1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
30 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
31 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
34 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
35 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
37 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
38 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
40 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
41 where Emacs is running).
43 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
45 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
48 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
50 ** Changes to image support
52 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
55 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
57 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
59 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
60 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
61 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
63 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
64 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
65 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
66 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
68 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
69 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
71 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
74 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
75 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
77 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
79 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
81 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
83 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
84 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
85 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
87 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
89 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
92 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
94 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
96 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
98 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
100 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
101 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
104 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
105 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
106 you need control over which C compiler is used.
108 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
111 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
112 or any later version.
115 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
116 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
117 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
119 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
121 ** Improved X Window System support
123 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
124 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
125 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
126 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
127 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
129 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
130 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
132 *** Emacs can now start in background, as a daemon when using the
133 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
134 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
135 terminal frames using emacsclient.
137 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
140 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
141 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
142 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
143 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
144 for details about XEmbed.
146 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
147 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
148 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
149 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, or on
150 Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
152 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
153 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
154 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
155 active frame and INACTIVE is the opactity of non-active frames.
157 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
158 opacity; the default is 20.
160 ** Internationalization changes
162 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
163 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
165 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
166 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. This encoding is backwards
167 compatible with Unicode's UTF-8 encoding. The internal encoding
168 previously used by Emacs, `emacs-mule', is still available.
170 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
171 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
172 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
173 or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule (whether or not they contain
174 multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it may be
175 worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared
178 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
180 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
181 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
182 as tables of unicodes.
184 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
185 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
187 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
188 characters for display.
190 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
191 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
192 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
194 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
195 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
197 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
198 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
199 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
201 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
202 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
203 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
206 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
207 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
208 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
209 the mode-line mouse menu.
213 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
214 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
215 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
216 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
217 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
219 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
220 "Save Options" item is used.
222 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
223 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
224 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
226 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
227 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
228 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
229 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
231 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
232 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
233 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
237 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
238 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
240 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
241 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
243 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
244 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
246 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
248 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
249 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
252 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
253 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
254 and directories will then be sent to the Recyle Bin on Windows, and
255 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
258 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
259 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-settings.el for directory-local
260 variables. For more information, see `set-directory-project' and
261 `define-project-bindings'.
263 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
264 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
265 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
266 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
268 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
271 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
274 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
275 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
276 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
277 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
278 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
280 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
281 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
284 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
285 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
286 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
290 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
292 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
293 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
294 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
295 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
298 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
301 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
302 on the regexp command prefix map.
305 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
306 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
310 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
311 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
312 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
313 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
316 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound
317 from `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the
318 global prefix map `M-o' intended for such formatting commands.
321 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
322 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
323 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
324 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
325 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
329 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
332 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
333 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
334 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
335 behavior (motion by logical lines based on buffer contents alone).
338 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
339 invokes `suspend-frame'. This change is for compatibility with the
340 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
344 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
346 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
348 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
351 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
352 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
354 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
355 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
358 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
361 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
362 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
365 ** Temporarily active regions
367 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
368 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
369 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
370 region, similar to mouse-selection.
372 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
373 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
374 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
375 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
376 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
379 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
381 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
382 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
383 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
384 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
385 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
386 searching minibuffer completion items.
388 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
390 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
391 name of the current buffer.
393 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
394 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
395 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
396 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
397 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
399 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
400 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
401 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
402 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
404 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
405 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
406 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
407 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
408 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
410 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
411 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
412 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
413 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
414 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
415 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
416 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
418 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
419 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
421 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
422 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
424 *** `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your favorite
427 *** The default completion styles include a form of partial-completion.
429 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
430 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
432 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
433 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
434 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
438 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
439 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
440 via face remapping (see below).
444 ** Primary selection changes
446 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
447 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
448 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to
449 bind `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
451 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
452 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
454 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
455 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
456 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
457 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
458 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
459 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
460 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
461 New Modes and Packages, below.
463 ** Window management changes
465 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
466 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
467 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
469 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
470 vertically and horizontally.
472 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
473 is on a different frame.
475 ** Miscellaneous changes:
477 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
478 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
479 successive invokations.
481 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
483 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
484 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
485 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
487 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
488 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
489 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
491 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
492 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
493 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
494 run processes remotely.
496 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
499 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
500 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
502 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
503 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
504 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number.
506 *** Emacs requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file or buffer.
507 You can recover the previous behavior by setting
508 confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer to nil.
510 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
511 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
512 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
514 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
515 kill into the password.
517 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
519 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
520 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
522 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
523 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
524 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
526 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
528 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
530 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
531 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
532 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
534 ** Doc View mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
535 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
536 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
538 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
540 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
543 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
544 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
545 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
546 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
548 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
549 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
552 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
555 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
556 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
557 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
558 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
561 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
564 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
565 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
566 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
568 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
569 any invalid parts of your document.
571 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
572 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
573 allowed by the schema in that context.
575 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on processes.
576 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current
577 processes (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to
578 move around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on
579 the processes listed.
581 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
582 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
585 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing ReSTructured-Text files.
588 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
589 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
590 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
591 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
592 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
593 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
595 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
596 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
597 requires D-Bus for communication.
599 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
600 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
601 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
602 which have installed this software.
604 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
605 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
606 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
607 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
608 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
609 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
610 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
611 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
612 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
615 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
617 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
618 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
619 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
620 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
621 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
622 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
623 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
624 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
625 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
626 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
627 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
628 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
629 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
632 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
633 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
636 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
637 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
638 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
642 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
644 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
645 `string', disabled by default.
647 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
648 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
650 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
652 ** Calendar and diary
655 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
656 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
657 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
658 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
661 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
662 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
663 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
664 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
665 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
669 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
671 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
672 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
675 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
676 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
679 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
680 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
683 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
684 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
688 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
689 associated with the current log entry.
691 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
692 source code associated with a log entry.
694 ** Compile and grep modes
696 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
697 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
698 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
700 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
701 the first error encountered during compilations.
703 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
704 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
706 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
707 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
708 C++ sources and headers.
712 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
713 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
714 considered for update.
716 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
717 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
721 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
722 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
726 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
727 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
728 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
730 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
731 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
732 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
734 *** The new function `diff-show-trailing-whitespaces' shows
735 trailing whitespace problems in the modified lines of a diff buffer.
739 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
740 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
743 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
744 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
745 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
748 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
749 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is non-nil, then even
750 ordinary Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names
751 in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or off
752 by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
754 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
755 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
756 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
758 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
759 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
760 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
761 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
762 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
763 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
764 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
768 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
769 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
772 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
773 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
776 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
780 *** The Gnus package has been updated
781 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
782 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
784 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
785 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
786 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
787 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
789 *** Password are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
790 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
791 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
792 authentication respectively.
795 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
796 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
798 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
799 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
801 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
802 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
806 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
807 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
808 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
809 while Isearch is active.
811 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
812 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
813 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
814 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
815 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
817 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
818 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
819 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
821 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
822 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
823 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
824 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
825 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
827 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
828 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
831 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
834 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
835 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
836 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
837 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
838 and execute their global definitions.
840 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
841 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
846 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.1. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
849 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
850 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
852 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
853 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
854 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
855 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
859 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
860 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
861 corresponding remote host.
865 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
866 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
871 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
872 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
873 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
874 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
880 *** New connection methods.
881 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
882 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
883 "tunnel" and "socks".
885 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
886 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
887 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
889 *** More default settings.
890 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
891 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
893 *** Connection information is cached.
894 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
895 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
896 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
898 *** Control of remote processes.
899 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
900 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
902 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
903 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
904 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
906 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
907 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
910 ** VC and related modes
912 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
913 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
914 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
915 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
918 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
919 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
920 directory or a set of files/directories.
922 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
924 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
926 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
927 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
928 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
929 line" menu entry does the same thing.
931 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
933 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
936 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
937 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
940 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
941 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
942 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
944 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
945 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
946 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
948 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
950 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
952 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of maintainer able
953 to update it to the new VC.
957 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
958 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
959 on the corresponding remote system.
961 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
962 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
964 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
965 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
966 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
968 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
969 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
971 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
972 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
974 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
976 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
977 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
979 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
980 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
982 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
984 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
985 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
987 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
988 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
990 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
992 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
994 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
995 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
996 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
998 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1000 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1001 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1004 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1005 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1006 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1007 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1009 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1010 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1012 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1013 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1016 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1018 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1019 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1020 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1021 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1022 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1025 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1026 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1027 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1028 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1029 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1032 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1033 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1034 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1037 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1038 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1039 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1040 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1041 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1043 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1044 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1045 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1046 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1047 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1049 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1050 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1051 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1052 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1053 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1054 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1056 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1057 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1058 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1059 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1060 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1061 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1062 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1063 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1064 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1067 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1070 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1073 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1074 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1077 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1078 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1079 that range have the same value.
1083 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1085 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1086 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1087 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1091 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1092 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1093 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1094 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1095 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1096 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1097 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1100 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1101 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1103 ** Internationalization changes
1105 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1107 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1110 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1111 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1112 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1114 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1115 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1116 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1118 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1119 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1121 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1122 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1124 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1125 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1127 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1128 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1131 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1133 ** New coding system alias `emacs-internal'.
1136 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `system-process-attributes'
1137 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1138 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1139 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1140 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1143 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1144 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1147 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1148 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1149 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1152 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1156 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1157 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1158 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1159 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1162 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1165 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1166 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1167 strings on the kill ring.
1170 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1171 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1176 ((debug error) nil))
1179 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1182 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
1183 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
1186 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1187 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1188 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1189 remote connection has been established already.
1192 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1193 undefined functions.
1195 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1198 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1199 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1200 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1203 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1204 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1205 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1208 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1209 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1210 interactive forms to subroutines.
1215 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1216 an active region that they should operate on.
1218 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1219 enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
1220 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
1221 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
1224 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1225 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1226 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1227 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1228 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1230 ** Emacs session information
1233 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1234 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1237 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1240 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1241 Emacs initialization.
1243 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1246 *** New value nil for split-height-threshold inhibits vertical splitting
1247 unless there's no other window.
1250 *** New option split-width-threshold controls horizontal splitting.
1253 *** A window can be split horizontally even when it's not full-width.
1256 *** New option split-window-preferred-function can be set to a function
1257 to override the default splitting mechanism of display-buffer.
1260 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1261 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1264 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have new optional
1265 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1266 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1268 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1269 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1272 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1273 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1275 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1277 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1278 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1279 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1280 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1281 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1284 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1285 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1286 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1289 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1290 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1293 *** `all-completions' may now return the base size in the last cdr.
1294 Since this means the returned list is not properly nil-terminated, this
1295 is an incompatible change and is thus enabled by the new variable
1296 completion-all-completions-with-base-size.
1299 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1302 ** Search and replacement changes
1304 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1306 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1307 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1310 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1311 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1312 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
1316 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1317 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1318 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1319 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
1320 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
1323 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1324 for search related commands.
1327 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1328 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1331 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1332 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1335 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1336 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1337 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1338 unless it ends in whitespace.
1340 ** File handling changes
1343 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1344 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1346 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1347 variables defined in the current buffer.
1351 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1352 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1353 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1354 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1355 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1358 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1359 returns its output as a list of lines.
1361 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1364 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
1365 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
1366 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
1369 Generic characters no longer exist.
1372 In buffers and strings, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
1373 sequences in a multibyte buffer/string.
1375 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong
1376 to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1377 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1379 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1380 positional codes instead of just 2.
1382 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1384 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1385 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1387 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1388 priorities of charsets.
1390 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1391 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1392 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1393 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1394 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1397 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1398 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1399 entries in that range of characters.
1402 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
1406 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1407 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1409 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1411 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1413 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1415 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1417 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1419 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1421 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1422 a character code property.
1426 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1427 search for a word boundary.
1429 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1431 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1433 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1434 property on printing a string.
1436 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1438 ** Code conversion changes
1440 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1441 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1443 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1444 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1445 conversion should go.
1447 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1448 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1451 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1455 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1456 coding system priority order.
1458 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1459 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1461 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1463 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1466 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1467 ordered by their priorities.
1469 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1471 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1472 It has three functionalities:
1473 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1474 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1475 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1476 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1478 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1480 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1482 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1485 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1486 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1489 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1491 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
1492 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1494 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1496 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1497 available on your graphic device.
1499 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1500 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1501 currently `x' and `xft'.
1503 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1504 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1509 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1511 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1513 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1515 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1517 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1519 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1521 **** `font-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1523 **** `list-families' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1525 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1526 entity, or font object.
1528 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1530 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1532 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1533 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1535 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1537 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1538 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1539 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1540 takes a frame argument.
1542 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1543 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1545 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1546 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1548 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1549 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
1551 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
1552 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
1554 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
1555 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
1556 which is not used directly any more.
1561 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
1562 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
1563 file-local variables.
1565 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
1566 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
1567 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
1568 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1570 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1571 deleting a terminal.
1577 **** `make-frame-on-tty' creates a new frame on another tty device.
1585 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1587 ** Redisplay changes
1589 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1590 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1592 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
1593 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
1594 Convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer position
1595 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1598 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1600 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
1601 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
1602 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
1603 times the default column width.
1605 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
1606 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
1609 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
1611 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1614 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1615 string of days, hours, etc.
1618 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1621 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
1622 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
1625 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1626 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1629 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
1632 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1633 attributes of a given face.
1636 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
1637 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
1638 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
1641 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
1642 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
1643 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
1644 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
1647 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1651 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1652 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1656 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
1657 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
1658 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
1660 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
1661 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
1662 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
1664 ** Miscellaneous new variables
1667 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
1668 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
1670 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
1671 marker used for window-point.
1674 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
1675 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
1678 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
1679 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
1681 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1682 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1685 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1687 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1690 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
1691 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
1693 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1695 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
1696 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
1697 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
1698 of multiple buffers. Top-level commands `multi-isearch-buffers',
1699 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
1700 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
1701 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
1703 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
1704 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
1707 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1708 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1710 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1711 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1712 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1713 (at your option) any later version.
1715 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1716 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1717 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1718 GNU General Public License for more details.
1720 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1721 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1726 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
1729 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2