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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-08-14
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
7
8 \f
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
11 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
12
13 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
14 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
15
16 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
17 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
18 to list them.
19
20 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
21 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
22
23 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
24 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
25
26 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
27 support 64-bit executables. See etc/MACHINES for instructions.
28
29 \f
30 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
31
32 * When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
33 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
34
35 ** Polish and German translations of Emacs' reference card have been
36 added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex' and `de-refcard.tex'.
37 Postscript files are included.
38
39 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
40 `dired-ref.tex'.
41
42 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
43 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
44
45 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
46 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
47 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
48 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
49 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
50 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
51
52 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
53 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
54 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
55 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
56
57 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
58 a version-dependent component.
59
60 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
61 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
62 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
63 character is still bound as before.
64
65 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
66 using that menu.
67
68 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
69 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to executable-chmod.
70
71 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
72 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
73 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
74 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
75 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
76 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
77 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
78
79 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
80 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
81 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
82 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
83 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
84 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
85 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
86 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
87 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
88
89 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
90 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
91
92 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
93 point in a pop-up window.
94
95 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
96 displays all characters in that character set.
97
98 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
99 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
100
101 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
102 on the context.
103
104 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
105
106 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
107 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
108
109 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
110 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
111 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
112 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
113
114 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
115 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
116 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
117 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
118
119 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
120 on the display using several methods
121
122 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
123 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
124 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
125
126 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
127 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
128
129 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
130
131 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
132 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
133
134 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
135 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
136 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
137 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
138
139 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
140 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
141 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
142
143 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
144 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
145
146 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
147 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
148 this behavior.
149
150 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
151 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
152 Emacs dump core.
153
154 ** New X resources recognized
155
156 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
157 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
158 is useful for debugging X problems.
159
160 Example:
161
162 emacs.synchronous: true
163
164 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
165 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
166 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
167 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
168 visual class names are
169
170 TrueColor
171 PseudoColor
172 DirectColor
173 StaticColor
174 GrayScale
175 StaticGray
176
177 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
178 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
179 meaning.
180
181 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
182 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
183 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
184 visual.
185
186 Example:
187
188 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
189
190 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
191 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
192 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
193 resource values are `true' or `on'.
194
195 Example:
196
197 emacs.privateColormap: true
198
199 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
200 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
201 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
202
203 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
204 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
205 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
206 be customized.
207
208 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
209
210 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
211 all frames except the selected one.
212
213 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
214 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
215
216 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
217 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
218 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
219 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
220
221 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
222 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
223
224 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
225 read mail from the menu etc.
226
227 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
228 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
229
230 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
231
232 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
233 macros
234
235 Key binding Macro
236 -------------------------
237 C-c C-c C-s @strong
238 C-c C-c C-e @emph
239 C-c C-c u @url
240 C-c C-c q @quotation
241 C-c C-c m @email
242
243 ** Changes in Outline mode.
244
245 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
246 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
247 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
248
249 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
250
251 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
252 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
253 use. Default is 1000.
254
255 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
256 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
257
258 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
259 or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
260 several other special buffers.
261
262 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
263 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
264 .emacs file.
265
266 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
267 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
268
269 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
270 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
271 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
272
273 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
274 is running in batch mode. For example,
275
276 (message "%s" (read t))
277
278 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
279 to standard output.
280
281 ** Faces and frame parameters.
282
283 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
284 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
285 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
286 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
287 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
288 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
289 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
290
291 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
292 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
293 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
294 `default' face and vice versa.
295
296 ** New face `menu'.
297
298 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
299 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
300 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
301
302 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
303
304 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
305 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
306 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
307 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
308
309 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
310 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
311 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
312
313 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
314 `ScreenGamma'.
315
316 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
317
318 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
319 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
320 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
321 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
322 the text.
323
324 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
325
326 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
327 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
328 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
329 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
330 specify a font.
331
332 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
333 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
334 under Lisp changes, below.
335
336 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
337
338 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
339 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
340 it is hollow.
341
342 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
343 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
344 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
345 customizing face `fringe'.
346
347 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
348 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
349
350 ** LessTif support.
351
352 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
353 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
354
355 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
356
357 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
358 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
359 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
360 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
361 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
362 Emacs.
363
364 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
365 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
366 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
367 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
368 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
369 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
370
371 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
372 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
373 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
374 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
375 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
376 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
377
378 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
379 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
380 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
381 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
382 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
383
384 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
385
386 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
387 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
388 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
389
390 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
391
392 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
393 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
394 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
395 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
396 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
397 whitespace.
398
399 ** Busy-cursor.
400
401 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
402 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
403
404 ** Blinking cursor
405
406 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
407 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
408 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
409 the group `cursor'.
410
411 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
412
413 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
414 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
415 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
416 details.
417
418 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
419 have to do anything to activate it.
420
421 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
422
423 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
424 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
425 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
426 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
427
428 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
429
430 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
431
432 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
433
434 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
435 LessTif/Motif one.
436
437 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
438 LessTif and Motif.
439
440 ** Hscrolling in C code.
441
442 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
443 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
444 customized.
445
446 ** Tool bar support.
447
448 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
449 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
450
451 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
452
453 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
454 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
455 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
456 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
457 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
458
459 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
460
461 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
462 buffers.
463
464 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
465 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
466
467 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
468
469 - Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
470 toggles the read-only status.
471
472 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
473
474 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
475
476 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
477 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
478 non-nil.
479
480 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
481
482 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
483 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
484 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
485 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
486 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
487 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
488 on terminals.
489
490 ** Sound support
491
492 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
493 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
494 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
495
496 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
497 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
498 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
499 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
500 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
501 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
502
503 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
504
505 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
506
507 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
508 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
509 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
510
511 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
512 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
513
514 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
515 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
516 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
517
518 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
519
520 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
521 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
522 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
523 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
524
525 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
526 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
527 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
528 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
529
530 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
531 notably at the end of lines.
532
533 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
534 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
535
536 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
537
538 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
539 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
540 after each match to get the replacement text.
541
542 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
543 you edit the replacement string.
544
545 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', let's
546 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
547 lisp-complete-symbol.
548
549 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
550
551 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
552 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
553 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
554 window size by setting the following variable:
555
556 - User option: max-mini-window-height
557
558 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
559 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
560 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
561
562 Default is 0.25.
563
564 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
565
566 ** Changes to hideshow.el
567
568 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
569 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
570
571 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
572
573 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
574 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
575 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
576 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
577 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
578 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
579
580 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
581 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
582 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
583 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
584
585 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
586
587 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
588 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
589 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
590 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
591 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
592
593 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
594 something like this in your .emacs.
595
596 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
597 (lambda ()
598 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
599
600 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
601
602 If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
603 entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
604 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
605
606 New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
607 buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
608
609 Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
610 if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
611
612 The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
613 expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
614 cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
615 a file.
616
617 ** Changes in Font Lock
618
619 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
620 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
621 mode.
622
623 ** Comint (subshell) changes
624
625 By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp' to
626 distiguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which parts of
627 the text were output by the process, and which entered by the user, and
628 attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use this information.
629 Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line, respect field
630 boundaries in a fairly natural manner.
631 To disable this feature, and use the old behavior, set the variable
632 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' to a non-nil value.
633
634 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
635 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
636
637 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
638 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
639 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
640
641 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
642 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
643 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
644
645 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and scheme-interaction-mode
646 now highlight user input and program prompts, and support choosing
647 previous input with mouse-2. To control these feature, see the
648 user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
649
650 ** Changes to Rmail mode
651
652 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
653 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
654 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
655 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
656 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
657 as correspondent.
658
659 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
660 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
661 regexp matching your mail addresses.
662
663 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
664 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
665 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
666 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
667 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
668
669 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
670 like `j'.
671
672 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
673 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
674 digest message.
675
676 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
677 in which folder to put messages automatically.
678
679 ** Changes to TeX mode
680
681 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
682 `latex-mode'.
683
684 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
685
686 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
687 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
688 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
689 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
690 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
691 can be edited from that buffer.
692
693 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
694 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
695 `A' to use all marked entries).
696
697 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
698 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
699
700 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
701 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
702 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
703 been cited.
704
705 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
706 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
707 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
708 in column 1 are always made leaves.
709
710 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
711 has the following new features:
712
713 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
714 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
715 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
716 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
717
718 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
719 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
720 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
721 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
722 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
723 defaults to 1.
724
725 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
726 file names.
727
728 ** Tooltips.
729
730 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
731 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
732 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
733
734 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
735 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
736 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
737 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
738
739 ** Customize changes
740
741 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
742 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
743 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
744
745 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
746 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
747 default).
748
749 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
750 between custom options. Example:
751
752 (defcustom default-input-method nil
753 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
754 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
755 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
756 :group 'mule
757 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
758 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
759
760 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
761 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
762 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
763
764 ** New features in evaluation commands
765
766 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
767 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
768 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
769 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
770 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
771
772 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
773 code when called with a prefix argument.
774
775 ** Ispell changes
776
777 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
778 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
779 spell-checks the current buffer.
780
781 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
782 added.
783
784 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
785 correction is made and re-checked.
786
787 *** An Italian and a Portuguese dictionary definition has been added.
788
789 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
790 cases.
791
792 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
793 on syntax errors.
794
795 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
796 end of the buffer.
797
798 ** Dired changes
799
800 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
801 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
802 is, delete only empty directories.
803
804 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
805 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
806 copy directories recursively.
807
808 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
809 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
810 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
811
812 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
813 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
814 directory.
815
816 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
817 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
818 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
819 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
820 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
821
822 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
823 from ls switches.
824
825 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
826 use the -f option when sending mail.
827
828 ** CC mode changes.
829
830 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
831 current user setups (although it's believed that these
832 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
833 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
834 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
835 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
836 release.
837
838 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
839 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
840 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
841 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
842 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
843 have to bother.
844
845 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
846 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
847 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
848 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
849 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
850 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
851
852 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
853 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
854 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
855 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
856 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
857 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
858 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
859 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
860
861 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
862 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
863 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
864 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
865 above.
866
867 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
868 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
869 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
870 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
871 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
872 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
873 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
874 function documentation for more info.
875
876 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
877 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
878 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
879 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
880 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
881 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
882 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
883 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
884
885 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
886
887 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
888 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
889
890 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
891 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
892 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
893 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
894 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
895 style system.
896
897 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
898 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
899 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
900 as far as possible.
901
902 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
903 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
904 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
905 chapter about this in the manual.
906
907 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
908 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
909 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
910 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
911 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
912
913 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
914 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
915 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
916
917 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
918 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
919
920 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
921 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
922 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
923 inside CC Mode.
924
925 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
926 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
927 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
928 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
929 cc-mode/).
930
931 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
932 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
933 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
934 literals.
935
936 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
937 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
938 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
939 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
940 this function.
941
942 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
943 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
944 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
945 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
946 Thanks to Eric Eide.
947
948 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
949 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
950 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
951
952 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
953
954 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
955 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
956 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
957 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
958
959 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
960 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
961 the column specified by comment-column.
962
963 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
964 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
965 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
966 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
967 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
968 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
969
970 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
971 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
972 arguments.
973
974 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
975
976 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
977 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
978 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
979 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
980 Provan).
981
982 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
983
984 ** Makefile mode changes
985
986 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
987
988 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
989 Fontlock mode is active.
990
991 ** Isearch changes
992
993 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
994 so that searches can be resumed.
995
996 *** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
997 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
998 that started the search.
999
1000 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1001 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1002
1003 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1004
1005 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1006 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1007 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1008 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1009 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1010 `secondary-selection'.
1011
1012 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1013 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1014 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1015 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1016 usual snappy response.
1017
1018 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1019 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1020 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1021 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1022
1023 ** Changes in sort.el
1024
1025 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
1026 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
1027 new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
1028 numeric base.
1029
1030 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
1031
1032 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
1033 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1034 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1035
1036 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1037 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1038
1039 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1040 output ^M at the end of lines.
1041
1042 ** Shell script mode changes.
1043
1044 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1045 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
1046 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1047
1048 ** Etags changes.
1049
1050 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1051
1052 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
1053 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1054 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1055 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1056 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
1057
1058 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1059 declarations when given the --declarations option.
1060
1061 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
1062 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
1063
1064 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1065 types.
1066
1067 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
1068
1069 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1070
1071 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1072 are now tagged.
1073
1074 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1075 variables are tagged.
1076
1077 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1078
1079 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1080 for PSWrap.
1081
1082 ** Changes in etags.el
1083
1084 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1085 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1086 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1087
1088 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1089 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1090
1091 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1092 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1093 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1094 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1095
1096 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1097
1098 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1099 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1100
1101 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1102
1103 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1104 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1105 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1106
1107 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1108 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1109
1110 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1111 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1112
1113 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1114 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1115 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1116
1117 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1118 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1119 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1120 There is currently no specific input method support for them.
1121
1122 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1123 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1124 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1125
1126 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1127
1128 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1129
1130 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
1131 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1132 expression from that list, are not checked.
1133
1134 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1135 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1136 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1137 the buffer, just like for the local files.
1138
1139 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
1140
1141 ** New modes and packages
1142
1143 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1144 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1145 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1146 on certain projects.
1147
1148 *** The new package hi-lock.el, text matching interactively entered
1149 regexp's can be highlighted. For example,
1150
1151 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
1152
1153 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1154 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1155 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1156 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1157 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1158 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1159 corresponding file is read.
1160
1161 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
1162 Emacs is idle.
1163
1164 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1165 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1166
1167 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1168 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1169 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1170
1171 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1172 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1173 separate Texinfo file.
1174
1175 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine
1176 or by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1177 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS.
1178 It comes with log-view-mode to view RCS and SCCS logs and log-edit-mode
1179 used to enter checkin log messages.
1180
1181 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1182 without invoking external programs.
1183
1184 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1185 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1186 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1187 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1188 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1189
1190 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1191 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1192
1193 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1194 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1195
1196 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1197 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1198 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1199 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1200 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1201 single step.
1202
1203 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1204 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1205 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1206 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1207
1208 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1209 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1210 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1211
1212 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1213 PostScript.
1214
1215 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1216
1217 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1218
1219 ; comment (until end of line)
1220 A non-terminal
1221 "C" terminal
1222 ?C? special
1223 $A default non-terminal
1224 $"C" default terminal
1225 $?C? default special
1226 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1227 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1228 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1229 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1230 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1231 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1232 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1233 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1234 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1235 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1236 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1237 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1238 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1239 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1240 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1241
1242 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1243
1244 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1245 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1246 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1247 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1248 equal signs of assignments.
1249
1250 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1251 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1252
1253 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1254 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1255 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1256 customize the package.
1257
1258 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1259
1260 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1261 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1262 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1263 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1264 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1265 which answers different needs.
1266
1267 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1268 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1269 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1270 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1271 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1272 to be enabled.
1273
1274 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1275 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1276
1277 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1278
1279 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1280
1281 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1282
1283 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1284 Pascal) language.
1285
1286 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1287 the text at point.
1288
1289 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1290
1291 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1292
1293 *** whitespace.el ???
1294
1295 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1296 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1297 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1298 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1299 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1300 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1301 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1302
1303 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1304
1305 Here is an example of columns:
1306
1307 horse apple bus
1308 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1309 porcupine strawberry airplane
1310
1311 Doing the following settings:
1312
1313 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1314 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1315 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1316 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1317
1318
1319 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1320
1321 M-x delimit-columns-region
1322
1323 It results:
1324
1325 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1326 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1327 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1328
1329 delim-col has the following options:
1330
1331 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1332 before all columns.
1333
1334 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1335 between each column.
1336
1337 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1338 after all columns.
1339
1340 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1341 each column.
1342
1343 delim-col has the following commands:
1344
1345 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1346 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1347
1348 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1349 were operated on recently.
1350
1351 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1352
1353 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1354 recentf at Emacs startup.
1355
1356 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1357 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1358 file list can be displayed:
1359
1360 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1361 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1362 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1363
1364 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1365 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1366
1367 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1368 text.
1369
1370 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1371 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1372 specific to Message mode.
1373
1374 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1375 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1376 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1377
1378 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1379 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1380 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1381
1382 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1383 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1384
1385 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1386
1387 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1388 minibuffer with completion.
1389
1390 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1391 with the diary features.
1392
1393 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1394 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1395
1396 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1397 Fill mode.
1398
1399 ** Withdrawn packages
1400
1401 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1402 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1403
1404 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1405
1406 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1407
1408 \f
1409 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1410 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1411
1412 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
1413 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
1414 frame or window.
1415
1416 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
1417 were added
1418
1419 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
1420
1421 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
1422 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
1423
1424 - Function: remq ELT LIST
1425
1426 Return a copy of LIST with all occurences of ELT removed. The
1427 comparison is done with `eq'.
1428
1429 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
1430
1431 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
1432 has been changed.
1433
1434 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1435 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1436 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1437
1438 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1439 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1440
1441 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1442 function was declared obsolete.
1443
1444 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
1445 retained as an alias).
1446
1447 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1448 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1449 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1450
1451 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1452
1453 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1454
1455 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1456 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1457
1458 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1459
1460 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1461
1462 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1463
1464 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1465 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1466 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1467 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1468 returned.
1469
1470 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1471 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1472 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1473 minibuffer even if it is active.
1474
1475 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1476 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1477 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1478 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1479 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1480 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1481
1482 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1483 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1484 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1485 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1486 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1487 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1488 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1489
1490 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
1491 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
1492 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
1493
1494 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1495 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1496 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1497 Default value is nil.
1498
1499 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
1500 meaning no limit.
1501
1502 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
1503 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1504 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1505
1506 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1507 of a primitive.
1508
1509 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1510 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1511 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1512 than replacing the local map.
1513
1514 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1515 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1516
1517 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1518
1519 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1520 promised long ago.
1521
1522 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
1523 \f
1524 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1525
1526 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1527 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1528 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1529 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1530
1531 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
1532 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
1533 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
1534 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
1535
1536 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1537 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1538 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1539 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1540
1541 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1542 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1543 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1544
1545 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1546 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1547 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1548 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1549 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1550 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1551 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1552 eight-bit-graphic.
1553
1554 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1555
1556 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1557 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1558 character set as previously.
1559
1560 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1561 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1562 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1563
1564 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1565 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1566 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1567 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1568
1569 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1570 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1571
1572 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1573 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1574 "fontset-default".
1575
1576 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1577 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1578
1579 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1580 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1581 buffers and strings.
1582
1583 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1584 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1585 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1586 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1587 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1588 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1589 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1590 also been deleted.
1591
1592 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1593 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1594 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1595
1596 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1597 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1598 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1599 may differ between buffer and string text.
1600
1601 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1602 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1603
1604 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1605 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1606 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1607 `composition' from STRING.
1608
1609 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1610 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1611
1612 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1613 obsolete.
1614
1615 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1616 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1617 character set is not used.
1618
1619 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1620 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1621 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1622
1623 +++
1624 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1625 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1626 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1627
1628 +++
1629 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1630 that offset in the file before writing.
1631
1632 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1633 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
1634
1635 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1636 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1637 from which the command was issued.
1638
1639 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1640 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1641 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1642 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1643 operate on.
1644
1645 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1646 to `window-buffer-height'.
1647
1648 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1649
1650 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1651 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1652 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1653
1654 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1655 respectively.
1656
1657 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1658 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1659
1660 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1661 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1662 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1663
1664 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1665 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1666 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1667 is currently displayed in some window.
1668
1669 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1670 argument function's results.
1671
1672 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1673 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1674
1675 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1676 header is the list of headers passed to it.
1677
1678 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1679 ignores differences in case and text representation.
1680
1681 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1682 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1683 as follows:
1684
1685 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1686 nil don't display a cursor
1687 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1688 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1689 others display a box cursor.
1690
1691 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1692 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1693 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1694 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1695
1696 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1697 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
1698 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1699 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1700
1701 Example:
1702
1703 (string-to-syntax "()")
1704 => (4 . 41)
1705
1706 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1707 other than 10.
1708
1709 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1710 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1711
1712 #b1111
1713 => 15
1714 #b-1111
1715 => -15
1716
1717 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1718
1719 #o666
1720 => 438
1721
1722 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1723
1724 #xbeef
1725 => 48815
1726
1727 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1728
1729 #2R-111
1730 => -7
1731 #25rah
1732 => 267
1733
1734 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
1735 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1736 and isn't a string.
1737
1738 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1739 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1740 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1741 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1742
1743 +++
1744 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1745
1746 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
1747 for a regexp in a string.
1748
1749 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1750 `mouse-position-function'.
1751
1752 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1753 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1754
1755 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1756 Keywords are now always considered constants.
1757
1758 +++
1759 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1760 returns it.
1761
1762 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1763 returned by function `recent-keys'.
1764
1765 +++
1766 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1767 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1768 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1769 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1770 mode.
1771
1772 +++
1773 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1774 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1775
1776 +++
1777 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1778 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1779 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1780 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1781 been performed."
1782
1783 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1784 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1785 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1786 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
1787
1788 +++
1789 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1790 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1791 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1792
1793 +++
1794 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1795 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1796 specified table.
1797
1798 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1799
1800 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
1801 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1802 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1803 what BODY returns.
1804
1805 +++
1806 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
1807 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
1808
1809 +++
1810 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1811 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1812
1813 +++
1814 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1815 instead of being optional.
1816
1817 +++
1818 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1819 modify read-only text.
1820
1821 +++
1822 ** New functions and variables for locales.
1823
1824 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1825 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
1826 time functions like strftime. The new variables
1827 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1828 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
1829
1830 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1831 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1832 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
1833 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1834 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1835 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1836 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
1837
1838 +++
1839 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1840 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1841 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1842 start sequences.
1843
1844 +++
1845 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1846 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1847
1848 +++
1849 ** New function `propertize'
1850
1851 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1852 strings with text properties.
1853
1854 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1855
1856 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1857 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1858 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1859 specified value of that property. Example:
1860
1861 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1862
1863 +++
1864 ** push and pop macros.
1865
1866 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1867 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
1868 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1869
1870 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1871 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1872 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1873
1874 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1875
1876 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1877 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
1878
1879 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1880 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1881 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1882 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1883
1884 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1885 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1886 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1887 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1888
1889 +++
1890 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1891 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1892
1893 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1894 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1895 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1896 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
1897 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1898 space, and DEL.
1899 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1900 and DEL.
1901 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1902 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1903 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1904 [:alpha:] matches letters.
1905 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1906 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1907 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1908 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1909 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1910 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
1911 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1912 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1913 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1914 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1915 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1916
1917 +++
1918 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1919
1920 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1921
1922 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1923
1924 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1925 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1926
1927 :test TEST
1928
1929 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1930 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1931 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1932
1933 :size SIZE
1934
1935 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1936 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1937
1938 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1939
1940 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1941 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1942 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
1943 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1944 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1945
1946 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1947
1948 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1949 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1950 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1951
1952 :weakness WEAK
1953
1954 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
1955 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
1956 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
1957 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
1958 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1959
1960 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
1961
1962 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1963
1964 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1965
1966 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1967
1968 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1969
1970 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1971 values are shared.
1972
1973 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1974
1975 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1976
1977 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1978
1979 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1980
1981 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1982
1983 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1984
1985 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1986
1987 Returns the size of TABLE.
1988
1989 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
1990
1991 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1992
1993 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1994
1995 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1996
1997 - Function: clrhash TABLE
1998
1999 Clear TABLE.
2000
2001 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
2002
2003 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
2004 not found.
2005
2006 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
2007
2008 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
2009 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
2010
2011 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
2012
2013 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
2014
2015 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
2016
2017 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
2018 arguments KEY and VALUE.
2019
2020 - Function: sxhash OBJ
2021
2022 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
2023
2024 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
2025
2026 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
2027 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
2028 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
2029 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
2030 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
2031
2032 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
2033
2034 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
2035 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
2036 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
2037
2038 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
2039 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2040
2041 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2042 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2043
2044 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2045 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2046
2047 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
2048 'case-fold-string-hash))
2049
2050 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2051
2052 +++
2053 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
2054
2055 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
2056 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
2057 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
2058
2059 +++
2060 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
2061
2062 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
2063 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
2064
2065 +++
2066 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
2067 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
2068 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
2069 is too short to reach that column.
2070
2071 +++
2072 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
2073 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
2074 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
2075 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
2076
2077 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
2078 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
2079 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
2080
2081 +++
2082 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
2083 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
2084
2085 +++
2086 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
2087 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
2088
2089 +++
2090 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
2091 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
2092 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
2093 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
2094 temporary-file-directory instead.
2095
2096 +++
2097 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
2098 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
2099 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
2100 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
2101
2102 +++
2103 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
2104 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
2105
2106 +++
2107 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
2108
2109 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
2110 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
2111 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
2112
2113 +++
2114 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
2115
2116 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
2117 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
2118 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
2119 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
2120 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
2121 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
2122
2123 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
2124 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
2125 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
2126 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2127
2128 +++
2129 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2130
2131 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2132 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2133 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2134 result string.
2135
2136 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2137 string where arguments appear in the result string.
2138
2139 Example:
2140
2141 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2142 (s2 "world"))
2143 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2144 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
2145 (format s1 s2))
2146
2147 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2148
2149 +++
2150 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2151
2152 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2153 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2154 argument in it.
2155
2156 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2157 (arg "world"))
2158 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2159 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2160 (message msg arg))
2161
2162 +++
2163 ** Sound support
2164
2165 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2166 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2167
2168 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2169 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2170 to enable sound support.
2171
2172 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2173 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2174 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2175 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2176 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2177
2178 The following sound properties are supported:
2179
2180 - `:file FILE'
2181
2182 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2183 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2184
2185 - `:data DATA'
2186
2187 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2188 may be present, but not both.
2189
2190 - `:volume VOLUME'
2191
2192 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2193 0..1. This property is optional.
2194
2195 Other properties are ignored.
2196
2197 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2198
2199 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2200 a keyword symbol.
2201
2202 ** Changes to garbage collection
2203
2204 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2205 of live and free strings.
2206
2207 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2208 strings that have been consed so far.
2209
2210 \f
2211 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2212 Lisp Manual
2213
2214 +++
2215 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2216
2217 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2218 image.
2219
2220 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2221
2222 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2223
2224 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2225 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2226 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2227 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2228 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2229
2230 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2231 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2232
2233 +++
2234 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2235 optional.
2236
2237 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center'.
2238
2239 When this property is specified, the image is vertically centered
2240 around a centerline which would be the vertical center of text drawn
2241 at the position of the image, in the manner specified by the text
2242 properties and overlays that apply to the image.
2243
2244 \f
2245 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2246
2247 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2248 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2249 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2250 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2251
2252 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2253 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2254
2255 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2256 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2257 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2258 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2259 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2260 just display it black instead.
2261
2262 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2263 a line like
2264
2265 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2266
2267 in your `.emacs'.
2268
2269 ** New face implementation.
2270
2271 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2272 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2273
2274 +++
2275 *** New faces.
2276
2277 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2278
2279 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2280
2281 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2282 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2283
2284 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2285
2286 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2287
2288 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2289
2290 6. Foreground color.
2291
2292 7. Background color.
2293
2294 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2295
2296 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2297
2298 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2299
2300 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2301
2302 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2303 color.
2304
2305 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2306 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2307
2308 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2309 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2310 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2311 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2312 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2313 attributes mentioned above.
2314
2315 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2316 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2317 created frames.
2318
2319 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2320 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2321 `fully-specified'.
2322
2323 +++
2324 *** Face merging.
2325
2326 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2327 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2328 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2329 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2330 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2331 results in a fully-specified face.
2332
2333 +++
2334 *** Face realization.
2335
2336 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2337 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2338 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2339 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2340 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2341 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2342
2343 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2344 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2345 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2346 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2347
2348 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2349 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2350 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2351 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2352 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2353
2354 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2355 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2356 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2357 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2358 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2359 Emacs.
2360
2361 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2362 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2363 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2364 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2365
2366 ++++
2367 **** Clearing face caches.
2368
2369 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2370 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2371 unused fonts.
2372
2373 +++
2374 *** Font selection.
2375
2376 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2377 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2378 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2379
2380 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2381 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2382 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2383 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2384 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2385
2386 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2387 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2388 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2389
2390 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2391
2392 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2393 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2394 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2395 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2396 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2397 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2398 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2399
2400 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2401 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2402 face doesn't exist.
2403
2404 +++
2405 **** Scalable fonts
2406
2407 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2408 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2409 servers.
2410
2411 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2412 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2413 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2414 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2415 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2416 that list. Example:
2417
2418 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2419
2420 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2421
2422 +++
2423 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2424
2425 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2426
2427 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2428 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2429 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2430
2431 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2432 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2433 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2434 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2435 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2436 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2437 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2438 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2439 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2440 of the face font sort order.
2441
2442 - Function: x-font-family-list
2443
2444 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2445 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2446 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2447 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2448
2449 - Variable: font-list-limit
2450
2451 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2452 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2453 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2454
2455 +++
2456 *** Setting face attributes.
2457
2458 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2459 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2460 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2461 `face-attribute'.
2462
2463 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2464 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2465
2466 The following attributes are recognized:
2467
2468 `:family'
2469
2470 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2471 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2472 and `?' are allowed.
2473
2474 `:width'
2475
2476 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2477 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2478 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2479 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2480
2481 `:height'
2482
2483 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
2484 1/10 pt.
2485
2486 `:weight'
2487
2488 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2489 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2490 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2491
2492 `:slant'
2493
2494 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2495 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2496 `reverse-oblique'.
2497
2498 `:foreground', `:background'
2499
2500 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2501
2502 `:underline'
2503
2504 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2505 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2506 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2507 don't underline.
2508
2509 `:overline'
2510
2511 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2512 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2513 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2514 overline.
2515
2516 `:strike-through'
2517
2518 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2519 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2520 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2521 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2522
2523 `:box'
2524
2525 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2526 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2527 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2528 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2529 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2530 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2531 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2532 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2533 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2534 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2535 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2536 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2537 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2538 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2539 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2540 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2541 box.
2542
2543 `:inverse-video'
2544
2545 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2546 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2547
2548 `:stipple'
2549
2550 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2551 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2552 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2553 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2554 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2555 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2556
2557 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2558 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2559
2560 `:font'
2561
2562 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2563 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2564 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2565 versions of Emacs.
2566
2567 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2568 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2569 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2570
2571 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2572 `defface'.
2573
2574 *** Face attributes and X resources
2575
2576 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2577 from X resources:
2578
2579 Face attribute X resource class
2580 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2581 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2582 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2583 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2584 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2585 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2586 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2587 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2588 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2589 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2590 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2591 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2592 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2593 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2594 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2595 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2596 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2597 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2598 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2599 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2600
2601 +++
2602 *** Text property `face'.
2603
2604 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2605 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2606 specification can be
2607
2608 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2609
2610 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2611 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2612 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2613 for face attribute names.
2614
2615 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2616 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2617 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2618
2619 +++
2620 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2621
2622 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2623 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2624 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
2625 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
2626 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
2627 used to clear the mapping table.
2628
2629 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2630
2631 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2632 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2633 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2634 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2635 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2636 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2637 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2638 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2639 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2640 modify their color-related behavior.
2641
2642 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2643 any frame type.
2644
2645 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2646
2647 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2648 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2649 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2650 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2651 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2652 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2653 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2654 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2655 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2656
2657 +++
2658 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
2659
2660 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
2661
2662 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2663 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2664 Otherwise, it returns zero.
2665
2666 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2667
2668 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2669 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2670 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
2671
2672 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
2673 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
2674 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
2675 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
2676 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2677 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2678 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2679 functions.
2680
2681 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
2682 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
2683 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
2684
2685 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2686
2687 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
2688
2689 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2690
2691 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2692 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2693 constrained position if that is is different.
2694
2695 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2696 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2697 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2698 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
2699 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2700 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2701 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
2702 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
2703 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
2704
2705 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2706 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2707 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2708 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2709 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2710
2711 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
2712 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
2713
2714 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
2715
2716 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
2717
2718 Delete the field surrounding POS.
2719 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2720 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2721
2722 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2723
2724 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2725 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2726 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2727 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
2728 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2729
2730 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2731
2732 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2733 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2734 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2735 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
2736 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2737
2738 - Function: field-string &optional POS
2739
2740 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2741 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2742 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2743
2744 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2745
2746 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2747 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2748 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2749
2750 +++
2751 ** Image support.
2752
2753 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2754 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2755 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2756 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2757
2758 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2759 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2760 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2761 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2762 area.
2763
2764 IMAGE is an image specification.
2765
2766 *** Image specifications
2767
2768 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2769 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2770 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
2771 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2772 described below are ignored.
2773
2774 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2775
2776 `:ascent ASCENT'
2777
2778 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2779 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2780 to use for its ascent.
2781
2782 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2783 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2784
2785 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
2786 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
2787 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
2788 overlays that apply to the image.
2789
2790 `:margin MARGIN'
2791
2792 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
2793 margin around the image. Default is 0.
2794
2795 `:relief RELIEF'
2796
2797 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2798 around an image.
2799
2800 `:algorithm ALGO'
2801
2802 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2803 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2804 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2805 which is intended to display images "disabled."
2806
2807 `:heuristic-mask BG'
2808
2809 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2810 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2811 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2812 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2813 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2814 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2815 background of the image.
2816
2817 `:file FILE'
2818
2819 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2820 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2821 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2822 may be present in the image specification.
2823
2824 `:data DATA'
2825
2826 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2827 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2828 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2829 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2830
2831 *** Supported image types
2832
2833 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
2834
2835 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2836 properties supported are
2837
2838 `:foreground FG'
2839
2840 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2841 is the frame's foreground.
2842
2843 `:background FG'
2844
2845 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2846 the frame's background color.
2847
2848 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2849 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2850 instead of a `:file' property.
2851
2852 `:width WIDTH'
2853
2854 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2855
2856 `:height HEIGHT'
2857
2858 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2859
2860 `:data DATA'
2861
2862 DATA must be either
2863
2864 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2865 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2866
2867 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2868
2869 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2870 bitmap.
2871
2872 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2873 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2874 in the file.
2875
2876 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
2877
2878 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2879 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2880 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2881 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2882
2883 Additional image properties supported are:
2884
2885 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2886
2887 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2888 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2889 name.
2890
2891 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2892 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2893
2894 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2895 to display compressed images.
2896
2897 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
2898
2899 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2900 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2901 defined.
2902
2903 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2904
2905 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
2906 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2907 are:
2908
2909 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2910
2911 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2912 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2913 properties defined.
2914
2915 **** GIF, image type `gif'
2916
2917 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2918 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2919
2920 Additional image properties supported are:
2921
2922 `:index INDEX'
2923
2924 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2925 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2926
2927 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2928 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2929 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2930 every 0.1 seconds.
2931
2932 (defun show-anim (file max)
2933 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2934 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2935
2936 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2937 (when (= idx max)
2938 (setq idx 0))
2939 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
2940 (save-excursion
2941 (set-buffer buffer)
2942 (goto-char (point-min))
2943 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2944 (insert-image img "x"))
2945 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2946
2947 **** PNG, image type `png'
2948
2949 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2950 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2951 properties defined.
2952
2953 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2954
2955 Additional image properties supported are:
2956
2957 `:pt-width WIDTH'
2958
2959 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
2960 integer. This is a required property.
2961
2962 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
2963
2964 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
2965 must be a integer. This is an required property.
2966
2967 `:bounding-box BOX'
2968
2969 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2970 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2971 files. This is an required property.
2972
2973 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2974 lisp/gs.el.
2975
2976 *** Lisp interface.
2977
2978 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2979 which are supported in the current configuration.
2980
2981 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2982 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2983 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2984 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
2985 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
2986
2987 *** Simplified image API, image.el
2988
2989 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2990 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2991 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2992 define an image based on available image types. The functions
2993 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2994 buffer.
2995
2996 +++
2997 ** Display margins.
2998
2999 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
3000 and images.
3001
3002 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
3003 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
3004 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
3005 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
3006 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3007 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3008 of the display margins.
3009
3010 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
3011 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
3012 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
3013 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
3014 in this file).
3015
3016 +++
3017 ** Help display
3018
3019 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
3020 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
3021 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
3022 that have a `help-echo' property.
3023
3024 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
3025 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
3026 the window in which the help was found.
3027
3028 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
3029 `help-echo' text property was found.
3030
3031 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
3032 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
3033
3034 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
3035 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
3036 mouse.
3037
3038 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
3039 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
3040
3041 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
3042 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
3043 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
3044 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
3045 used as help string.
3046
3047 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
3048 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
3049 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
3050
3051 +++
3052 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
3053
3054 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
3055 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
3056
3057 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
3058 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
3059 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
3060 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
3061 used.
3062
3063 (global-set-key [A-down]
3064 #'(lambda ()
3065 (interactive)
3066 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3067 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
3068 (global-set-key [A-up]
3069 #'(lambda ()
3070 (interactive)
3071 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3072 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
3073
3074 +++
3075 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
3076
3077 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
3078 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
3079 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
3080 is called with one argument, POS.
3081
3082 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
3083 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
3084 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
3085 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
3086 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
3087
3088 +++
3089 ** Tool bar support.
3090
3091 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
3092 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
3093 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
3094 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
3095 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
3096 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
3097
3098 *** Tool bar item definitions
3099
3100 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3101 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
3102 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
3103
3104 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
3105 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
3106 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
3107 property (see below).
3108
3109 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
3110 binding are currently ignored.
3111
3112 The following properties are recognized:
3113
3114 `:enable FORM'.
3115
3116 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
3117 or disabled.
3118
3119 `:visible FORM'
3120
3121 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
3122
3123 `:filter FUNCTION'
3124
3125 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
3126 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
3127 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
3128
3129 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
3130
3131 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
3132 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
3133
3134 `:image IMAGES'
3135
3136 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3137 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3138 meaning of each of the four elements:
3139
3140 Index Use when item is
3141 ----------------------------------------
3142 0 enabled and selected
3143 1 enabled and deselected
3144 2 disabled and selected
3145 3 disabled and deselected
3146
3147 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3148 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3149
3150 `:help HELP-STRING'.
3151
3152 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3153 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3154
3155 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
3156
3157 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3158 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3159 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3160
3161 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3162 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3163
3164 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3165 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3166 pixels. Default is 1.
3167
3168 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3169 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3170
3171 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3172
3173 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3174 a tool bar item. If
3175
3176 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3177 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3178 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3179
3180 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3181
3182 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3183
3184 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3185 item.
3186
3187 ** Mode line changes.
3188
3189 +++
3190 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3191
3192 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3193 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3194 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3195
3196 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3197 a `local-map' text property.
3198
3199 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3200 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3201
3202 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3203 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3204 `local-map' property.
3205
3206 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3207 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3208 example.
3209
3210 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3211 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3212
3213 +++
3214 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3215 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3216
3217 +++
3218 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3219
3220 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3221 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3222 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3223 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3224 line.
3225
3226 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3227 `header-line'.
3228
3229 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3230 position in the header-line.
3231
3232 +++
3233 ** Text property `display'
3234
3235 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3236 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3237 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3238 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3239
3240 *** Variable width and height spaces
3241
3242 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3243 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3244 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3245 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3246 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3247 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3248 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3249
3250 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3251 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3252 properties described below.
3253
3254 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3255 characters having the `display' property.
3256
3257 - :width WIDTH
3258
3259 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3260 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3261
3262 - :relative-width FACTOR
3263
3264 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3265 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3266 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3267 width of that character by FACTOR.
3268
3269 - :align-to HPOS
3270
3271 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3272 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3273
3274 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3275
3276 - :height HEIGHT
3277
3278 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3279 normal line height.
3280
3281 - :relative-height FACTOR
3282
3283 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3284 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3285
3286 - :ascent ASCENT
3287
3288 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3289 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3290 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3291 equal to 100.
3292
3293 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3294
3295 *** Images
3296
3297 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3298 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3299 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3300 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3301 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3302 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3303 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3304 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3305 as display specification.
3306
3307 *** Other display properties
3308
3309 - :space-width FACTOR
3310
3311 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3312 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3313 integer or float.
3314
3315 - :height HEIGHT
3316
3317 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3318
3319 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3320 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3321 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3322 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3323 a font is available counts as a step.
3324
3325 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3326 as tall as the frame's default font.
3327
3328 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3329 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3330
3331 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3332 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3333
3334 - :raise FACTOR
3335
3336 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3337 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3338 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3339 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3340 `:height' subproperty.
3341
3342 *** Conditional display properties
3343
3344 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3345 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3346 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3347 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3348 the text having the `display' property.
3349
3350 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3351 `(:when t SPEC)'.
3352
3353 +++
3354 ** New menu separator types.
3355
3356 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3357 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3358 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3359 to specify other menu separator types.
3360
3361 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3362
3363 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3364 separator occurs.
3365
3366 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3367
3368 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3369
3370 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3371
3372 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3373
3374 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3375
3376 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3377
3378 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3379
3380 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3381
3382 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3383
3384 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3385 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3386
3387 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3388
3389 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3390
3391 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3392
3393 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3394
3395 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3396
3397 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3398
3399 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3400
3401 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3402
3403 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3404
3405 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3406
3407 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3408
3409 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3410
3411 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3412
3413 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3414
3415 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3416 the corresponding single-line separators.
3417
3418 +++
3419 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3420
3421 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3422 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3423 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3424 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3425 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3426 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3427 default foreground is black.
3428
3429 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3430 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3431 `ScrollBarBackground').
3432
3433 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3434 settings for scroll bar colors.
3435
3436 +++
3437 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3438 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3439
3440 ---
3441 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3442 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3443 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3444 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3445 the original window start.
3446
3447 ---
3448 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3449 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3450 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3451
3452 +++
3453 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3454
3455 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3456 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3457 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3458 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3459
3460 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3461 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3462
3463 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3464
3465 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3466 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3467 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3468 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3469 temporarily to nil, for example
3470
3471 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3472 (enlarge-window 10))
3473
3474 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3475 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3476
3477 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3478 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3479 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3480 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3481 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3482 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3483
3484
3485 ^L
3486 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3487
3488 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3489 input.
3490
3491 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3492
3493 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3494
3495 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3496 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3497 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3498 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3499 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3500
3501 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3502 been added.
3503
3504 ^L
3505 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3506
3507 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3508
3509 ^L
3510 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3511
3512 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3513 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3514 \f
3515 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3516
3517 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3518
3519 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3520 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3521 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3522
3523 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3524 is the one that is used.
3525
3526 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3527 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3528 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3529 separate from the command's regular output.
3530 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3531 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3532 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3533 the buffer name.
3534
3535 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3536 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3537 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3538 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3539
3540 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3541 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3542 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3543 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3544
3545 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3546 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3547 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3548 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3549
3550 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3551 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3552 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3553 they never ignore case.
3554
3555 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3556 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3557 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3558 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3559 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3560 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3561 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3562
3563 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3564 the same format that was used in the file before.
3565
3566 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3567 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3568
3569 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3570 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3571 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3572
3573 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3574 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3575 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3576 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3577 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3578 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3579 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3580
3581 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3582 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3583 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3584 format. You can now customize these variables.
3585
3586 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3587 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3588 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3589 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3590
3591 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3592 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3593 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3594
3595 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3596 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3597 doesn't have any effect.
3598
3599 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3600 not one per buffer.
3601
3602 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3603 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3604 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3605
3606 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3607 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3608 `auto-show-mode' command.
3609
3610 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3611 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3612 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3613 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3614 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3615
3616 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3617 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3618
3619 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3620 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3621 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3622
3623 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3624 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3625 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3626 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3627
3628 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3629
3630 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3631 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3632 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3633 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3634 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3635
3636 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3637 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3638
3639 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3640 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3641 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3642 `?' on other systems.
3643
3644 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3645 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3646 Unix.
3647
3648 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3649 current codepage when it starts.
3650
3651 ** Mail changes
3652
3653 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3654 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3655 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3656 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3657 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3658 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3659 latin-1:
3660
3661 MIME-version: 1.0
3662 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3663 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3664
3665 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3666 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3667 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3668 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3669 buffer-file-coding-system.
3670
3671 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3672 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3673 mail.
3674
3675 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3676 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3677 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3678 list of possible coding systems.
3679
3680 ** CC Mode changes
3681
3682 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3683 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3684 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3685 docstring for details.
3686
3687 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3688 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3689 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3690 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3691 lineup functions use this feature currently.
3692
3693 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3694 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3695
3696 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3697 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3698
3699 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3700 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3701 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3702 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3703 anonymous classes.
3704
3705 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3706 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3707
3708 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3709 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3710 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3711 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3712
3713 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3714 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3715 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3716 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3717 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3718
3719 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3720
3721 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3722
3723 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3724 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3725
3726 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3727
3728 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3729 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3730 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3731 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3732 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3733
3734 ** Gnus changes.
3735
3736 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3737 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3738 Gnus manual for the full story.
3739
3740 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3741 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3742 group, which is created automatically.
3743
3744 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3745 values.
3746
3747 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3748
3749 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3750 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3751
3752 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3753 `C-u C-c C-c'.
3754
3755 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3756
3757 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3758 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3759
3760 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3761
3762 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3763 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3764
3765 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3766 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3767
3768 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3769 control over simplification.
3770
3771 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3772
3773 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3774 limit.
3775
3776 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3777
3778 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3779
3780 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
3781 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3782 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3783
3784 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3785 `a' forces normal posting method.
3786
3787 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3788 -- `W d'.
3789
3790 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3791 to a non-nil value.
3792
3793 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3794 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3795
3796 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3797 has been added.
3798
3799 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3800
3801 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3802
3803 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3804 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3805
3806 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3807 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3808
3809 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3810
3811 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3812 been added.
3813
3814 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3815 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3816
3817 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3818 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3819
3820 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3821
3822 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3823
3824 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3825
3826 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3827
3828 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3829 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3830 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3831
3832 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3833 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3834 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3835 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3836 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3837
3838 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3839 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3840 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3841 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3842
3843 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3844 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3845 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3846 mismatch.
3847
3848 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3849
3850 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3851 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3852
3853 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3854 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3855 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3856 removed from the label.
3857
3858 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3859 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3860
3861 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3862 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3863
3864 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3865 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
3866 expressions.
3867
3868 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3869
3870 ** New/deleted modes and packages
3871
3872 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3873 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3874
3875 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3876 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3877 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3878
3879 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3880 changes with a special face.
3881
3882 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3883 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3884 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3885 \f
3886 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3887
3888 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3889 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3890 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3891 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3892 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3893
3894 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3895 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3896 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3897
3898 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3899 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3900 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3901 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3902 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3903 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3904 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3905 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3906 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3907
3908 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3909 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
3910 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
3911 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
3912 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
3913 program.
3914
3915 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
3916 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
3917 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
3918 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
3919 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
3920 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
3921
3922 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
3923 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
3924 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
3925 was not documented clearly before.
3926
3927 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
3928 This includes Tetris and Snake.
3929 \f
3930 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
3931
3932 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
3933 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
3934 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
3935 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
3936
3937 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
3938 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
3939 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
3940
3941 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
3942
3943 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
3944 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3945
3946 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3947 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3948 integers.
3949
3950 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3951 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3952 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3953 file names and attributes are returned.
3954
3955 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3956 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3957 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3958 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3959 returns the result.
3960
3961 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3962 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3963
3964 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
3965
3966 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3967 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3968 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3969 optionally.
3970
3971 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3972 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3973
3974 **
3975 The new function process-running-child-p
3976 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3977 terminal to its own child process.
3978
3979 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3980 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3981 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3982 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3983
3984 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3985 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3986
3987 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3988 :included is an alias for :visible.
3989
3990 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3991 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3992 to move or copy menu entries.
3993
3994 ** Multibyte editing changes
3995
3996 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3997 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3998 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3999 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
4000 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
4001 (setq char (sref str idx)
4002 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
4003 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
4004
4005 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
4006 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
4007 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
4008
4009 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
4010 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
4011 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
4012
4013 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
4014
4015 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
4016 across the boundary.
4017
4018 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
4019 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
4020 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
4021 contains 8-bit characters.
4022 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
4023 contains invalid characters.
4024
4025 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
4026 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
4027 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
4028 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
4029 way.
4030
4031 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
4032 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
4033 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
4034 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
4035
4036 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
4037 compose Thai characters in a string.
4038
4039 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
4040 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
4041 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
4042 menus should always use the third argument.
4043
4044 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
4045 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
4046 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
4047 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
4048
4049 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
4050 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
4051 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
4052 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
4053
4054 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
4055 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
4056 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
4057 echo area contents.
4058
4059 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
4060
4061 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
4062 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
4063 requested feature cannot be loaded.
4064
4065 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
4066 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
4067 means to clear out that attribute.
4068
4069 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
4070 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
4071
4072 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
4073 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
4074 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
4075 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
4076
4077 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
4078 the gap of the current buffer.
4079
4080 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
4081 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
4082 current buffer.
4083
4084 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
4085 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
4086 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
4087 it back in after any modifications have been made.
4088 \f
4089 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
4090
4091 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
4092 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
4093 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
4094 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
4095 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
4096
4097 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
4098 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
4099 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
4100 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
4101 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
4102
4103 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
4104 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
4105 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
4106
4107 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
4108 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
4109 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
4110 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
4111 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
4112 results.
4113
4114 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
4115 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
4116 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
4117 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
4118 \f
4119 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
4120
4121 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
4122 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
4123 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
4124 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
4125
4126 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
4127 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
4128 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
4129 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
4130 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
4131 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
4132 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
4133 region.
4134
4135 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
4136 selective undo.
4137
4138 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
4139 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
4140 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
4141 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
4142 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
4143
4144 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
4145 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
4146 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
4147 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
4148
4149 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
4150 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
4151 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
4152 something that most users not do.
4153
4154 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
4155 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
4156 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
4157 applications.
4158
4159 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4160 pasting operations.
4161
4162 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4163 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4164 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4165 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4166 `ps-printer-name'.
4167
4168 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4169 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4170 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4171 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4172 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4173 hits a new word.
4174
4175 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4176 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4177 to be confused by TeX commands.
4178
4179 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4180 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4181 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4182 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4183
4184 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4185 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4186 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4187 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4188 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4189
4190 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4191 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4192
4193 ** Changes in input method usage.
4194
4195 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4196 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4197 respectively.
4198
4199 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4200
4201 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4202 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4203
4204 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4205 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4206
4207 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4208
4209 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4210
4211 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4212 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4213
4214 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4215 given in the following case:
4216 o When you are using a complex input method.
4217 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4218
4219 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4220 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4221 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4222 setting it to t is helpful.
4223
4224 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4225
4226 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4227 keys:
4228 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4229 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4230 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4231 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4232 environment.
4233
4234 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4235 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4236 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4237 get
4238
4239 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4240
4241 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4242
4243 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4244 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4245
4246 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4247 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4248 its owner and group.
4249
4250 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4251 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4252
4253 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4254 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4255
4256 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4257 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4258 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4259 by the left edge of the rectangle.
4260
4261 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4262 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4263 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4264 for writing keyboard macros.
4265
4266 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4267 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4268 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4269 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4270 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4271 info.
4272
4273 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4274
4275 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4276 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4277 contents only.
4278
4279 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4280 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4281 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4282 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4283
4284 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4285 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4286 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4287
4288 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4289 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4290 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4291 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4292
4293 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4294 failure if the command produces no output.
4295
4296 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4297 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4298 the mouse.
4299
4300 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4301 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4302 function and variable names.
4303
4304 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4305 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4306 file-coding-system-alist.
4307
4308 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4309 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4310 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4311 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4312 according to the current fontset.
4313
4314 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4315
4316 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4317 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4318 nonascii-insert-offset.
4319
4320 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4321 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4322 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4323 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4324
4325 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4326 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4327
4328 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4329 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4330
4331 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4332 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4333 command keys.
4334
4335 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4336 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4337
4338 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4339 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4340 all variables that have documentation.
4341
4342 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4343 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4344 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4345 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4346 it should show; the default is 20.
4347
4348 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4349 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4350 of your input.
4351
4352 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4353 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4354 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4355 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4356 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4357 Newly added options are included as well.
4358
4359 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4360 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4361 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4362
4363 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4364 Customize menu.
4365
4366 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4367 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4368
4369 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4370 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4371 invoked.
4372
4373 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4374 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4375 The default is 1.
4376
4377 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4378 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4379 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4380 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4381 sensibly.
4382
4383 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4384
4385 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4386 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4387 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4388
4389 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4390 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4391 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4392 every night.
4393
4394 ** Desktop changes
4395
4396 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4397 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4398
4399 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4400 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4401
4402 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4403 read and post multi-lingual articles.
4404
4405 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4406 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4407 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4408 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4409 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4410 made invisible again.
4411
4412 ** Mail reading and sending changes
4413
4414 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4415 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4416 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4417 toggle.
4418
4419 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4420 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4421 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4422 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4423 rmail-default-body-file.
4424
4425 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4426 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4427 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4428
4429 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4430 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4431 is evaluated to insert the signature.
4432
4433 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4434 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4435 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4436 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4437 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4438 especially interested in trying feedmail.
4439
4440 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4441 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4442 provided by feedmail are:
4443
4444 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4445 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4446 there is also a queue for draft messages
4447
4448 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4449 be prompted for confirmation
4450
4451 **** does smart filling of address headers
4452
4453 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4454 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4455 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4456
4457 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4458 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4459 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4460 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4461
4462 ** Dired changes
4463
4464 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4465 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4466
4467 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4468 run Dired on the directory name at point.
4469
4470 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4471 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4472 for a specified regexp.
4473
4474 ** VC Changes
4475
4476 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4477 conveniently.
4478
4479 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4480 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4481 Dired.
4482
4483 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4484 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4485 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4486 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4487
4488 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4489 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4490 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4491 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4492 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4493
4494 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4495 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4496 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4497 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4498 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4499
4500 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4501 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4502 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4503 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4504
4505 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4506 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4507 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4508
4509 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4510 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4511 session to resolve them.
4512
4513 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4514 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4515 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4516 uses as well).
4517
4518 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4519 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4520 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4521 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4522 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4523 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4524 using ediff.
4525
4526 ** Changes in Font Lock
4527
4528 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4529 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4530 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4531 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4532 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4533
4534 ** Frame name display changes
4535
4536 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4537 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4538 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4539 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4540
4541 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4542 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4543 menu.
4544
4545 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4546
4547 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4548 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4549 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4550
4551 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4552
4553 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4554 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4555 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4556
4557 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4558 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4559 the following line.
4560
4561 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4562 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4563 previously sent input.
4564
4565 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4566 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4567 as the search string.
4568
4569 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4570 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4571
4572 ** C mode changes
4573
4574 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4575 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4576 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
4577 definition.
4578
4579 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4580 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4581 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4582 style is still the default however.
4583
4584 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4585
4586 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4587 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4588 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4589
4590 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4591 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4592
4593 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4594 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4595
4596 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4597 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4598
4599 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4600 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4601
4602 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4603 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4604 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4605 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4606
4607 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
4608
4609 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
4610 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4611 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4612
4613 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4614 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4615 expanding dynamically.
4616
4617 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4618 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4619
4620 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4621 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4622 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4623 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4624
4625 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4626
4627 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4628
4629 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4630 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4631 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4632 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4633 against the first word in the title.
4634
4635 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4636 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4637 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
4638 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
4639 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
4640 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
4641
4642 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4643 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4644 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4645 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4646
4647 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
4648
4649 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4650 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4651 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4652 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4653 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4654 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4655
4656 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4657 Editing group once the package is loaded.
4658
4659 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4660 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4661 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4662
4663 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4664 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4665
4666 ** Ispell changes.
4667
4668 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4669 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
4670 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4671
4672 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
4673 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4674 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4675 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
4676 include:
4677
4678 o URLs are automatically skipped
4679 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4680
4681 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4682
4683 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4684
4685 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4686 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4687 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4688 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4689
4690 *** New recursive parser.
4691
4692 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4693 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4694 recursive parser scans the individual files.
4695
4696 *** Parsing only part of a document.
4697
4698 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4699 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4700 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4701
4702 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4703
4704 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
4705
4706 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4707
4708 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4709
4710 *** Using multiple selection buffers
4711
4712 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4713 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4714
4715 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4716
4717 *** References to external documents.
4718
4719 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4720 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4721 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4722 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4723 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4724 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4725 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4726
4727 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4728
4729 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4730 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4731
4732 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4733 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4734
4735 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4736
4737 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4738 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4739
4740 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4741
4742 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4743 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4744 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4745 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4746 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4747 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4748 more.
4749
4750 *** Support for the varioref package
4751
4752 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4753
4754 *** New hooks
4755
4756 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4757 and citations are created. These hooks are
4758 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4759 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
4760
4761 *** Citations outside LaTeX
4762
4763 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4764 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4765
4766 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
4767
4768 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4769 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4770 fontified, use
4771
4772 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4773
4774 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4775 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4776 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4777 directories that contain the same file name.
4778
4779 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4780 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4781 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4782 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4783 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4784 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4785 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4786 directory.
4787
4788 ** New modes and packages
4789
4790 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4791 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4792 it, but some do not.
4793
4794 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4795 code.
4796
4797 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4798 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4799 around in a buffer.
4800
4801 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4802
4803 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4804 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4805 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4806 established system of notation similar to Chess.
4807
4808 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4809 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4810 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4811
4812 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4813 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4814 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4815 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4816 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4817 the like.
4818
4819 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4820 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4821
4822 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4823 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4824 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4825 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4826
4827 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4828
4829 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4830 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4831 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4832 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4833 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4834 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4835 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4836 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4837 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4838 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4839 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4840
4841 Platform-specific modes:
4842
4843 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4844 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4845 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4846 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4847 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4848 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4849 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4850 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4851 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4852 \f
4853 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4854
4855 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4856 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4857 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4858 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4859
4860 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4861 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4862 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4863
4864 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4865 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4866 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4867 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4868
4869 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4870 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4871 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4872 environment.
4873
4874 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4875 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4876 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4877 current input method for reading this one event.
4878
4879 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4880 now control whether to output certain characters as
4881 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4882 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4883 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4884 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4885 \f
4886 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4887
4888 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4889 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4890
4891 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4892 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4893 always increases point by 1.
4894
4895 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4896 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4897
4898 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4899
4900 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4901 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4902 default value changed. For example,
4903
4904 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4905 :type 'integer
4906 :group 'foo
4907 :version "20.3")
4908
4909 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
4910 :version "20.3")
4911
4912 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
4913 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
4914 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
4915 `:version' in the top level group.
4916
4917 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
4918
4919 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
4920 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
4921
4922 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
4923 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
4924 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
4925 to themselves.
4926
4927 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
4928 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
4929 values whatever.
4930
4931 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
4932 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
4933 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
4934
4935 ** Frame-local variables.
4936
4937 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
4938 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
4939 local bindings for that variable.
4940
4941 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
4942 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
4943 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
4944 parameter name.
4945
4946 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
4947 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
4948 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
4949 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4950
4951 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4952 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4953 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4954 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4955
4956 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4957 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4958 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4959 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4960 See the documentation in sregex.el.
4961
4962 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4963 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4964 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4965 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4966
4967 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4968 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4969
4970 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4971 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4972 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4973
4974 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4975 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4976 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4977 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4978
4979 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4980 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4981 empty input.
4982
4983 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4984 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4985 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4986 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4987 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4988
4989 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4990 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4991 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4992 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4993
4994 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4995 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4996 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4997 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4998 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4999
5000 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
5001 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
5002 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
5003 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
5004
5005 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
5006 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
5007 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
5008
5009 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
5010 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
5011 was directed to display this buffer.
5012
5013 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
5014 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
5015 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
5016 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
5017 set-window-configuration.
5018
5019 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
5020 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
5021 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
5022 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
5023
5024 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
5025 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
5026 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
5027
5028 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
5029 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
5030 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
5031
5032 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
5033 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
5034
5035 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
5036 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
5037
5038 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
5039 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
5040 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
5041
5042 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
5043 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
5044 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
5045 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
5046
5047 ** Menu changes
5048
5049 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
5050 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
5051 better supported.
5052
5053 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
5054 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
5055 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
5056 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
5057 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
5058
5059 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
5060
5061 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
5062 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
5063 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
5064 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
5065
5066 The format is:
5067 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
5068 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
5069 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
5070 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
5071 The supported properties include
5072
5073 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5074 item is enabled.
5075 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5076 item should appear in the menu.
5077 :filter FILTER-FN
5078 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
5079 which will be REAL-BINDING.
5080 It should return a binding to use instead.
5081 :keys DESCRIPTION
5082 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
5083 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
5084 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
5085 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
5086 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
5087 keyboard binding.
5088 :key-sequence nil
5089 This means that the command normally has no
5090 keyboard equivalent.
5091 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
5092 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
5093 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
5094 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
5095 value says whether this button is currently selected.
5096
5097 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
5098 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
5099
5100 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
5101
5102 ** New event types
5103
5104 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
5105 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
5106 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
5107 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
5108
5109 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
5110
5111 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5112 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
5113 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
5114 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
5115 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
5116 forward, away from the user.
5117
5118 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5119
5120 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
5121 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
5122 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
5123 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
5124 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
5125
5126 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
5127
5128 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5129 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
5130 that were dragged and dropped.
5131
5132 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5133
5134 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
5135
5136 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
5137 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
5138 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
5139
5140 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
5141 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
5142 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
5143
5144 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
5145 in Emacs 19 and before.
5146
5147 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
5148 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
5149
5150 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
5151 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
5152 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
5153 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
5154
5155 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
5156 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
5157 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
5158 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
5159 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
5160
5161 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5162 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5163 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5164 consistent with the new representation.
5165
5166 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5167 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5168 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5169 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5170
5171 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5172 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5173 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5174
5175 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5176 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5177 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5178
5179 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5180 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5181 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5182
5183 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5184 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5185
5186 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5187 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5188
5189 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5190 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5191 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5192 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5193
5194 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5195 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5196
5197 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5198 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5199 buffer or string being searched.
5200
5201 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5202 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5203 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5204 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5205 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5206 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5207 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5208
5209 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5210
5211 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5212 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5213 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5214 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5215 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5216 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5217 define-coding-system-alias.
5218
5219 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5220 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5221 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5222 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5223 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5224 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5225 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5226 `iso-8859-1'.
5227
5228 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5229 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5230 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5231 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5232
5233 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5234 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5235 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5236 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5237
5238 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5239 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5240 This function requires a user interaction.
5241
5242 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5243 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5244 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5245 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5246 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5247 select-safe-coding-system.
5248
5249 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5250 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5251 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5252 was done.
5253
5254 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5255 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5256 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5257
5258 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5259 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5260 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5261 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5262
5263 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5264 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5265 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5266 converted.
5267
5268 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5269 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5270
5271 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5272 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5273 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5274 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5275 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5276 range of characters.
5277
5278 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5279 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5280
5281 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5282 in the current buffer at position POS.
5283
5284 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5285 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5286 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5287 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5288 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5289 binding input-method-function to nil.
5290
5291 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5292 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5293 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5294 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5295 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5296
5297 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5298 subsequent events of a key sequence.
5299
5300 *** You can customize any language environment by using
5301 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5302
5303 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5304 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5305 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5306 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5307 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5308 \f
5309 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
5310
5311 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5312 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5313 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5314 tree structure.
5315
5316 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5317 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5318
5319 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5320 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5321 in your .emacs file.)
5322
5323 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5324 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5325
5326 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5327 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5328
5329 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5330 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5331 kills the region.
5332
5333 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5334 delete the character before point, as usual.
5335
5336 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5337 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5338 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5339
5340 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5341 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5342 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5343 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5344 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5345 past.)
5346
5347 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5348 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5349 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5350 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5351 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5352
5353 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5354 and is an alias for it.
5355
5356 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5357 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5358
5359 ** Scrolling changes
5360
5361 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5362 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5363
5364 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5365 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5366 where it started.
5367
5368 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5369 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5370 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5371 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5372
5373 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5374 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5375 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5376 recenters the window.
5377
5378 ** International character set support (MULE)
5379
5380 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5381 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5382 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5383 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5384 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5385 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5386
5387 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5388 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5389 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5390 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5391 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5392
5393 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5394 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5395 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5396 language, to make it possible to type them.
5397
5398 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5399 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5400
5401 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5402 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5403
5404 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5405
5406 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5407
5408 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5409 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5410 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5411 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5412 characters for their work until they want to change.
5413
5414 *** Input methods
5415
5416 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5417 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5418 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5419 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5420 support several input methods.
5421
5422 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5423 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5424 work.
5425
5426 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5427 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5428 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5429 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5430 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5431 letter.
5432
5433 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5434 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5435 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5436 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5437 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5438
5439 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5440 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5441 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5442 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5443
5444 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5445 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5446 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5447 the first guess is wrong.
5448
5449 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5450 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5451
5452 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5453 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5454 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5455 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5456
5457 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5458 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5459 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5460 translate automatically to and from either one.
5461
5462 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5463
5464 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5465 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5466 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5467 what you want.
5468
5469 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5470 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5471 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5472 multibyte characters in that buffer.
5473
5474 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5475 character conversion as well.
5476
5477 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5478
5479 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5480 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5481 requires using many fonts.
5482
5483 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5484 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5485
5486 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5487 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5488 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5489 you would use a font.
5490
5491 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5492 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5493 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5494
5495 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5496 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5497 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5498 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5499 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5500
5501 *** Defining fontsets.
5502
5503 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5504 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5505 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5506
5507 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5508 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5509 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5510 standard fontset are created automatically.
5511
5512 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5513 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5514 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5515 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5516 name is `fontset-startup'.
5517
5518 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5519 The resource value should have this form:
5520 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5521 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5522 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5523 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5524 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5525 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5526 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5527 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5528 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5529
5530 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5531 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5532 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5533
5534 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5535 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5536 following resource,
5537 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5538 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5539 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5540 Here is the substitution rule:
5541 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5542 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5543 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5544 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5545 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5546
5547 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5548 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5549 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5550
5551 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5552 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5553 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5554 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5555 fontsets.
5556
5557 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5558 defaults for a particular choice of language.
5559
5560 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5561 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5562 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5563 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5564 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5565 system for new files that you create.
5566
5567 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5568 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5569 whole Emacs session.
5570
5571 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5572 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5573 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5574
5575 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5576 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5577 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5578 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5579 coding systems that Emacs supports.
5580
5581 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5582 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5583 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5584 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5585 is used for *the immediately following command*.
5586
5587 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5588 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5589
5590 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5591 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5592
5593 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5594 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5595
5596 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5597 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5598 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5599 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5600 of the file.
5601
5602 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5603 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5604 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5605 translated into that character code.
5606
5607 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5608 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5609
5610 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5611
5612 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5613 the coding system for keyboard input.
5614
5615 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5616 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5617 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5618
5619 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5620
5621 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5622 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5623 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5624 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5625 designed to work with terminals.
5626
5627 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5628 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5629 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5630 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5631 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5632 in the corresponding buffer.
5633
5634 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5635
5636 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5637 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5638 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5639
5640 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5641 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5642 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5643 want to use.
5644
5645 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5646 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5647
5648 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5649 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5650 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5651 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5652
5653 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5654 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5655 related information.
5656
5657 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5658 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5659 scripts.
5660
5661 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5662 information about the support for a particular language.
5663 You specify the language as an argument.
5664
5665 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5666 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5667 first dash.
5668
5669 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5670 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5671 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
5672 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5673
5674 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5675 B big5 (Chinese)
5676 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5677 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5678 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5679 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5680 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5681 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5682 K euc-korea (Korean)
5683 R koi8 (Russian)
5684 Q tibetan
5685 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5686 T lao
5687 T tis620 (Thai)
5688 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5689 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5690 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5691 v viqr (Vietnamese)
5692 z hz (Chinese)
5693
5694 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5695 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5696 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5697 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5698
5699 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5700 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5701
5702 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5703 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5704 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5705 Rmail files themselves.
5706
5707 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5708 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5709
5710 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5711 for sending mail:
5712
5713 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5714 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5715 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5716 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5717 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5718
5719 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5720 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5721 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5722 translations.
5723
5724 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5725 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5726 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5727 without any conversion.
5728
5729 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5730 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5731 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5732 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5733
5734 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5735 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5736
5737 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5738 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5739
5740 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5741 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5742
5743 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5744 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5745 in the buffer before point.
5746
5747 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5748 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5749 you are using.
5750
5751 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5752 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5753
5754 ** File locking works with NFS now.
5755
5756 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5757 in the same directory as FILENAME.
5758
5759 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5760 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5761 can become a bottleneck.
5762
5763 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5764 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5765 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5766 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5767 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5768 so useful that the change is worth while.
5769
5770 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5771 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5772 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5773 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5774
5775 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5776 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5777 show-paren-mode.
5778
5779 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5780 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5781 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5782
5783 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5784 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5785 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5786
5787 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5788 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5789 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5790
5791 ** Changes in View mode.
5792
5793 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5794 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5795
5796 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5797 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5798
5799 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5800 previous state.
5801
5802 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5803 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5804
5805 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5806 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5807 not just the selected window.
5808
5809 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5810 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5811 turns View mode on or off.
5812
5813 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5814 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5815 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5816
5817 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5818 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5819
5820 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5821 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5822 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5823 which version to compare with.
5824
5825 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
5826 blocks if a match is inside the block.
5827
5828 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5829 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5830 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5831 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5832
5833 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5834 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5835 blocks, all of them or none.
5836
5837 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5838 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5839 confirmation first.
5840
5841 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5842 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5843 However, the mode will not be changed if
5844 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5845 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5846 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5847 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5848
5849 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5850
5851 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5852 these commands do not change the major mode.
5853
5854 ** M-x occur changes.
5855
5856 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5857 it performs a case-sensitive search.
5858
5859 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5860 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5861 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5862
5863 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5864 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5865 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5866 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5867 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5868
5869 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5870 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5871 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5872 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5873
5874 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5875 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5876 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5877
5878 ** Outline mode changes.
5879
5880 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5881
5882 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5883
5884 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5885 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5886 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5887 was already active.
5888
5889 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5890 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5891 get confused by it.
5892
5893 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5894 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5895
5896 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5897
5898 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5899 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5900 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5901 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5902
5903 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5904 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5905 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5906
5907 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5908 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5909 values.
5910
5911 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
5912 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
5913 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
5914 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
5915
5916 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
5917 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
5918 can be. The default value is 30.
5919
5920 ** Changes in Mail mode.
5921
5922 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
5923 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
5924 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
5925 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
5926 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
5927 behavior.
5928
5929 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
5930 compose-mail-other-frame.
5931
5932 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
5933 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
5934 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
5935 buffer that shows the original message.
5936
5937 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
5938 with separator lines around the contents.
5939
5940 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
5941 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
5942 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
5943 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
5944
5945 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
5946
5947 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
5948 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
5949 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5950 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5951
5952 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5953 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5954 /etc/passwd.
5955
5956 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5957 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5958 /etc/passwd.
5959
5960 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5961 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5962 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5963 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5964
5965 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5966 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5967 be taken to be magic.
5968
5969 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5970 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5971 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5972
5973 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5974 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5975
5976 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5977 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5978
5979 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5980
5981 new key dired.el binding old key
5982 ------- ---------------- -------
5983 * c dired-change-marks c
5984 * m dired-mark m
5985 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5986 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5987 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5988 * u dired-unmark u
5989 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5990 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5991 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5992 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5993 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5994 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5995
5996 ** Rmail changes.
5997
5998 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5999 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
6000 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
6001 each time you run it.
6002
6003 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
6004 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
6005
6006 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
6007 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
6008 means to move in the opposite direction.
6009
6010 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
6011 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
6012
6013 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
6014 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
6015 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
6016 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
6017 for output.
6018
6019 ** Gnus changes.
6020
6021 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
6022
6023 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
6024 Gnus.
6025
6026 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
6027 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
6028
6029 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
6030 article mode line.
6031
6032 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
6033
6034 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
6035
6036 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
6037
6038 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
6039 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
6040 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
6041
6042 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
6043
6044 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
6045
6046 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
6047 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
6048
6049 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
6050 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
6051 used to pick articles.
6052
6053 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
6054 another have been added.
6055
6056 `M-x gnus-change-server'
6057
6058 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
6059 generating lines in buffers.
6060
6061 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
6062 `M-C-_'.
6063
6064 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
6065
6066 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
6067
6068 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
6069
6070 *** Scores can be decayed.
6071
6072 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
6073
6074 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
6075 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
6076
6077 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
6078 the native server.
6079
6080 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
6081
6082 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
6083 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
6084
6085 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
6086
6087 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
6088 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
6089
6090 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
6091 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
6092
6093 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
6094 a group.
6095
6096 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
6097 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
6098
6099 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
6100
6101 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
6102
6103 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
6104
6105 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
6106
6107 Use the `Y c' command.
6108
6109 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
6110
6111 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
6112
6113 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
6114
6115 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
6116 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
6117
6118 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
6119
6120 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
6121
6122 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
6123 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
6124
6125 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
6126
6127 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
6128 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
6129 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
6130 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
6131 this issue.)
6132
6133 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
6134 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
6135 particular news group. This can be done by:
6136
6137 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
6138
6139 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
6140 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
6141 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
6142 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
6143 for reading and posting).
6144
6145 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
6146 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
6147 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
6148 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
6149 there.
6150
6151 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
6152 default. Here are some of these default settings:
6153
6154 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
6155 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
6156 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
6157 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
6158 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
6159
6160 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
6161 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6162
6163 ** CC mode changes.
6164
6165 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6166 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6167 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6168 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6169 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6170 loaded.
6171
6172 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6173 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6174 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6175 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6176 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6177 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6178
6179 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6180 of the current buffer.
6181
6182 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6183 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6184 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6185
6186 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6187 style that the Python developers like.
6188
6189 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6190 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6191 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6192
6193 ** VC Changes [new]
6194
6195 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6196 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6197 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6198
6199 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6200 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6201 developers.
6202
6203 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6204 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6205
6206 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6207 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6208 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6209 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6210
6211 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6212 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6213
6214 ** Calendar changes.
6215
6216 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6217 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6218 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6219
6220 ** ps-print changes
6221
6222 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6223
6224 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6225
6226 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6227 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6228 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6229 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6230 It defaults to `letter'.
6231 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6232
6233 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6234 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6235 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6236
6237 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6238 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6239 It defaults to 1.
6240
6241 *** Horizontal layout
6242
6243 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6244 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6245 All are measured in points.
6246
6247 *** Vertical layout
6248
6249 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6250 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6251 All are measured in points.
6252
6253 *** Headers
6254
6255 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6256 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6257 margin above the text.
6258
6259 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6260 framing box is printed around the header.
6261
6262 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6263 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6264
6265 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6266 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6267 `ps-header-font-size'.
6268
6269 *** Font managing
6270
6271 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6272 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6273 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6274 elements to this alist.
6275
6276 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6277 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6278
6279 ** hideshow changes.
6280
6281 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6282 C++, ; for lisp).
6283
6284 *** Support for java-mode added.
6285
6286 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6287 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6288
6289 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6290 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6291 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6292
6293 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6294 robust and a lot faster.
6295
6296 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6297
6298 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6299 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6300 documentation for more details.
6301
6302 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
6303
6304 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6305 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6306 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6307 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6308 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6309
6310 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6311 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6312 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6313 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6314
6315 ** Font Lock mode
6316
6317 *** Custom support
6318
6319 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6320 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6321 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6322 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6323 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6324 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6325
6326 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6327
6328 *** Maximum decoration
6329
6330 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6331 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6332 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6333 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6334 to get the old behavior.
6335
6336 *** New support
6337
6338 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6339
6340 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6341 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6342
6343 *** Configurable support
6344
6345 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6346 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6347 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6348 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6349 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6350 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6351 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6352
6353 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6354 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6355 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6356
6357 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6358
6359 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6360 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6361 for any mode.
6362
6363 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6364
6365 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6366
6367 in your ~/.emacs.
6368
6369 *** New faces
6370
6371 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6372 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6373 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6374 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6375
6376 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6377
6378 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6379 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6380 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6381
6382 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6383
6384 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6385 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6386 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6387 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6388 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6389 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6390 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6391
6392 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6393 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6394 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6395 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6396 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6397 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6398
6399 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6400
6401 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6402 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6403 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6404 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6405
6406 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6407 settings.
6408
6409 ** Ada mode changes.
6410
6411 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6412 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6413 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6414 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6415 stubs.
6416
6417 *** There are two new commands:
6418 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6419 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6420
6421 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6422 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6423 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6424
6425 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6426 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6427 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6428
6429 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6430 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6431 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6432 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6433
6434 ** Scheme mode changes.
6435
6436 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6437 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6438 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6439 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6440 have any effect.
6441
6442 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6443 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6444 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6445 variables as buffer-local variables.
6446
6447 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6448 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
6449
6450 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
6451
6452 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6453 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6454 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6455 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6456
6457 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6458 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6459 buffer in Emacs.
6460
6461 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6462 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6463 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6464 option takes precedence.
6465
6466 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6467 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6468 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6469
6470 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6471 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6472 the current defun.
6473
6474 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6475 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6476
6477 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6478 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6479 necessary).
6480
6481 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6482 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6483 these register values no longer become completely useless.
6484 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6485 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6486 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6487
6488 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6489 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6490 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6491 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6492
6493 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6494 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6495 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6496 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6497 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6498
6499 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6500 since it applies only to the current frame.
6501
6502 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6503 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6504 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6505
6506 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6507 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6508 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6509 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6510 instead of just the file you are editing.
6511
6512 ** RefTeX mode
6513
6514 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6515 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6516 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6517 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6518 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6519
6520 C-c ( reftex-label
6521 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6522 knows which kind of label is needed.
6523
6524 C-c ) reftex-reference
6525 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6526 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6527
6528 C-c [ reftex-citation
6529 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6530 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6531
6532 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6533 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6534
6535 C-c = reftex-toc
6536 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6537 can quickly jump to every section.
6538
6539 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6540 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6541 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6542 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6543 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6544
6545 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6546
6547 *** Info documentation is now available.
6548
6549 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6550 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6551
6552 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6553 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6554
6555 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6556 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6557
6558 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6559 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6560 appropriate functions.
6561
6562 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6563 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6564
6565 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6566 been cleaned.
6567
6568 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6569 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6570
6571 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6572 shall be delimited.
6573
6574 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6575 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6576 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6577
6578 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6579 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6580 prefixed with `ALT'.
6581
6582 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6583 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6584 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6585 documentation).
6586
6587 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6588 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6589 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6590
6591 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6592 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6593
6594 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6595 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6596 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6597
6598 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6599
6600 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6601
6602 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6603 from alien sources.
6604
6605 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6606 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6607 crossref entries.
6608
6609 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6610 region.
6611
6612 *** Added support for imenu.
6613
6614 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6615 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6616 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6617 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6618
6619 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6620 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6621
6622 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6623
6624 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
6625
6626 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6627 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6628 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6629 as an argument.
6630
6631 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6632 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6633
6634 ** browse-url changes
6635
6636 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6637 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6638 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6639 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6640 customization variables.
6641
6642 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6643
6644 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6645 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6646 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6647
6648 ** Changes in Ediff
6649
6650 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6651 pops up the Info file for this command.
6652
6653 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6654 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6655 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6656 directories).
6657
6658 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6659 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6660 files in the same directory.
6661
6662 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6663 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6664 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6665
6666 ** Changes in Viper
6667
6668 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
6669 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
6670 instead of vip-.
6671 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
6672 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
6673 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6674 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6675 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6676 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6677 color when Viper is in insert state.
6678 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6679 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6680 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6681
6682 ** Etags changes.
6683
6684 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6685 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6686 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6687 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6688 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6689
6690 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6691
6692 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6693 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6694
6695 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6696 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6697 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6698
6699 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6700 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6701 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6702 methods and protocols.
6703
6704 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6705 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6706 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6707 paragraph name.
6708
6709 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6710 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6711 at least M times and as many as N times.
6712
6713 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6714 in files has changed slightly.
6715
6716 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6717 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6718 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6719 with old time-stamp-format values.
6720
6721 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6722 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6723 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6724 reasons.
6725
6726 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6727 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6728 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6729 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6730 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6731 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6732
6733 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6734 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6735 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6736
6737 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6738 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6739 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6740 recommended now will continue to work then.
6741
6742 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6743 details.
6744
6745 ** There are some additional major modes:
6746
6747 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6748 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6749 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6750
6751 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6752 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6753 into Emacs.
6754
6755 ** New Lisp packages include:
6756
6757 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6758
6759 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6760 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6761
6762 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6763
6764 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6765 in shell buffers.
6766
6767 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6768 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6769 and `elint-defun'.
6770
6771 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6772 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6773 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6774 strings or comments.
6775
6776 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6777 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6778 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6779 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6780 at these points.
6781
6782 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6783 can visit them by short forms of their names.
6784
6785 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6786 Emacs Lisp function at point.
6787
6788 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6789
6790 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6791 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6792
6793 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6794
6795 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6796
6797 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6798
6799 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6800 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6801
6802 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6803 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6804 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6805 original place after inserting the copy.
6806
6807 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6808 on the buffer.
6809
6810 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6811 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6812 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6813
6814 Enable mouse-drag with:
6815 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6816 -or-
6817 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6818
6819 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6820 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6821
6822 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6823 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6824
6825 *** ogonek
6826
6827 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6828 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6829 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6830 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6831 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6832 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6833 instance) and vice versa.
6834
6835 To use this package load it using
6836 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6837 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
6838 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
6839 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6840 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6841 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6842
6843 *** Interface to ph.
6844
6845 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6846
6847 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6848 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6849 these servers.
6850
6851 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6852
6853 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6854 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6855 while the real cursor does not move.
6856
6857 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6858 for visiting your favorite web sites.
6859
6860 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6861 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6862
6863 ** movemail change
6864
6865 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6866 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6867 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6868 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6869
6870 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6871 \f
6872 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6873
6874 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6875
6876 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6877 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6878 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6879 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6880 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6881
6882 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6883 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6884 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6885 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6886 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6887 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6888 \f
6889 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6890
6891 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6892 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6893 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6894 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6895
6896 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6897 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6898
6899 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6900 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6901 "win".
6902
6903 ** Basic Lisp changes
6904
6905 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6906 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6907
6908 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6909 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
6910 or by the user.
6911
6912 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
6913
6914 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
6915
6916 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
6917 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
6918
6919 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
6920 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
6921 its argument.
6922
6923 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
6924
6925 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
6926
6927 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
6928
6929 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
6930 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
6931 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
6932 `format' function.
6933
6934 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
6935 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
6936 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
6937
6938 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
6939 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
6940 adding one of these suffixes.
6941
6942 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
6943 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
6944 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
6945
6946 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
6947 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
6948
6949 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6950
6951 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6952 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6953
6954 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6955 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6956
6957 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6958
6959 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6960 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6961
6962 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6963 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6964 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6965 works using `save-current-buffer'.
6966
6967 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6968 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6969 of the last form.
6970
6971 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6972 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6973 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6974 as the last form.
6975
6976 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6977 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6978 matches.
6979
6980 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6981
6982 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6983 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6984 Then it returns that string.
6985
6986 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6987
6988 (with-output-to-string
6989 (princ "The buffer is ")
6990 (princ (buffer-name)))
6991
6992 returns "The buffer is foo".
6993
6994 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6995 is non-nil.
6996
6997 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6998 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6999 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
7000
7001 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
7002 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
7003
7004 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
7005 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
7006 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
7007 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
7008 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
7009 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
7010
7011 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
7012 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
7013 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
7014 characters".
7015
7016 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
7017 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
7018 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
7019 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
7020 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
7021
7022 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
7023 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
7024 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
7025 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
7026
7027 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
7028 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
7029
7030 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
7031
7032 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
7033 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
7034 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
7035 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
7036 guaranteed.
7037
7038 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
7039 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
7040 character).
7041
7042 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
7043
7044 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
7045 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
7046 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
7047 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
7048 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
7049
7050 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
7051
7052 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
7053 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
7054 more than the number of characters.
7055
7056 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
7057 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
7058 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
7059 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
7060 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
7061 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
7062
7063 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
7064 and returns a string containing those characters.
7065
7066 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
7067 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
7068 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
7069 character, sref signals an error.
7070
7071 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
7072 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
7073 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7074
7075 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
7076 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
7077 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7078
7079 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
7080 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
7081 to a vector of the characters in it.
7082
7083 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
7084 of a string. You call it as follows:
7085
7086 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
7087
7088 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
7089 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
7090 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
7091 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
7092 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
7093
7094 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
7095 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7096
7097 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
7098 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7099
7100 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
7101 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
7102 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
7103 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
7104
7105 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
7106
7107 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
7108
7109 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
7110 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
7111 are not included in the resulting value.
7112
7113 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
7114 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
7115 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
7116 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
7117
7118 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
7119 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
7120 character extends across that column), then the padding character
7121 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
7122 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
7123 column START-COLUMN.
7124
7125 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
7126 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
7127 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
7128 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
7129 changed text, before the change.
7130
7131 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
7132 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
7133 one character set for each script, not for each language.
7134
7135 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
7136
7137 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
7138
7139 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
7140 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
7141
7142 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
7143 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
7144 which identify the character within that character set.
7145
7146 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
7147 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
7148 opposite of split-char.
7149
7150 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
7151 of all the characters between BEG and END.
7152
7153 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
7154 of all the characters in a string.
7155
7156 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
7157 and specifying coding systems.
7158
7159 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
7160 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
7161 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7162 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7163 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7164 as what to do about code conversion.)
7165
7166 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7167 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7168
7169 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7170 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7171 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7172
7173 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7174 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7175 to match against a file name.
7176
7177 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7178 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7179 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7180 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7181 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7182 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7183
7184 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7185 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7186
7187 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7188 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7189
7190 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7191 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7192 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7193 service names.
7194
7195 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7196 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7197 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7198 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7199 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7200 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7201
7202 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7203 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7204
7205 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7206 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7207 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7208 start the subprocess.
7209
7210 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7211 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7212 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7213 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7214 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7215
7216 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7217 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7218 subprocess.
7219
7220 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7221 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7222 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7223 connection permanently or until overridden.
7224
7225 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7226 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7227 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7228 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7229 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7230 system for one operation at a time.
7231
7232 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7233 files, subprocesses or network connections.
7234
7235 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7236 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7237 The value is a cons cell,
7238 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7239 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7240 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7241 input to the subprocess.
7242
7243 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7244 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7245
7246 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7247 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7248 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7249
7250 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7251 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7252 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7253 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7254 customization.
7255
7256 Thus, instead of writing
7257
7258 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7259 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7260
7261 you would now write this:
7262
7263 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7264 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7265 :type 'boolean
7266 :group foo)
7267
7268 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7269 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7270 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7271 for a description of them.
7272
7273 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7274 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7275
7276 (defgroup ispell nil
7277 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7278 :group 'processes)
7279
7280 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7281 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7282 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7283 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7284 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7285
7286 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7287 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7288 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7289 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7290 first-level subgroups.
7291
7292 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7293
7294 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7295 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7296
7297 ** easy-mmode
7298
7299 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7300 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7301 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7302 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7303 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7304 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7305
7306 ** Text property changes
7307
7308 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7309 text property.
7310
7311 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7312 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7313 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7314 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7315 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7316
7317 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7318 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7319 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7320 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7321
7322 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7323 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7324 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7325
7326 ** Changes in invisibility features
7327
7328 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7329 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7330 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7331 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7332 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7333 make the overlay visible.
7334
7335 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7336 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7337 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7338 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7339 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7340 t when it should hide it.
7341
7342 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7343
7344 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7345 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7346 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7347 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7348 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7349 Here is an example of how to do this:
7350
7351 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7352 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7353 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7354 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7355
7356 ...
7357 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7358
7359 ...
7360 ;; When done with the overlays:
7361 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7362 ;; Or respectively:
7363 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7364
7365 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
7366
7367 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7368 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7369 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7370 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7371
7372 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7373 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7374 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7375
7376 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7377 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7378
7379 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7380 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7381
7382 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7383 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7384 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7385
7386 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7387 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7388 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7389 determine the syntax type of the character.
7390
7391 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7392 of the current buffer.
7393
7394 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7395 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7396 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7397
7398 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7399 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7400 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7401 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7402 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7403
7404 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7405 text property.
7406
7407 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7408 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7409 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7410
7411 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7412 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7413 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7414 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7415 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7416
7417 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7418 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7419 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7420
7421 ** Changes in face features
7422
7423 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7424 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7425
7426 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7427 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7428
7429 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7430 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7431
7432 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7433 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7434
7435 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7436 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7437 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7438 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7439 overlay property).
7440
7441 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7442 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7443
7444 ** Changes in file-handling functions
7445
7446 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7447 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7448 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7449 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7450
7451 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7452 begins with ~.
7453
7454 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7455 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7456
7457 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7458 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7459
7460 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7461 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7462
7463 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7464 character code conversion as well as other things.
7465
7466 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7467 (formerly it did not).
7468
7469 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7470 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7471
7472 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7473 instead of constant strings.
7474
7475 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7476 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7477 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7478
7479 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7480 in the same way as before.
7481
7482 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7483 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7484 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7485
7486 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7487 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7488 else, and returns nil.
7489
7490 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7491 directory cannot be listed.
7492
7493 ** Changes in minibuffer input
7494
7495 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7496 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7497 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7498 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7499 ways:
7500
7501 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7502 It is available through the history command M-n.
7503
7504 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7505 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7506 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7507 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7508 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7509
7510 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7511 argument in this way.
7512
7513 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7514 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7515 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7516
7517 ** Echo area features
7518
7519 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7520 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7521 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7522 after the echo area is cleared.
7523
7524 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7525 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7526
7527 ** Keyboard input features
7528
7529 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7530 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7531
7532 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7533 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7534 by keyboard macros.
7535
7536 ** Frame-related changes
7537
7538 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7539 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7540 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7541
7542 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7543 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7544 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7545
7546 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7547 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7548 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7549 in the selected frame.
7550
7551 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7552 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7553 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7554
7555 ** X Windows features
7556
7557 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7558 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7559 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7560
7561 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7562 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7563
7564 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7565 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7566 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7567
7568 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7569 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7570
7571 ** Subprocess features
7572
7573 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7574 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7575 automatically.
7576
7577 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7578 and returns the output from the command as a string.
7579
7580 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7581 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7582
7583 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7584 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7585
7586 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7587 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7588 goes after the other menu items.
7589
7590 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
7591 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
7592 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7593 are in use.
7594
7595 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7596 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7597
7598 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7599 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7600 form.
7601
7602 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7603 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7604 but its hook is still run.
7605
7606 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7607 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7608
7609 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7610 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7611 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7612
7613 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7614 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7615 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7616 warned.
7617
7618 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7619 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7620
7621 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7622 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7623 functions like display-time.
7624
7625 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7626 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7627
7628 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7629 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7630 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7631
7632 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7633 if there is an error in compilation.
7634
7635 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7636 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7637 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7638 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7639
7640 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7641 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7642 the *scratch* buffer.
7643
7644 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7645 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7646 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7647 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7648
7649 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7650 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7651 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7652
7653 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7654 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7655 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7656 and compose-mail-other-frame.
7657
7658 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7659 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7660 full name of the specified user will be returned.
7661
7662 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7663 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7664 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7665 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7666 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7667 files at all.
7668
7669 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7670 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7671 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7672 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7673
7674 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7675 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7676 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7677 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7678
7679 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7680
7681 ** imenu.el changes.
7682
7683 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
7684 item from menu created by imenu.
7685
7686 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7687 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7688 select one of those items.
7689 \f
7690 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7691 \f
7692 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7693
7694 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7695 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7696
7697 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7698 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7699 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7700 \f
7701 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7702
7703 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7704 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7705
7706 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7707 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7708 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7709 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7710 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7711 all caps.
7712
7713 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7714 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7715
7716 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7717 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7718 as in previous Emacs versions.
7719
7720 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7721 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7722 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7723 frames.
7724
7725 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7726 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7727 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7728 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7729 accident.
7730
7731 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7732 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7733 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7734 line and then executing the macro.
7735
7736 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7737
7738 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7739 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7740 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7741 characters.
7742
7743 ** Font Lock mode
7744
7745 *** Font Lock support modes
7746
7747 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7748 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7749 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7750 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7751 Font Lock mode is enabled.
7752
7753 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7754
7755 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7756
7757 in your ~/.emacs.
7758
7759 *** lazy-lock
7760
7761 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7762 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7763 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7764 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7765 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7766 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7767 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7768
7769 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7770
7771 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7772
7773 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7774
7775 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7776
7777 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7778 paren and key.
7779
7780 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7781 supported.
7782
7783 ** Gnus changes.
7784
7785 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7786 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7787 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7788 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7789
7790 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7791 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7792
7793 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
7794 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7795 obsolete.
7796
7797 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7798 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7799
7800 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7801
7802 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7803
7804 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7805
7806 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
7807 referred.
7808
7809 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7810
7811 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7812
7813 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7814
7815 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7816
7817 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
7818 buffers.
7819
7820 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7821
7822 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7823
7824 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7825
7826 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7827
7828 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7829
7830 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7831
7832 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7833
7834 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7835 is possible.
7836
7837 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7838
7839 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7840 groups of groups.
7841
7842 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7843
7844 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
7845 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
7846
7847 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7848
7849 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7850
7851 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7852
7853 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7854
7855 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7856 expiration times.
7857
7858 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7859
7860 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7861 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7862
7863 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7864 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7865 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7866
7867 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7868 articles with the `*' command.
7869
7870 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7871
7872 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
7873
7874 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7875
7876 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7877
7878 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
7879 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7880
7881 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
7882 buffer.
7883
7884 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7885
7886 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7887
7888 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7889
7890 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7891
7892 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
7893
7894 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7895
7896 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
7897
7898 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7899
7900 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
7901
7902 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7903 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7904
7905 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
7906 refetching.
7907
7908 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7909
7910 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
7911 buffer to allow easier treatment.
7912
7913 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
7914
7915 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
7916
7917 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
7918
7919 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
7920 articles.
7921
7922 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
7923
7924 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
7925
7926 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
7927 cited text to hide is now customizable.
7928
7929 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
7930
7931 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
7932
7933 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
7934
7935 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
7936
7937 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
7938
7939 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
7940 in greater detail.
7941 \f
7942 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
7943
7944 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
7945 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
7946 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
7947 exists.
7948
7949 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7950 as well as lists.
7951
7952 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7953 of a given keymap.
7954
7955 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7956 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7957 keymap or nil.
7958
7959 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7960 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7961 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7962 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7963 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7964 alias.
7965 \f
7966 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7967
7968 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7969
7970 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7971 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7972 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7973 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7974 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7975
7976 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7977 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7978 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
7979
7980 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7981
7982 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7983 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7984 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7985 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7986 chapter of the manual for details.
7987
7988 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7989 customization variables take effect.
7990
7991 ** Marking with the mouse.
7992
7993 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7994 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7995 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7996
7997 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7998
7999 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
8000
8001 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
8002 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
8003
8004 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
8005 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
8006 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
8007 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
8008 applications, these problems are significant.
8009
8010 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
8011 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
8012 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
8013 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
8014 other DOS application as a subprocess.
8015
8016 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
8017 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
8018
8019 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
8020 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
8021 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
8022 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
8023 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
8024 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
8025
8026 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
8027
8028 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
8029 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
8030 minibuffer contains.
8031
8032 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
8033
8034 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
8035 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
8036 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
8037 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
8038
8039 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
8040 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
8041 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
8042 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
8043
8044 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
8045 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
8046
8047 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
8048 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
8049 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
8050
8051 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
8052 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
8053 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
8054 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
8055
8056 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
8057
8058 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
8059 to replace the characters it "deletes".
8060
8061 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
8062
8063 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
8064 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
8065 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
8066 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
8067 immediately after the selected one.
8068
8069 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
8070 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
8071
8072 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
8073
8074 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
8075 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
8076 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
8077 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
8078 recover-session.
8079
8080 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
8081 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
8082 will not work.
8083
8084 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
8085 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
8086 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
8087 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
8088 now that the bug is fixed.
8089
8090 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
8091
8092 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
8093 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
8094 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
8095 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
8096
8097 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
8098 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
8099 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
8100 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
8101
8102 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
8103 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
8104 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
8105
8106 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
8107 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
8108 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
8109 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
8110 remain normal.
8111
8112 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
8113 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
8114
8115 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
8116 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
8117 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
8118 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
8119
8120 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
8121 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
8122 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
8123 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
8124 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
8125 `mail-directory-stream'.)
8126
8127 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
8128 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
8129 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
8130 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
8131
8132 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
8133 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
8134 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
8135
8136 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
8137 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
8138 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
8139 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
8140 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
8141 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
8142 to a limitation in font-lock).
8143
8144 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
8145
8146 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
8147 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
8148 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
8149 this example:
8150
8151 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
8152 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
8153
8154 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8155
8156 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
8157
8158 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
8159
8160 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8161
8162 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8163 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8164 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8165 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8166 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8167 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8168
8169 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8170 does the same job.
8171
8172 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8173 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8174
8175 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8176 text.
8177
8178 ** Font Lock mode
8179
8180 *** Global Font Lock mode
8181
8182 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8183 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8184 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8185 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8186 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8187
8188 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8189
8190 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8191
8192 in your ~/.emacs.
8193
8194 *** Local Refontification
8195
8196 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8197 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8198 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8199 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8200
8201 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8202 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8203 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8204 above and below point.
8205
8206 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8207
8208 ** Follow mode
8209
8210 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8211 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8212 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8213 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8214 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8215 follow-mode.
8216
8217 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8218
8219 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8220 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8221
8222 ** hide-show changes.
8223
8224 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8225 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8226 normal hooks.
8227
8228 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8229 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8230
8231 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8232 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8233 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8234
8235 ** MSDOS Changes
8236
8237 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8238 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8239
8240 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8241 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8242
8243 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8244
8245 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8246 pressing both mouse buttons.
8247
8248 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8249 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8250 are:
8251
8252 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8253 now works.
8254
8255 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8256
8257 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8258 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8259
8260 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8261
8262 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8263
8264 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
8265
8266 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8267
8268 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8269 \f
8270 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8271
8272 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8273 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8274 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8275 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8276 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8277
8278 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8279
8280 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8281 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8282 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8283 be different.
8284
8285 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8286 than `system-type'.
8287
8288 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8289
8290 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8291 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8292
8293 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8294 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8295
8296 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8297 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8298 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8299
8300 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8301 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8302 like this:
8303
8304 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8305
8306 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8307 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8308 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8309
8310 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8311 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8312 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8313
8314 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8315 up if too much time passes.
8316
8317 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8318
8319 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8320 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8321 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8322 form in BODY.
8323
8324 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8325 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8326 call looks like this:
8327
8328 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8329
8330 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8331 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8332 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8333 ARGS.
8334
8335 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8336 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8337 command.
8338
8339 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8340 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8341 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8342 each time Emacs becomes idle.
8343
8344 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8345 idle for SECS seconds.
8346
8347 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8348 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8349 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8350 instead.
8351
8352 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8353 there is no answer within a certain time.
8354
8355 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8356
8357 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8358 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8359 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8360
8361 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8362 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8363 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8364 arguments in between are ignored.
8365
8366 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8367 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8368
8369 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8370 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8371 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8372 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8373 version.
8374
8375 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8376 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8377 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8378 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8379 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8380 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8381
8382 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8383 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8384 systems with limited file name syntax.
8385
8386 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8387 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8388 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8389 completions.el:
8390
8391 (defvar save-completions-file-name
8392 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8393 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8394
8395 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8396 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8397 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8398 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8399 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8400
8401 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8402 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8403 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8404
8405 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8406 marker from its buffer position.
8407
8408 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8409 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8410 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8411
8412 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8413 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8414 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8415 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8416 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8417 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8418
8419 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8420 errors that happen often during editing.
8421
8422 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8423 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8424 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8425
8426 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8427 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8428
8429 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8430 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8431 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8432 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8433 and not get-buffer-window.
8434
8435 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8436 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8437 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8438
8439 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8440 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8441 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8442 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8443 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8444 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8445 over and over for the same text.
8446
8447 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8448
8449 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8450 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8451
8452 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
8453 ;; $HEADER: text $
8454
8455 in addition to the normal
8456
8457 ;; HEADER: text
8458
8459 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8460 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8461 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8462
8463
8464 \f
8465 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
8466
8467 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8468 Copyright information:
8469
8470 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8471
8472 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8473 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8474 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8475 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8476
8477 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8478 of this document, or of portions of it,
8479 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8480 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8481 \f
8482 Local variables:
8483 mode: outline
8484 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
8485 end: