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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
10
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
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.
16
17 Temporary note:
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.
22
23 \f
24 * About external Lisp packages
25
26 \f
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
28
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.
32
33 ** New font code.
34 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
35 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
36
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").
39
40 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
41 where Emacs is running).
42
43 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
44
45 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
46 OpenType fonts.
47
48 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
49
50 ** Changes to image support
51 ---
52 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
53 a GIF library.
54 +++
55 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
56
57 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
58
59 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
60 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
61 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
62
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.
67
68 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
69 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
70
71 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
72 bindings for Emacs.
73
74 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
75 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
76 ---
77 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
78 ---
79 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
80 ---
81 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
82
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.
86
87 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
88
89 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
90 executable format.
91
92 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
93
94 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
95
96 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
97
98 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
99
100 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
101 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
102
103 ---
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.
107
108 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
109
110 ---
111 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
112 or any later version.
113
114 ---
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.
118 \f
119 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
120
121 ** Improved X Window System support
122 +++
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).
128
129 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
130 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
131 +++
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.
136
137 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
138 remote display.
139
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.
145 +++
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.
151
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.
156
157 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
158 opacity; the default is 20.
159
160 ** Internationalization changes
161
162 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
163 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
164
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.
169
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
176 with older Emacsen.
177
178 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
179
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.
183
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.
186
187 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
188 characters for display.
189
190 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
191 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
192 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
193
194 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
195 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
196
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.
200
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,
204 and others.
205
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.
210
211 ** Menu Bar changes
212 ---
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.
218 ---
219 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
220 "Save Options" item is used.
221
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).
225 ---
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).
230 ---
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.
234
235 ** Mode-line changes
236 +++
237 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
238 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
239 ---
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.
242 ---
243 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
244 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
245 ---
246 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
247 +++
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.
250
251 +++
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.
256
257 +++
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'.
262
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.
267
268 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
269
270 \f
271 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
272
273 +++
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.
279
280 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
281 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
282 file or directory.
283
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
287 following arguments.
288
289 +++
290 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
291
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
296 documented.)
297 \f
298 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
299
300 +++
301 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
302 on the regexp command prefix map.
303
304 +++
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
307 the history list.
308
309 +++
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
314 toggle word search.
315
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.
319
320 ---
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
326 identical.
327
328 \f
329 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
330
331 +++
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).
336
337 +++
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).
341
342 ** Mark changes
343 +++
344 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
345 +++
346 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
347 +++
348 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
349 activating it.
350 +++
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.
353 +++
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
356 word at point.
357 +++
358 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
359 region is active.
360 +++
361 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
362 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
363 region.
364
365 ** Temporarily active regions
366 +++
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.
371 +++
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
377 buffer).
378
379 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
380 +++
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.
387 ---
388 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
389 +++
390 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
391 name of the current buffer.
392
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.
398
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.
403 ---
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).
409 +++
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.
417
418 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
419 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
420
421 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
422 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
423 ---
424 *** `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your favorite
425 completion style.
426 ---
427 *** The default completion styles include a form of partial-completion.
428 ---
429 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
430 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
431 +++
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'.
435
436 ** Face changes
437 +++
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).
441
442 *** FIXME face-remap
443
444 ** Primary selection changes
445 +++
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.
450 +++
451 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
452 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
453
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.
462
463 ** Window management changes
464
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.
468
469 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
470 vertically and horizontally.
471
472 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
473 is on a different frame.
474
475 ** Miscellaneous changes:
476 +++
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.
480
481 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
482 +++
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.
486 +++
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'.
490
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.
495 +++
496 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
497 matches a regexp.
498
499 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
500 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
501
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.
505 +++
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.
509
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.
513 +++
514 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
515 kill into the password.
516 \f
517 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
518
519 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
520 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
521
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').
525
526 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
527
528 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
529
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.
533
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.
537
538 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
539
540 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
541 the postscript file.
542
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.
547
548 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
549 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
550
551 +++
552 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
553 current buffer.
554
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
559 Maildir/MH setups.
560
561 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
562
563 ** nXML Mode
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:
567
568 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
569 any invalid parts of your document.
570
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.
574
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.
580
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
583 Manual.
584
585 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing ReSTructured-Text files.
586
587 +++
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
594
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.
598
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.
603
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.
613
614 \f
615 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
616
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'.
630
631 ** Apropos
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.
634
635 +++
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.
639
640 ** BibTeX mode
641
642 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
643
644 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
645 `string', disabled by default.
646
647 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
648 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
649
650 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
651
652 ** Calendar and diary
653
654 +++
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'.
659
660 +++
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
666 using the new names.
667
668 +++
669 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
670 See the variables:
671 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
672 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
673
674 +++
675 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
676 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
677
678 +++
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'.
681
682 ---
683 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
684 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
685
686 ** Change Log mode
687
688 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
689 associated with the current log entry.
690
691 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
692 source code associated with a log entry.
693
694 ** Compile and grep modes
695 ---
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.
699 +++
700 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
701 the first error encountered during compilations.
702 +++
703 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
704 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
705 ---
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.
709
710 ** Copyright
711
712 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
713 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
714 considered for update.
715
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).
718
719 ** Custom
720 +++
721 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
722 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
723
724 ** Diff mode
725 +++
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'.
729 +++
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'.
733 +++
734 *** The new function `diff-show-trailing-whitespaces' shows
735 trailing whitespace problems in the modified lines of a diff buffer.
736
737 ** Dired
738 +++
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
741 saving changes.
742 +++
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
746 Command*'.
747 +++
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.
753 +++
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.
757 ---
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'.
765
766 ** Fortran
767 +++
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.
770
771 +++
772 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
773 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
774
775 +++
776 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
777
778 ** Gnus
779
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.
783
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'.
788
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.
793
794 ** Help mode
795 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
796 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
797
798 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
799 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
800
801 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
802 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
803
804 ** Isearch
805 +++
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.
810
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.
816 +++
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'.
820 ---
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.
826
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
829 `M-s a M-C-s'.
830 +++
831 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
832 `isearch-fail' face.
833
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.
839 +++
840 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
841 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
842
843 +++
844 ** MH-E
845
846 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.1. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
847
848 ** Python
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.
851
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.
856
857 ** Recentf
858
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.
862
863 ** TeX modes
864
865 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
866 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
867 by escaped parens.
868
869 ** T-mouse Mode
870 ---
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
875 minibuffer.
876
877 +++
878 ** Tramp
879
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".
884
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'.
888
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'.
892
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'.
897
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'.
901
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.
905
906 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
907 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
908 necessary.
909
910 ** VC and related modes
911 +++
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
916 a single changeset.
917 +++
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.
921 +++
922 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
923 +++
924 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
925 +++
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.
930 +++
931 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
932 +++
933 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
934 the current line.
935 ---
936 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
937 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
938 active.
939 +++
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.
943 +++
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.
947 +++
948 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
949
950 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
951 +++
952 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of maintainer able
953 to update it to the new VC.
954
955 ** Miscellaneous
956
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.
960
961 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
962 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
963 +++
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.
967 +++
968 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
969 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
970
971 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
972 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
973
974 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
975
976 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
977 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
978
979 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
980 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
981
982 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
983
984 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
985 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
986
987 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
988 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
989
990 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
991
992 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
993
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.
997
998 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
999
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
1002 several time zones.
1003
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.
1008
1009 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1010 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1011
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.
1014
1015 \f
1016 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1017
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.
1023
1024 ---
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.
1030
1031 ---
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.
1035
1036 ---
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.
1042
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.
1048
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.
1055
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.
1065
1066 \f
1067 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1068
1069 +++
1070 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1071
1072 +++
1073 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1074 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1075
1076 +++
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.
1080
1081 ** Process changes
1082 +++
1083 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1084 +++
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
1088 obsolete.
1089
1090 ---
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.'
1098
1099 +++
1100 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1101 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1102
1103 ** Internationalization changes
1104
1105 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1106
1107 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1108 have been removed.
1109
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.
1113
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:
1117
1118 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1119 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1120
1121 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1122 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1123
1124 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1125 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1126
1127 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1128 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1129
1130 \f
1131 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1132
1133 ** New coding system alias `emacs-internal'.
1134
1135 +++
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.
1141
1142 +++
1143 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1144 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1145
1146 +++
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.
1150
1151 +++
1152 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1153 the selected frame.
1154
1155 +++
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.
1160
1161 +++
1162 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1163
1164 +++
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.
1168
1169 +++
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,
1172 like this:
1173
1174 (condition-case nil
1175 (foo bar)
1176 ((debug error) nil))
1177
1178 +++
1179 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1180
1181 +++
1182 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
1183 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
1184
1185 +++
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.
1190
1191 +++
1192 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1193 undefined functions.
1194
1195 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1196
1197 +++
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).
1201
1202 +++
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.
1206
1207 +++
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.
1211
1212 ** Region changes
1213
1214 +++
1215 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1216 an active region that they should operate on.
1217
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'.
1222
1223 +++
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.
1229
1230 ** Emacs session information
1231
1232 +++
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.
1235
1236 +++
1237 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1238
1239 +++
1240 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1241 Emacs initialization.
1242
1243 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1244
1245 +++
1246 *** New value nil for split-height-threshold inhibits vertical splitting
1247 unless there's no other window.
1248
1249 +++
1250 *** New option split-width-threshold controls horizontal splitting.
1251
1252 +++
1253 *** A window can be split horizontally even when it's not full-width.
1254
1255 +++
1256 *** New option split-window-preferred-function can be set to a function
1257 to override the default splitting mechanism of display-buffer.
1258
1259 +++
1260 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1261 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1262
1263 +++
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.
1267
1268 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1269 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1270 individual windows.
1271 +++
1272 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1273 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1274
1275 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1276 +++
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.
1282
1283 +++
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.
1287
1288 +++
1289 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1290 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1291
1292 ---
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.
1297
1298 +++
1299 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1300 `confirm-only'.
1301
1302 ** Search and replacement changes
1303 +++
1304 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1305 +++
1306 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1307 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1308
1309 +++
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
1313 argument is nil.
1314
1315 +++
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.
1321
1322 +++
1323 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1324 for search related commands.
1325
1326 +++
1327 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1328 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1329
1330 ---
1331 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1332 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1333
1334 ---
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.
1339
1340 ** File handling changes
1341
1342 +++
1343 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1344 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1345 +++
1346 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1347 variables defined in the current buffer.
1348
1349 ** Process changes
1350 +++
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.
1356
1357 +++
1358 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1359 returns its output as a list of lines.
1360
1361 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1362
1363 +++
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.
1367
1368 +++
1369 Generic characters no longer exist.
1370
1371 +++
1372 In buffers and strings, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
1373 sequences in a multibyte buffer/string.
1374
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).
1378
1379 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1380 positional codes instead of just 2.
1381
1382 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1383
1384 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1385 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1386
1387 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1388 priorities of charsets.
1389
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
1395 `titlecase'.
1396
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.
1400
1401 +++
1402 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
1403
1404 *** New functions:
1405
1406 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1407 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1408
1409 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1410
1411 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1412
1413 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1414
1415 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1416
1417 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1418
1419 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1420
1421 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1422 a character code property.
1423
1424 *** New variables:
1425
1426 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1427 search for a word boundary.
1428
1429 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1430
1431 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1432
1433 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1434 property on printing a string.
1435
1436 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1437
1438 ** Code conversion changes
1439
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).
1442
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.
1446
1447 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1448 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1449 of conversion.
1450
1451 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1452
1453 *** New functions:
1454
1455 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1456 coding system priority order.
1457
1458 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1459 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1460
1461 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1462
1463 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1464 by a coding system.
1465
1466 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1467 ordered by their priorities.
1468
1469 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1470
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)
1477
1478 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1479
1480 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1481
1482 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1483 as an input method.
1484
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
1487 character.
1488
1489 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1490
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:
1493
1494 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1495
1496 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1497 available on your graphic device.
1498
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'.
1502
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
1505 set the font.
1506
1507 *** New functions:
1508
1509 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1510
1511 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1512
1513 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1514
1515 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1516
1517 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1518
1519 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1520
1521 **** `font-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1522
1523 **** `list-families' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1524
1525 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1526 entity, or font object.
1527
1528 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1529
1530 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1531
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.
1534
1535 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1536
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.
1541
1542 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1543 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1544
1545 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1546 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1547
1548 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1549 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
1550
1551 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
1552 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
1553
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.
1557
1558 *** New hooks:
1559
1560 +++
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.
1564
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.
1569
1570 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1571 deleting a terminal.
1572
1573 *** New functions:
1574
1575 **** `environment'
1576
1577 **** `make-frame-on-tty' creates a new frame on another tty device.
1578
1579 **** `delete-tty'
1580
1581 **** `suspend-tty'
1582
1583 **** `resume-tty'.
1584
1585 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1586
1587 ** Redisplay changes
1588
1589 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1590 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1591
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).
1596
1597 +++
1598 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1599
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.
1604 +++
1605 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
1606 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
1607 instead.
1608
1609 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
1610
1611 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1612
1613 +++
1614 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1615 string of days, hours, etc.
1616
1617 +++
1618 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1619
1620 +++
1621 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
1622 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
1623
1624 +++
1625 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1626 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1627
1628 +++
1629 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
1630
1631 +++
1632 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1633 attributes of a given face.
1634
1635 +++
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.
1639
1640 +++
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.
1645
1646 +++
1647 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1648 specification.
1649
1650 +++
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
1653 the match data.
1654
1655 +++
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).
1659
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.
1663
1664 ** Miscellaneous new variables
1665
1666 +++
1667 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
1668 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
1669
1670 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
1671 marker used for window-point.
1672
1673 ---
1674 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
1675 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
1676 relevant data.
1677
1678 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
1679 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
1680
1681 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1682 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1683
1684 \f
1685 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1686
1687 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1688
1689 +++
1690 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
1691 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
1692
1693 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1694
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.
1702
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.
1705
1706 \f
1707 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1708 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1709
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.
1714
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.
1719
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/>.
1722
1723 \f
1724 Local variables:
1725 mode: outline
1726 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
1727 end:
1728
1729 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2