for the varioref package
6529 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
6533 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
6534 and citations are created. These hooks are
6535 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
6536 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
6538 *** Citations outside LaTeX
6540 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
6541 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
6543 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
6545 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
6546 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
6549 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
6551 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
6552 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
6553 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
6554 directories that contain the same file name.
6556 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
6557 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
6558 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
6559 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
6560 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
6561 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
6562 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
6565 ** New modes and packages
6567 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
6568 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
6569 it, but some do not.
6571 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
6574 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
6575 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
6578 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
6580 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
6581 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
6582 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
6583 established system of notation similar to Chess.
6585 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
6586 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
6587 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
6589 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
6590 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
6591 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
6592 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
6593 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
6596 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
6597 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
6599 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
6600 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
6601 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
6602 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
6604 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
6606 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
6607 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
6608 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
6609 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
6610 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
6611 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
6612 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
6613 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
6614 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
6615 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
6616 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
6618 Platform-specific modes:
6620 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
6621 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
6622 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
6623 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
6624 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
6625 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
6626 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
6627 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
6628 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
6630 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
6632 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
6633 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
6634 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
6635 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
6637 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
6638 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
6639 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
6641 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
6642 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
6643 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
6644 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
6646 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
6647 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
6648 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
6651 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
6652 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
6653 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
6654 current input method for reading this one event.
6656 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
6657 now control whether to output certain characters as
6658 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
6659 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
6660 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
6661 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
6663 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
6665 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
6666 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
6668 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
6669 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
6670 always increases point by 1.
6672 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
6673 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
6675 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
6677 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
6678 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
6679 default value changed. For example,
6681 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
6686 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
6689 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
6690 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
6691 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
6692 `:version' in the top level group.
6694 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
6696 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
6697 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
6699 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
6700 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
6701 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
6704 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
6705 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
6708 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
6709 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
6710 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
6712 ** Frame-local variables.
6714 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
6715 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
6716 local bindings for that variable.
6718 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
6719 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
6720 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
6723 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
6724 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
6725 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
6726 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
6728 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
6729 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
6730 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
6731 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
6733 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
6734 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
6735 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
6736 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
6737 See the documentation in sregex.el.
6739 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
6740 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
6741 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
6742 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
6744 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
6745 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
6747 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
6748 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
6749 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
6751 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
6752 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
6753 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
6754 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
6756 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
6757 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
6760 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
6761 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
6762 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
6763 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
6764 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
6766 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
6767 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
6768 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
6769 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
6771 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
6772 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
6773 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
6774 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
6775 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
6777 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
6778 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
6779 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
6780 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
6782 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
6783 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
6784 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
6786 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
6787 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
6788 was directed to display this buffer.
6790 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
6791 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
6792 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
6793 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
6794 set-window-configuration.
6796 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
6797 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
6798 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
6799 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
6801 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
6802 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
6803 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
6805 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
6806 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
6807 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
6809 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
6810 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
6812 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
6813 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
6815 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
6816 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
6817 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
6819 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
6820 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
6821 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
6822 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
6826 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
6827 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
6830 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
6831 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
6832 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
6833 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
6834 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
6836 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
6838 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
6839 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
6840 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
6841 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
6844 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
6845 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
6846 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
6847 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
6848 The supported properties include
6850 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
6852 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
6853 item should appear in the menu.
6855 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
6856 which will be REAL-BINDING.
6857 It should return a binding to use instead.
6859 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
6860 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
6861 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
6862 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
6863 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
6866 This means that the command normally has no
6867 keyboard equivalent.
6868 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
6869 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
6870 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
6871 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
6872 value says whether this button is currently selected.
6874 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
6875 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
6877 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
6881 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
6882 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
6883 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
6884 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
6886 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
6888 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
6889 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
6890 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
6891 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
6892 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
6893 forward, away from the user.
6895 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
6897 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
6898 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
6899 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
6900 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
6901 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
6903 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
6905 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
6906 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
6907 that were dragged and dropped.
6909 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
6911 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
6913 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
6914 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
6915 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
6917 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
6918 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
6919 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
6921 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
6922 in Emacs 19 and before.
6924 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
6925 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
6927 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
6928 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
6929 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
6930 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
6932 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
6933 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
6934 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
6935 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
6936 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
6938 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
6939 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
6940 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
6941 consistent with the new representation.
6943 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
6944 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
6945 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
6946 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
6948 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
6949 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
6950 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
6952 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
6953 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
6954 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
6956 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
6957 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
6958 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
6960 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
6961 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
6963 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
6964 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
6966 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
6967 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
6968 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
6969 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
6971 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
6972 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
6974 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
6975 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
6976 buffer or string being searched.
6978 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
6979 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
6980 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
6981 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
6982 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
6983 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
6984 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
6986 *** Structure of coding system changed.
6988 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
6989 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
6990 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
6991 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
6992 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
6993 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
6994 define-coding-system-alias.
6996 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
6997 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
6998 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
6999 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
7000 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
7001 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
7002 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
7005 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
7006 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
7007 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
7008 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
7010 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
7011 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
7012 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
7013 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
7015 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
7016 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
7017 This function requires a user interaction.
7019 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
7020 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
7021 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
7022 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
7023 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
7024 select-safe-coding-system.
7026 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
7027 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
7028 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
7031 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
7032 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
7033 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
7035 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
7036 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
7037 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
7038 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
7040 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
7041 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
7042 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
7045 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
7046 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
7048 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
7049 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
7050 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
7051 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
7052 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
7053 range of characters.
7055 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
7056 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
7058 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
7059 in the current buffer at position POS.
7061 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
7062 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
7063 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
7064 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
7065 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
7066 binding input-method-function to nil.
7068 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
7069 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
7070 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
7071 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
7072 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
7074 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
7075 subsequent events of a key sequence.
7077 *** You can customize any language environment by using
7078 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
7080 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
7081 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
7082 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
7083 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
7084 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
7086 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
7088 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
7089 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
7090 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
7093 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
7094 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
7096 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
7097 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
7098 in your .emacs file.)
7100 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
7101 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
7103 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
7104 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
7106 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
7107 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
7110 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
7111 delete the character before point, as usual.
7113 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
7114 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
7115 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
7117 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
7118 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
7119 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
7120 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
7121 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
7124 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
7125 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
7126 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
7127 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
7128 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
7130 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
7131 and is an alias for it.
7133 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
7134 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
7136 ** Scrolling changes
7138 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
7139 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
7141 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
7142 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
7145 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
7146 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
7147 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
7148 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
7150 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
7151 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
7152 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
7153 recenters the window.
7155 ** International character set support (MULE)
7157 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
7158 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
7159 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
7160 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
7161 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
7162 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
7164 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
7165 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
7166 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
7167 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
7168 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
7170 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
7171 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
7172 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
7173 language, to make it possible to type them.
7175 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
7176 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
7178 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
7179 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
7181 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
7183 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
7185 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
7186 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
7187 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
7188 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
7189 characters for their work until they want to change.
7193 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
7194 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
7195 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
7196 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
7197 support several input methods.
7199 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
7200 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
7203 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
7204 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
7205 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
7206 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
7207 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
7210 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
7211 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
7212 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
7213 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
7214 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
7216 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
7217 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
7218 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
7219 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
7221 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
7222 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
7223 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
7224 the first guess is wrong.
7226 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
7227 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
7229 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
7230 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
7231 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
7232 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
7234 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
7235 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
7236 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
7237 translate automatically to and from either one.
7239 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
7241 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
7242 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
7243 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
7246 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
7247 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
7248 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
7249 multibyte characters in that buffer.
7251 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
7252 character conversion as well.
7254 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
7256 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
7257 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
7258 requires using many fonts.
7260 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
7261 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
7263 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
7264 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
7265 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
7266 you would use a font.
7268 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
7269 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
7270 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
7272 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
7273 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
7276 *** Defining fontsets.
7278 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
7279 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
7280 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
7282 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
7283 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
7284 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
7285 standard fontset are created automatically.
7287 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
7288 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
7289 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
7290 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
7291 name is `fontset-startup'.
7293 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
7294 The resource value should have this form:
7295 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
7296 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
7297 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
7298 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
7299 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
7300 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
7301 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
7302 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
7303 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
7305 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
7306 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
7307 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
7309 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
7310 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
7312 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
7313 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
7314 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
7315 Here is the substitution rule:
7316 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
7317 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
7318 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
7319 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
7320 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
7322 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
7323 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
7324 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
7326 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
7327 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
7328 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
7329 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
7332 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
7333 defaults for a particular choice of language.
7335 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
7336 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
7337 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
7338 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
7339 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
7340 system for new files that you create.
7342 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
7343 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
7344 whole Emacs session.
7346 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
7347 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
7348 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
7350 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
7351 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
7352 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
7353 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
7354 coding systems that Emacs supports.
7356 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
7357 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
7358 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
7359 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
7360 is used for *the immediately following command*.
7362 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
7363 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
7365 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
7366 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
7368 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
7369 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
7371 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
7372 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
7373 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
7374 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
7377 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
7378 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
7379 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
7380 translated into that character code.
7382 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
7383 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
7385 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
7387 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
7388 the coding system for keyboard input.
7390 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
7391 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
7392 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
7394 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
7396 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
7397 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
7398 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
7399 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
7400 designed to work with terminals.
7402 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
7403 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
7404 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
7405 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
7406 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
7407 in the corresponding buffer.
7409 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
7411 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
7412 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
7413 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
7415 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
7416 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
7417 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
7420 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
7421 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
7423 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
7424 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
7425 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
7426 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
7428 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
7429 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
7430 related information.
7432 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
7433 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
7436 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
7437 information about the support for a particular language.
7438 You specify the language as an argument.
7440 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
7441 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
7444 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
7445 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
7446 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
7447 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
7449 A alternativnyj (Russian)
7451 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
7452 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
7453 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
7454 E euc-japan (Japanese)
7455 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
7456 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
7457 K euc-korea (Korean)
7460 S shift_jis (Japanese)
7463 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
7464 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
7465 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
7469 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
7470 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
7471 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
7472 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
7474 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
7475 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
7477 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
7478 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
7479 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
7480 Rmail files themselves.
7482 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
7483 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
7485 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
7488 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
7489 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
7490 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
7491 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
7492 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
7494 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
7495 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
7496 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
7499 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
7500 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
7501 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
7502 without any conversion.
7504 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
7505 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
7506 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
7507 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
7509 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
7510 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
7512 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
7513 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
7515 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
7516 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
7518 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
7519 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
7520 in the buffer before point.
7522 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
7523 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
7526 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
7527 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
7529 ** File locking works with NFS now.
7531 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
7532 in the same directory as FILENAME.
7534 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
7535 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
7536 can become a bottleneck.
7538 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
7539 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
7540 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
7541 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
7542 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
7543 so useful that the change is worth while.
7545 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
7546 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
7547 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
7548 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
7550 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
7551 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
7554 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
7555 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
7556 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
7558 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
7559 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
7560 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
7562 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
7563 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
7564 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
7566 ** Changes in View mode.
7568 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
7569 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
7571 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
7572 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
7574 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
7577 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
7578 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
7580 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
7581 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
7582 not just the selected window.
7584 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
7585 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
7586 turns View mode on or off.
7588 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
7589 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
7590 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
7592 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
7593 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
7595 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
7596 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
7597 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
7598 which version to compare with.
7600 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
7601 blocks if a match is inside the block.
7603 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
7604 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
7605 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
7606 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
7608 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
7609 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
7610 blocks, all of them or none.
7612 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
7613 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
7616 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
7617 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
7618 However, the mode will not be changed if
7619 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
7620 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
7621 not suitable for ordinary files, or
7622 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
7624 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
7626 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
7627 these commands do not change the major mode.
7629 ** M-x occur changes.
7631 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
7632 it performs a case-sensitive search.
7634 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
7635 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
7636 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
7638 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
7639 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
7640 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
7641 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
7642 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
7644 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
7645 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
7646 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
7647 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
7649 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7650 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
7651 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
7653 ** Outline mode changes.
7655 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
7657 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
7659 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
7660 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
7661 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
7664 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
7665 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
7668 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
7669 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
7671 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
7673 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7674 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
7675 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
7676 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
7678 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
7679 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
7680 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
7682 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
7683 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
7686 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
7687 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
7688 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
7689 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
7691 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
7692 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
7693 can be. The default value is 30.
7695 ** Changes in Mail mode.
7697 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
7698 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
7699 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
7700 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
7701 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
7704 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
7705 compose-mail-other-frame.
7707 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
7708 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
7709 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
7710 buffer that shows the original message.
7712 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
7713 with separator lines around the contents.
7715 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
7716 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
7717 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
7718 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
7720 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
7722 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
7723 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
7724 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
7725 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
7727 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
7728 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
7731 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
7732 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
7735 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
7736 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
7737 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
7738 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
7740 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
7741 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
7742 be taken to be magic.
7744 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
7745 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
7746 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
7748 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
7749 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
7751 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
7752 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
7754 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
7756 new key dired.el binding old key
7757 ------- ---------------- -------
7758 * c dired-change-marks c
7760 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
7761 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
7762 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
7764 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
7765 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
7766 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
7767 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
7768 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
7769 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
7773 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
7774 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
7775 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
7776 each time you run it.
7778 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
7779 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
7781 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
7782 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
7783 means to move in the opposite direction.
7785 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
7786 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
7788 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
7789 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
7790 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
7791 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
7796 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
7798 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
7801 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
7802 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
7804 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
7807 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
7809 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
7811 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
7813 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
7814 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
7815 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
7817 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
7819 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
7821 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
7822 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
7824 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
7825 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
7826 used to pick articles.
7828 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
7829 another have been added.
7831 `M-x gnus-change-server'
7833 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
7834 generating lines in buffers.
7836 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
7839 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
7841 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
7843 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
7845 *** Scores can be decayed.
7847 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
7849 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
7850 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
7852 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
7855 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
7857 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
7858 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
7860 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
7862 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
7863 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
7865 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
7866 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
7868 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
7871 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
7872 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
7874 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
7876 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
7878 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
7880 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
7882 Use the `Y c' command.
7884 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
7886 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
7888 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
7890 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
7891 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
7893 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
7895 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
7897 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
7898 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
7900 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
7902 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
7903 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
7904 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
7905 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
7908 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
7909 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
7910 particular news group. This can be done by:
7912 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
7914 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
7915 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
7916 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
7917 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
7918 for reading and posting).
7920 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
7921 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
7922 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
7923 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
7926 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
7927 default. Here are some of these default settings:
7929 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
7930 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
7931 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
7932 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
7933 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
7935 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
7936 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
7940 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
7941 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
7942 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
7943 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
7944 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
7947 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
7948 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
7949 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
7950 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
7951 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
7952 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
7954 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
7955 of the current buffer.
7957 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
7958 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
7959 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
7961 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
7962 style that the Python developers like.
7964 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
7965 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
7966 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
7970 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
7971 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
7972 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
7974 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
7975 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
7978 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
7979 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
7981 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
7982 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
7983 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
7984 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
7986 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
7987 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
7989 ** Calendar changes.
7991 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
7992 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
7993 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
7994 following/previous years.
7996 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
7997 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
7998 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
7999 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
8000 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
8001 supposed attribute of God.
8005 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
8008 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
8010 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
8011 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
8012 printer system has this behavior, set variable
8013 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
8015 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
8016 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
8017 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
8019 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
8020 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
8022 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
8023 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
8024 printing for your printer.
8026 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
8027 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
8029 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
8030 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
8032 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
8033 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
8034 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
8035 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
8036 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
8037 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
8038 The default value is nil.
8040 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
8041 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
8043 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
8044 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
8045 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
8046 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
8047 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
8048 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
8049 color). The default is 0 ("black").
8051 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
8052 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
8054 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
8055 The default is 0 ("black").
8057 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
8058 The default is 0 ("black").
8060 border-width Specify the border width.
8063 Any other property is ignored.
8065 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
8066 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
8069 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
8070 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
8071 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
8072 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
8073 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
8074 controlling headers.
8076 *** Color management (subgroup)
8078 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
8081 *** Face Management (subgroup)
8083 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
8084 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
8085 background should be used. Valid values are:
8087 t always use face background color.
8088 nil never use face background color.
8089 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
8091 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
8093 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
8096 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
8097 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
8099 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
8102 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
8103 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
8104 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
8106 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
8110 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
8114 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
8118 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
8122 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
8124 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
8126 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
8129 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
8130 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
8131 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
8133 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
8134 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8135 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8136 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8137 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8141 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8142 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8143 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8146 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8147 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8148 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
8149 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
8150 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
8151 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8152 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8153 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8154 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
8155 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
8156 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
8159 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8161 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
8164 *** Printer management (subgroup)
8166 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
8167 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
8168 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
8169 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
8172 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
8173 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
8174 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
8176 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
8177 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
8180 *** Page settings (subgroup)
8182 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
8183 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
8184 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
8185 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
8186 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
8187 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
8190 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
8191 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
8192 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
8194 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
8195 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
8196 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
8197 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
8198 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
8199 its TO, are ignored.
8201 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
8202 pages. Valid values are:
8204 nil print all pages.
8206 `even-page' print only even pages.
8208 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
8210 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
8211 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
8212 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
8213 print only the even sheet of paper.
8215 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
8216 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
8217 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
8218 only the odd sheet of paper.
8220 Any other value is treated as nil.
8222 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
8223 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
8224 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
8226 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
8228 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
8229 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
8231 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
8232 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
8233 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
8234 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
8235 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
8236 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
8237 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
8239 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
8240 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
8241 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
8242 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
8243 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
8244 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
8245 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
8247 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
8249 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
8250 messages should be sent.
8252 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
8253 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
8254 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
8256 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
8258 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
8259 points for line numbers.
8261 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
8262 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
8264 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
8265 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
8266 to 2, the printing will look like:
8278 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
8279 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
8282 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
8283 zebra stripe is to be printed.
8285 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
8287 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
8288 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
8289 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
8290 3, the output will look like:
8304 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
8305 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
8307 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
8308 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
8311 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
8312 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
8315 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
8317 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
8318 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
8320 ** hideshow changes.
8322 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
8325 *** Support for java-mode added.
8327 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
8328 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
8330 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
8331 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
8332 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
8334 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
8335 robust and a lot faster.
8337 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
8339 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
8340 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
8341 documentation for more details.
8343 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
8345 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
8346 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
8347 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
8348 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
8349 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
8351 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
8352 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
8353 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
8354 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
8360 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
8361 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
8362 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
8363 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
8364 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
8365 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
8367 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
8369 *** Maximum decoration
8371 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
8372 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
8373 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
8374 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
8375 to get the old behavior.
8379 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
8381 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
8382 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
8384 *** Configurable support
8386 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
8387 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
8388 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
8389 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
8390 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
8391 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
8392 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
8394 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
8395 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
8396 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
8398 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
8400 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
8401 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
8404 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
8406 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
8412 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
8413 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
8414 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
8415 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
8417 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
8419 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
8420 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
8421 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
8423 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
8425 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
8426 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
8427 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
8428 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
8429 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
8430 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
8431 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
8433 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
8434 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
8435 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
8436 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
8437 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
8438 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
8440 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
8442 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
8443 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
8444 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
8445 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
8447 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
8450 ** Ada mode changes.
8452 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
8453 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
8454 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
8455 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
8458 *** There are two new commands:
8459 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
8460 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
8462 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
8463 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
8464 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
8466 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
8467 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
8468 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
8470 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
8471 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
8472 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
8473 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
8475 ** Scheme mode changes.
8477 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
8478 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
8479 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
8480 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
8483 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
8484 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
8485 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
8486 variables as buffer-local variables.
8488 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
8491 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
8493 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
8494 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
8495 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
8496 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
8498 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
8499 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
8502 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
8503 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
8504 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
8505 option takes precedence.
8507 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
8508 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
8509 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
8511 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
8512 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
8515 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
8516 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
8518 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
8519 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
8522 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
8523 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
8524 these register values no longer become completely useless.
8525 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
8526 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
8527 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
8529 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
8530 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
8531 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
8532 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
8534 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
8535 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
8536 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
8537 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
8538 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
8540 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
8541 since it applies only to the current frame.
8543 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
8544 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
8545 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
8547 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
8548 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
8549 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
8550 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
8551 instead of just the file you are editing.
8555 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
8556 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
8557 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
8558 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
8559 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
8562 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
8563 knows which kind of label is needed.
8565 C-c ) reftex-reference
8566 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
8567 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
8569 C-c [ reftex-citation
8570 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
8571 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
8573 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
8574 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
8577 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
8578 can quickly jump to every section.
8580 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
8581 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
8582 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
8583 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
8584 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
8586 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8588 *** Info documentation is now available.
8590 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
8591 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
8593 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
8594 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
8596 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
8597 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
8599 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
8600 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
8601 appropriate functions.
8603 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
8604 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
8606 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
8609 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
8610 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
8612 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
8615 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
8616 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
8617 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
8619 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
8620 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
8621 prefixed with `ALT'.
8623 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
8624 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
8625 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
8628 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
8629 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
8630 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
8632 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
8633 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
8635 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
8636 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
8637 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
8639 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
8641 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
8643 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
8646 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
8647 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
8650 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
8653 *** Added support for imenu.
8655 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
8656 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
8657 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
8658 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
8660 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
8661 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
8663 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
8665 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
8667 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
8668 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
8669 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
8672 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
8673 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
8675 ** browse-url changes
8677 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
8678 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
8679 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
8680 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
8681 customization variables.
8683 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
8685 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
8686 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
8687 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
8691 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
8692 pops up the Info file for this command.
8694 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
8695 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
8696 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
8699 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
8700 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
8701 files in the same directory.
8703 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
8704 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
8705 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
8709 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
8710 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
8712 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
8713 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
8714 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
8715 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
8716 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
8717 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
8718 color when Viper is in insert state.
8719 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
8720 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
8721 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
8725 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
8726 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
8727 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
8728 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
8729 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
8731 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
8733 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
8734 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
8736 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
8737 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
8738 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
8740 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
8741 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
8742 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
8743 methods and protocols.
8745 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
8746 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
8747 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
8750 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
8751 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
8752 at least M times and as many as N times.
8754 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
8755 in files has changed slightly.
8757 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
8758 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
8759 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
8760 with old time-stamp-format values.
8762 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
8763 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
8764 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
8767 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
8768 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
8769 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
8770 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
8771 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
8772 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
8774 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
8775 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
8776 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
8778 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
8779 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
8780 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
8781 recommended now will continue to work then.
8783 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
8786 ** There are some additional major modes:
8788 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
8789 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
8790 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
8792 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
8793 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
8796 ** New Lisp packages include:
8798 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
8800 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
8801 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
8803 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
8805 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
8808 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
8809 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
8812 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
8813 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
8814 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
8815 strings or comments.
8817 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
8818 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
8819 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
8820 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
8823 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
8824 can visit them by short forms of their names.
8826 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
8827 Emacs Lisp function at point.
8829 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
8831 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
8832 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
8834 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
8836 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
8838 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
8840 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
8841 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
8843 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
8844 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
8845 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
8846 original place after inserting the copy.
8848 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
8851 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
8852 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
8853 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
8855 Enable mouse-drag with:
8856 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
8858 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
8860 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
8861 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
8863 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
8864 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
8868 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
8869 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
8870 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
8871 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
8872 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
8873 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
8874 instance) and vice versa.
8876 To use this package load it using
8877 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
8878 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
8879 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
8880 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
8881 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
8882 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
8884 *** Interface to ph.
8886 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
8888 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
8889 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
8892 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
8894 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
8895 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
8896 while the real cursor does not move.
8898 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
8899 for visiting your favorite web sites.
8901 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
8902 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
8906 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
8907 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
8908 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
8909 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
8911 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
8913 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
8915 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
8917 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
8918 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
8919 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
8920 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
8921 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
8923 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
8924 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
8925 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
8926 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
8927 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
8928 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
8930 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
8932 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
8933 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
8934 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
8935 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
8937 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
8938 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
8940 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
8941 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
8944 ** Basic Lisp changes
8946 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
8947 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
8949 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
8950 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
8953 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
8955 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
8957 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
8958 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
8960 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
8961 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
8964 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
8966 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
8968 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
8970 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
8971 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
8972 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
8975 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
8976 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
8977 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
8979 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
8980 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
8981 adding one of these suffixes.
8983 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
8984 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
8985 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
8987 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
8988 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
8990 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
8992 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
8993 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
8995 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
8996 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
8998 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
9000 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
9001 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
9003 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
9004 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
9005 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
9006 works using `save-current-buffer'.
9008 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
9009 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
9012 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
9013 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
9014 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
9017 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
9018 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
9021 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
9023 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
9024 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
9025 Then it returns that string.
9027 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
9029 (with-output-to-string
9030 (princ "The buffer is ")
9031 (princ (buffer-name)))
9033 returns "The buffer is foo".
9035 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
9038 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
9039 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
9040 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
9042 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
9043 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
9045 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
9046 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
9047 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
9048 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
9049 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
9050 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
9052 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
9053 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
9054 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
9057 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
9058 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
9059 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
9060 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
9061 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
9063 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
9064 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
9065 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
9066 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
9068 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
9069 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
9071 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
9073 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
9074 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
9075 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
9076 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
9079 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
9080 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
9083 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
9085 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
9086 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
9087 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
9088 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
9089 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
9091 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
9093 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
9094 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
9095 more than the number of characters.
9097 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
9098 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
9099 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
9100 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
9101 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
9102 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
9104 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
9105 and returns a string containing those characters.
9107 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
9108 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
9109 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
9110 character, sref signals an error.
9112 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
9113 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
9114 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
9116 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
9117 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
9118 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
9120 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
9121 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
9122 to a vector of the characters in it.
9124 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
9125 of a string. You call it as follows:
9127 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
9129 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
9130 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
9131 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
9132 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
9133 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
9135 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
9136 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
9138 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
9139 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
9141 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
9142 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
9143 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
9144 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
9146 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
9148 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
9150 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
9151 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
9152 are not included in the resulting value.
9154 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
9155 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
9156 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
9157 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
9159 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
9160 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
9161 character extends across that column), then the padding character
9162 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
9163 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
9164 column START-COLUMN.
9166 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
9167 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
9168 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
9169 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
9170 changed text, before the change.
9172 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
9173 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
9174 one character set for each script, not for each language.
9176 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
9178 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
9180 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
9181 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
9183 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
9184 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
9185 which identify the character within that character set.
9187 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
9188 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
9189 opposite of split-char.
9191 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
9192 of all the characters between BEG and END.
9194 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
9195 of all the characters in a string.
9197 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
9198 and specifying coding systems.
9200 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
9201 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
9202 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
9203 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
9204 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
9205 as what to do about code conversion.)
9207 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
9208 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
9210 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
9211 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
9212 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
9214 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
9215 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
9216 to match against a file name.
9218 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
9219 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
9220 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
9221 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
9222 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
9223 specifies the coding system for encoding.
9225 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
9226 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
9228 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
9229 the coding system to use for network sockets.
9231 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
9232 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
9233 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
9236 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
9237 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
9238 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
9239 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
9240 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
9241 specifies the coding system for encoding.
9243 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
9244 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
9246 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
9247 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
9248 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
9249 start the subprocess.
9251 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
9252 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
9253 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
9254 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
9255 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
9257 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
9258 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
9261 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
9262 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
9263 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
9264 connection permanently or until overridden.
9266 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
9267 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
9268 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
9269 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
9270 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
9271 system for one operation at a time.
9273 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
9274 files, subprocesses or network connections.
9276 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
9277 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
9278 The value is a cons cell,
9279 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
9280 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
9281 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
9282 input to the subprocess.
9284 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
9285 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
9287 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
9288 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
9289 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
9291 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
9292 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
9293 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
9294 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
9297 Thus, instead of writing
9299 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
9300 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
9302 you would now write this:
9304 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
9305 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
9309 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
9310 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
9311 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
9312 for a description of them.
9314 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
9315 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
9317 (defgroup ispell nil
9318 "Spell checking using Ispell."
9321 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
9322 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
9323 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
9324 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
9325 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
9327 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
9328 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
9329 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
9330 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
9331 first-level subgroups.
9333 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
9335 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
9336 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
9340 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
9341 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
9342 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
9343 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
9344 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
9345 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
9347 ** Text property changes
9349 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
9352 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
9353 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
9354 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
9355 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
9356 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
9358 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
9359 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
9360 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
9361 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
9363 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
9364 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
9365 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
9367 ** Changes in invisibility features
9369 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
9370 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
9371 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
9372 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
9373 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
9374 make the overlay visible.
9376 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
9377 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
9378 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
9379 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
9380 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
9381 t when it should hide it.
9383 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
9385 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
9386 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
9387 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
9388 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
9389 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
9390 Here is an example of how to do this:
9392 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
9393 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
9394 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
9395 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
9398 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
9401 ;; When done with the overlays:
9402 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
9404 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
9406 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
9408 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
9409 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
9410 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
9411 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
9413 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
9414 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
9415 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
9417 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
9418 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
9420 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
9421 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
9423 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
9424 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
9425 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
9427 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
9428 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
9429 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
9430 determine the syntax type of the character.
9432 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
9433 of the current buffer.
9435 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
9436 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
9437 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
9439 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
9440 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
9441 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
9442 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
9443 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
9445 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
9448 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
9449 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
9450 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
9452 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
9453 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
9454 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
9455 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
9456 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
9458 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
9459 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
9460 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
9462 ** Changes in face features
9464 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
9465 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
9467 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
9468 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
9470 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
9471 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
9473 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
9474 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
9476 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
9477 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
9478 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
9479 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
9482 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
9483 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
9485 ** Changes in file-handling functions
9487 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
9488 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
9489 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
9490 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
9492 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
9495 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
9496 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
9498 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
9499 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
9501 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
9502 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
9504 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
9505 character code conversion as well as other things.
9507 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
9508 (formerly it did not).
9510 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
9511 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
9513 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
9514 instead of constant strings.
9516 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
9517 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
9518 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
9520 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
9521 in the same way as before.
9523 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
9524 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
9525 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
9527 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
9528 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
9529 else, and returns nil.
9531 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
9532 directory cannot be listed.
9534 ** Changes in minibuffer input
9536 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
9537 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
9538 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
9539 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
9542 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
9543 It is available through the history command M-n.
9545 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
9546 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
9547 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
9548 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
9549 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
9551 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
9552 argument in this way.
9554 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
9555 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
9556 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
9558 ** Echo area features
9560 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
9561 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
9562 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
9563 after the echo area is cleared.
9565 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
9566 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
9568 ** Keyboard input features
9570 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
9571 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
9573 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
9574 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
9577 ** Frame-related changes
9579 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
9580 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
9581 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
9583 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
9584 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
9585 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
9587 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
9588 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
9589 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
9590 in the selected frame.
9592 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
9593 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
9594 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
9596 ** X Windows features
9598 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
9599 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
9600 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
9602 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
9603 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
9605 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
9606 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
9607 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
9609 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
9610 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
9612 ** Subprocess features
9614 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
9615 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
9618 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
9619 and returns the output from the command as a string.
9621 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
9622 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
9624 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
9625 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
9627 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
9628 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
9629 goes after the other menu items.
9631 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
9632 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
9633 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
9636 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
9637 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
9639 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
9640 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
9643 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
9644 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
9645 but its hook is still run.
9647 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
9648 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
9650 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
9651 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
9652 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
9654 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
9655 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
9656 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
9659 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
9660 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
9662 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
9663 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
9664 functions like display-time.
9666 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
9667 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
9669 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
9670 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
9671 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
9673 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
9674 if there is an error in compilation.
9676 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
9677 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
9678 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
9679 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
9681 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
9682 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
9683 the *scratch* buffer.
9685 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
9686 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
9687 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
9688 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
9690 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
9691 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
9692 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
9694 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
9695 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
9696 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
9697 and compose-mail-other-frame.
9699 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
9700 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
9701 full name of the specified user will be returned.
9703 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
9704 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
9705 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
9706 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
9707 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
9710 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
9711 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
9712 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
9713 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
9715 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
9716 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
9717 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
9718 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
9720 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
9722 ** imenu.el changes.
9724 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
9725 item from menu created by imenu.
9727 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
9728 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
9729 select one of those items.
9731 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
9733 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
9734 Copyright information:
9736 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9738 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9739 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9740 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9741 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9743 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9744 of this document, or of portions of it,
9745 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9746 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9750 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"