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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-08-14
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
7
8 \f
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
11 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
12
13 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
14
15 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
16 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
17
18 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
19 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
20 to list them.
21
22 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
23 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
24
25 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
26 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
27
28 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
29 support 64-bit executables. See etc/MACHINES for instructions.
30
31 \f
32 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
33
34 * When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
35 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
36
37 ** Polish and German translations of Emacs' reference card have been
38 added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex' and `de-refcard.tex'.
39 Postscript files are included.
40
41 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
42 `dired-ref.tex'.
43
44 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
45 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
46
47 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
48 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
49 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
50 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
51 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
52 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
53
54 +++
55 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
56 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
57 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
58 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
59
60 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
61 a version-dependent component.
62
63 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
64 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
65 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
66 character is still bound as before.
67
68 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
69 using that menu.
70
71 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
72 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
73
74 +++
75 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
76 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
77 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
78 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
79 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
80 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
81 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
82
83 +++
84 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
85 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
86 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
87 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
88 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
89 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
90 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
91 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
92 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
93
94 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
95 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
96
97 +++
98 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
99 point in a pop-up window.
100
101 +++
102 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
103 displays all characters in that character set.
104
105 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
106 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
107
108 +++
109 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
110 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
111 defined on newcomment.el.
112
113 +++
114 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
115
116 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
117 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
118
119 +++
120 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
121 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
122 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
123 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
124
125 +++
126 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
127 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
128 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
129 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
130
131 +++
132 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
133 on the display using several methods
134
135 +++
136 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
137 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
138 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
139
140 +++
141 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
142 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
143
144 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
145
146 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
147 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
148
149 +++
150 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
151 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
152 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
153 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
154
155 +++
156 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
157 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
158 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
159
160 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
161 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
162
163 +++
164 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
165 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
166 this behavior.
167
168 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
169 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
170 Emacs dump core.
171
172 +++
173 ** New X resources recognized
174
175 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
176 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
177 is useful for debugging X problems.
178
179 Example:
180
181 emacs.synchronous: true
182
183 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
184 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
185 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
186 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
187 visual class names are
188
189 TrueColor
190 PseudoColor
191 DirectColor
192 StaticColor
193 GrayScale
194 StaticGray
195
196 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
197 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
198 meaning.
199
200 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
201 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
202 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
203 visual.
204
205 Example:
206
207 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
208
209 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
210 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
211 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
212 resource values are `true' or `on'.
213
214 Example:
215
216 emacs.privateColormap: true
217
218 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
219 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
220 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
221
222 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
223 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
224 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
225 be customized.
226
227 +++
228 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
229
230 +++
231 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
232 all frames except the selected one.
233
234 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
235 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
236
237 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
238 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
239 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
240 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
241
242 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
243 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
244
245 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
246 read mail from the menu etc.
247
248 +++
249 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
250 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
251
252 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
253
254 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
255 macros
256
257 Key binding Macro
258 -------------------------
259 C-c C-c C-s @strong
260 C-c C-c C-e @emph
261 C-c C-c u @url
262 C-c C-c q @quotation
263 C-c C-c m @email
264
265 ** Changes in Outline mode.
266
267 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
268 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
269 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
270
271 ** Changes to Emacs Server
272
273 +++
274 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
275 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
276 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
277 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
278 buffers to kill, as before.
279
280 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
281 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
282 this way.
283
284 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
285
286 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
287 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
288 use. Default is 1000.
289
290 +++
291 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
292 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
293
294 +++
295 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
296 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
297 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
298 buffers.
299
300 +++
301 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
302 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
303 .emacs file.
304
305 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
306 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
307
308 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
309 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
310 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
311
312 ** Faces and frame parameters.
313
314 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
315 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
316 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
317 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
318 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
319 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
320 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
321
322 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
323 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
324 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
325 `default' face and vice versa.
326
327 +++
328 ** New face `menu'.
329
330 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
331 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
332 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
333
334 +++
335 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
336
337 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
338 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
339 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
340 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
341
342 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
343 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
344 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
345
346 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
347 `ScreenGamma'.
348
349 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
350
351 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
352 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
353 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
354 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
355 the text.
356
357 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
358
359 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
360 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
361 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
362 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
363 specify a font.
364
365 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
366 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
367 under Lisp changes, below.
368
369 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
370
371 +++
372 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
373 of its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid;
374 otherwise, it is hollow.
375
376 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
377 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
378 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
379 customizing face `fringe'.
380
381 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
382 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
383
384 ** LessTif support.
385
386 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see <http://www.lesstif.org>).
387 You will need a version 0.88.1 or later.
388
389 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
390
391 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
392 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
393 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
394 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
395 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
396 Emacs.
397
398 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
399 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
400 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
401 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
402 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
403 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
404
405 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
406 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
407 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
408 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
409 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
410 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
411
412 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
413 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
414 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
415 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
416 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
417
418 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
419
420 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
421 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
422 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
423
424 +++
425 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
426
427 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
428 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
429 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
430 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
431 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
432 whitespace.
433
434 +++
435 ** Busy-cursor.
436
437 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
438 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
439
440 +++
441 ** Blinking cursor
442
443 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
444 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
445 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
446 the group `cursor'.
447
448 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
449
450 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
451 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
452 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
453 details.
454
455 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
456 have to do anything to activate it.
457
458 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
459
460 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
461 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
462 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
463 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
464
465 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
466
467 +++
468 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
469
470 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
471
472 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
473 LessTif/Motif one.
474
475 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
476 LessTif and Motif.
477
478 +++
479 ** Hscrolling in C code.
480
481 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
482 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
483 customized.
484
485 ** Tool bar support.
486
487 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
488 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
489
490 +++
491 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
492
493 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
494 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
495 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
496 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
497 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
498
499 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
500
501 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
502 buffers.
503
504 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
505 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
506
507 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
508
509 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
510 `*') toggles the status.
511
512 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
513
514 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
515
516 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
517 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
518 non-nil.
519
520 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
521
522 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
523 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
524 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
525 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
526 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
527 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
528 on terminals.
529
530 ** Sound support
531
532 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
533 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
534 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
535
536 +++
537 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
538 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
539 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
540 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
541 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
542 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
543
544 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
545
546 +++
547 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
548
549 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
550 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
551 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
552
553 +++
554 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
555 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
556
557 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
558 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
559 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
560
561 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
562
563 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
564 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
565 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
566 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
567
568 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
569 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
570 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
571 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
572
573 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
574 notably at the end of lines.
575
576 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
577 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
578
579 +++
580 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
581
582 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
583 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
584 after each match to get the replacement text.
585
586 +++
587 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
588 you edit the replacement string.
589
590 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', lets
591 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
592 lisp-complete-symbol.
593
594 +++
595 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
596
597 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
598 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
599 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
600 window size by setting the following variable:
601
602 - User option: max-mini-window-height
603
604 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
605 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
606 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
607
608 Default is 0.25.
609
610 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
611
612 ** Changes to hideshow.el
613
614 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
615 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
616
617 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
618
619 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
620 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
621 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
622 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
623 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
624 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
625
626 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
627 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
628 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
629 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
630
631 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
632
633 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
634 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
635 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
636 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
637 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
638
639 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
640 something like this in your .emacs.
641
642 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
643 (lambda ()
644 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
645
646 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
647
648 +++
649 If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
650 entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
651 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
652
653 +++
654 New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
655 buffer.
656
657 +++
658 New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries in
659 a log file.
660
661 Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
662 if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
663
664 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
665 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
666 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be cutomized.
667 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
668
669 ** Changes in Font Lock
670
671 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
672 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
673 mode.
674
675 ** Comint (subshell) changes
676
677 By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp' to
678 distiguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which parts of
679 the text were output by the process, and which entered by the user, and
680 attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use this information.
681 Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line, respect field
682 boundaries in a fairly natural manner.
683 To disable this feature, and use the old behavior, set the variable
684 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' to a non-nil value.
685
686 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
687 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
688
689 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
690 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
691 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
692
693 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
694 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
695 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
696
697 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and scheme-interaction-mode
698 now highlight user input and program prompts, and support choosing
699 previous input with mouse-2. To control these feature, see the
700 user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
701
702 ** Changes to Rmail mode
703
704 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
705 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
706 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
707 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
708 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
709 as correspondent.
710
711 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
712 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
713 regexp matching your mail addresses.
714
715 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
716 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
717 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
718 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
719 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
720
721 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
722 like `j'.
723
724 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
725 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
726 digest message.
727
728 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
729 in which folder to put messages automatically.
730
731 ** Changes to TeX mode
732
733 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
734 `latex-mode'.
735
736 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
737
738 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
739 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
740 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
741 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
742 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
743 can be edited from that buffer.
744
745 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
746 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
747 `A' to use all marked entries).
748
749 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
750 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
751
752 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
753 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
754 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
755 been cited.
756
757 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
758 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
759 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
760 in column 1 are always made leaves.
761
762 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
763 has the following new features:
764
765 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
766 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
767 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
768 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
769
770 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
771 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
772 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
773 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
774 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
775 defaults to 1.
776
777 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
778 file names.
779
780 +++
781 ** Tooltips.
782
783 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
784 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
785 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
786
787 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
788 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
789 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
790 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
791
792 +++
793 ** Customize changes
794
795 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
796 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
797 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
798
799 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
800 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
801 default).
802
803 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
804 between custom options. Example:
805
806 (defcustom default-input-method nil
807 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
808 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
809 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
810 :group 'mule
811 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
812 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
813
814 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
815 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
816 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
817
818 ** New features in evaluation commands
819
820 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
821 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
822 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
823 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
824 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
825
826 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
827 code when called with a prefix argument.
828
829 ** Ispell changes
830
831 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
832 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
833 spell-checks the current buffer.
834
835 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
836 added.
837
838 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
839 correction is made and re-checked.
840
841 *** An Italian and a Portuguese dictionary definition has been added.
842
843 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
844 cases.
845
846 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
847 on syntax errors.
848
849 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
850 end of the buffer.
851
852 ** Dired changes
853
854 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
855 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
856 is, delete only empty directories.
857
858 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
859 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
860 copy directories recursively.
861
862 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
863 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
864 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
865
866 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
867 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
868 directory.
869
870 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
871 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
872 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
873 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
874 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
875
876 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
877 from ls switches.
878
879 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
880 use the -f option when sending mail.
881
882 ** CC mode changes.
883
884 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
885 current user setups (although it's believed that these
886 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
887 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
888 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
889 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
890 release.
891
892 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
893 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
894 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
895 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
896 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
897 have to bother.
898
899 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
900 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
901 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
902 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
903 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
904 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
905
906 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
907 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
908 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
909 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
910 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
911 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
912 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
913 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
914
915 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
916 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
917 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
918 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
919 above.
920
921 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
922 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
923 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
924 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
925 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
926 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
927 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
928 function documentation for more info.
929
930 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
931 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
932 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
933 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
934 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
935 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
936 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
937 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
938
939 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
940
941 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
942 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
943
944 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
945 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
946 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
947 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
948 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
949 style system.
950
951 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
952 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
953 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
954 as far as possible.
955
956 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
957 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
958 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
959 chapter about this in the manual.
960
961 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
962 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
963 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
964 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
965 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
966
967 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
968 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
969 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
970
971 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
972 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
973
974 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
975 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
976 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
977 inside CC Mode.
978
979 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
980 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
981 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
982 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
983 cc-mode/).
984
985 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
986 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
987 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
988 literals.
989
990 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
991 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
992 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
993 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
994 this function.
995
996 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
997 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
998 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
999 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1000 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1001
1002 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1003 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1004 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1005
1006 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1007
1008 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1009 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1010 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1011 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1012
1013 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1014 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1015 the column specified by comment-column.
1016
1017 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1018 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1019 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1020 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1021 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1022 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1023
1024 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1025 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1026 arguments.
1027
1028 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1029
1030 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1031 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1032 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1033 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1034 Provan).
1035
1036 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1037
1038 ** Makefile mode changes
1039
1040 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1041
1042 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
1043 Fontlock mode is active.
1044
1045 ** Isearch changes
1046
1047 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1048 so that searches can be resumed.
1049
1050 *** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
1051 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1052 that started the search.
1053
1054 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1055 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1056
1057 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1058
1059 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1060 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1061 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1062 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1063 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1064 `secondary-selection'.
1065
1066 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1067 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1068 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1069 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1070 usual snappy response.
1071
1072 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1073 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1074 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1075 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1076
1077 ** Changes in sort.el
1078
1079 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
1080 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
1081 new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
1082 numeric base.
1083
1084 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
1085
1086 +++
1087 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
1088 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1089 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1090
1091 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1092 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1093
1094 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1095 output ^M at the end of lines.
1096
1097 ** Shell script mode changes.
1098
1099 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1100 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
1101 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1102
1103 ** Etags changes.
1104
1105 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1106
1107 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
1108 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1109 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1110 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1111 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
1112
1113 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1114 declarations when given the --declarations option.
1115
1116 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
1117 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
1118
1119 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1120 types.
1121
1122 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
1123
1124 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1125
1126 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1127 are now tagged.
1128
1129 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1130 variables are tagged.
1131
1132 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1133
1134 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1135 for PSWrap.
1136
1137 ** Changes in etags.el
1138
1139 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1140 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1141 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1142
1143 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1144 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1145
1146 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1147 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1148 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1149 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1150
1151 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1152
1153 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1154 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1155
1156 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1157
1158 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1159 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1160 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1161
1162 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1163 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1164
1165 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1166 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1167
1168 +++
1169 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1170 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1171 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1172
1173 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1174 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1175 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1176 There is currently no specific input method support for them.
1177
1178 +++
1179 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1180 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1181 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1182
1183 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1184
1185 +++
1186 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1187
1188 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
1189 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1190 expression from that list, are not checked.
1191
1192 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1193 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1194 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1195 the buffer, just like for the local files.
1196
1197 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
1198
1199 ** New modes and packages
1200
1201 +++
1202 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1203 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1204 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1205 on certain projects.
1206
1207 *** The new package hi-lock.el, text matching interactively entered
1208 regexp's can be highlighted. For example,
1209
1210 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
1211
1212 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1213 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1214 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1215 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1216 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1217 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1218 corresponding file is read.
1219
1220 +++
1221 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
1222 Emacs is idle.
1223
1224 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1225 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1226
1227 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1228 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1229 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1230
1231 +++
1232 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1233 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1234 separate Texinfo file.
1235
1236 +++
1237 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
1238 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1239 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
1240 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
1241 enter checkin log messages.
1242
1243 +++
1244 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1245 without invoking external programs.
1246
1247 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1248 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1249 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1250 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1251 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1252
1253 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1254 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1255
1256 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1257 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1258
1259 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1260 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1261 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1262 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1263 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1264 single step.
1265
1266 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1267 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1268 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1269 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1270
1271 +++
1272 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1273 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1274 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1275
1276 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1277 PostScript.
1278
1279 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1280
1281 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1282
1283 ; comment (until end of line)
1284 A non-terminal
1285 "C" terminal
1286 ?C? special
1287 $A default non-terminal
1288 $"C" default terminal
1289 $?C? default special
1290 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1291 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1292 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1293 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1294 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1295 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1296 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1297 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1298 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1299 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1300 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1301 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1302 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1303 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1304 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1305
1306 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1307
1308 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1309 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1310 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1311 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1312 equal signs of assignments.
1313
1314 +++
1315 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1316 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1317
1318 +++
1319 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1320 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1321 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1322 customize the package.
1323
1324 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1325
1326 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1327 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1328 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1329 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1330 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1331 which answers different needs.
1332
1333 +++
1334 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1335 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1336 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1337 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1338 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1339 to be enabled.
1340
1341 +++
1342 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1343 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1344
1345 +++
1346 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1347
1348 +++
1349 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1350
1351 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1352
1353 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1354 Pascal) language.
1355
1356 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1357 the text at point.
1358
1359 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1360
1361 +++
1362 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1363
1364 *** whitespace.el ???
1365
1366 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1367 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1368 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1369 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1370 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1371 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1372 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1373
1374 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1375
1376 Here is an example of columns:
1377
1378 horse apple bus
1379 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1380 porcupine strawberry airplane
1381
1382 Doing the following settings:
1383
1384 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1385 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1386 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1387 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1388
1389
1390 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1391
1392 M-x delimit-columns-region
1393
1394 It results:
1395
1396 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1397 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1398 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1399
1400 delim-col has the following options:
1401
1402 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1403 before all columns.
1404
1405 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1406 between each column.
1407
1408 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1409 after all columns.
1410
1411 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1412 each column.
1413
1414 delim-col has the following commands:
1415
1416 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1417 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1418
1419 +++
1420 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1421 were operated on recently.
1422
1423 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1424
1425 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1426 recentf at Emacs startup.
1427
1428 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1429 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1430 file list can be displayed:
1431
1432 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1433 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1434 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1435
1436 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1437 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1438
1439 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1440 text.
1441
1442 +++
1443 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1444 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1445 specific to Message mode.
1446
1447 +++
1448 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1449 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1450 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1451
1452 +++
1453 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1454 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1455 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1456
1457 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1458 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1459
1460 +++
1461 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1462
1463 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1464 minibuffer with completion.
1465
1466 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1467 with the diary features.
1468
1469 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1470 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1471
1472 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1473 Fill mode.
1474
1475 ** Withdrawn packages
1476
1477 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1478 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1479
1480 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1481
1482 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1483
1484 \f
1485 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1486 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1487
1488 +++
1489 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
1490 is running in batch mode. For example,
1491
1492 (message "%s" (read t))
1493
1494 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
1495 to standard output.
1496
1497 +++
1498 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
1499 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
1500
1501 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
1502 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
1503 frame or window.
1504
1505 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
1506 were added
1507
1508 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
1509
1510 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
1511 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
1512
1513 - Function: remq ELT LIST
1514
1515 Return a copy of LIST with all occurences of ELT removed. The
1516 comparison is done with `eq'.
1517
1518 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
1519
1520 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
1521 has been changed.
1522
1523 +++
1524 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1525 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1526 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1527
1528 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1529 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1530
1531 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1532 function was declared obsolete.
1533
1534 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
1535 retained as an alias).
1536
1537 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1538 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1539 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1540
1541 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1542
1543 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1544
1545 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1546 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1547
1548 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1549
1550 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1551
1552 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1553
1554 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1555 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1556 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1557 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1558 returned.
1559
1560 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1561 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1562 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1563 minibuffer even if it is active.
1564
1565 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1566 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1567 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1568 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1569 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1570 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1571
1572 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1573 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1574 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1575 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1576 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1577 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1578 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1579
1580 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
1581 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
1582 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
1583
1584 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1585 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1586 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1587 Default value is nil.
1588
1589 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
1590 meaning no limit.
1591
1592 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
1593 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1594 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1595
1596 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1597 of a primitive.
1598
1599 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1600 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1601 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1602 than replacing the local map.
1603
1604 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1605 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1606
1607 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1608
1609 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1610 promised long ago.
1611
1612 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
1613 \f
1614 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1615
1616 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1617 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1618 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1619 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1620
1621 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
1622 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
1623 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
1624 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
1625
1626 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1627 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1628 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1629 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1630
1631 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1632 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1633 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1634
1635 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1636 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1637 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1638 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1639 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1640 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1641 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1642 eight-bit-graphic.
1643
1644 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1645
1646 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1647 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1648 character set as previously.
1649
1650 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1651 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1652 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1653
1654 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1655 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1656 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1657 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1658
1659 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1660 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1661
1662 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1663 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1664 "fontset-default".
1665
1666 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1667 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1668
1669 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1670 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1671 buffers and strings.
1672
1673 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1674 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1675 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1676 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1677 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1678 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1679 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1680 also been deleted.
1681
1682 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1683 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1684 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1685
1686 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1687 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1688 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1689 may differ between buffer and string text.
1690
1691 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1692 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1693
1694 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1695 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1696 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1697 `composition' from STRING.
1698
1699 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1700 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1701
1702 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1703 obsolete.
1704
1705 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1706 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1707 character set is not used.
1708
1709 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1710 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1711 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1712
1713 +++
1714 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1715 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1716 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1717
1718 +++
1719 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1720 that offset in the file before writing.
1721
1722 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1723 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
1724
1725 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1726 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1727 from which the command was issued.
1728
1729 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1730 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1731 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1732 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1733 operate on.
1734
1735 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1736 to `window-buffer-height'.
1737
1738 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1739
1740 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1741 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1742 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1743
1744 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1745 respectively.
1746
1747 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1748 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1749
1750 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1751 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1752 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1753
1754 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1755 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1756 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1757 is currently displayed in some window.
1758
1759 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1760 argument function's results.
1761
1762 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1763 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1764
1765 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1766 header is the list of headers passed to it.
1767
1768 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1769 ignores differences in case and text representation.
1770
1771 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1772 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1773 as follows:
1774
1775 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1776 nil don't display a cursor
1777 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1778 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1779 others display a box cursor.
1780
1781 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1782 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1783 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1784 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1785
1786 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1787 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
1788 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1789 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1790
1791 Example:
1792
1793 (string-to-syntax "()")
1794 => (4 . 41)
1795
1796 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1797 other than 10.
1798
1799 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1800 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1801
1802 #b1111
1803 => 15
1804 #b-1111
1805 => -15
1806
1807 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1808
1809 #o666
1810 => 438
1811
1812 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1813
1814 #xbeef
1815 => 48815
1816
1817 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1818
1819 #2R-111
1820 => -7
1821 #25rah
1822 => 267
1823
1824 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
1825 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1826 and isn't a string.
1827
1828 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1829 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1830 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1831 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1832
1833 +++
1834 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1835
1836 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
1837 for a regexp in a string.
1838
1839 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1840 `mouse-position-function'.
1841
1842 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1843 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1844
1845 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1846 Keywords are now always considered constants.
1847
1848 +++
1849 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1850 returns it.
1851
1852 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1853 returned by function `recent-keys'.
1854
1855 +++
1856 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1857 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1858 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1859 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1860 mode.
1861
1862 +++
1863 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1864 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1865
1866 +++
1867 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1868 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1869 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1870 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1871 been performed."
1872
1873 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1874 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1875 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1876 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
1877
1878 +++
1879 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1880 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1881 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1882
1883 +++
1884 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1885 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1886 specified table.
1887
1888 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1889
1890 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
1891 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1892 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1893 what BODY returns.
1894
1895 +++
1896 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
1897 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
1898
1899 +++
1900 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1901 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1902
1903 +++
1904 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1905 instead of being optional.
1906
1907 +++
1908 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1909 modify read-only text.
1910
1911 +++
1912 ** New functions and variables for locales.
1913
1914 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1915 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
1916 time functions like strftime. The new variables
1917 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1918 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
1919
1920 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1921 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1922 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
1923 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1924 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1925 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1926 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
1927
1928 +++
1929 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1930 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1931 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1932 start sequences.
1933
1934 +++
1935 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1936 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1937
1938 +++
1939 ** New function `propertize'
1940
1941 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1942 strings with text properties.
1943
1944 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1945
1946 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1947 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1948 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1949 specified value of that property. Example:
1950
1951 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1952
1953 +++
1954 ** push and pop macros.
1955
1956 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1957 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
1958 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1959
1960 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1961 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1962 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1963
1964 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1965
1966 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1967 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
1968
1969 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1970 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1971 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1972 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1973
1974 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1975 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1976 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1977 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1978
1979 +++
1980 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1981 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1982
1983 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1984 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1985 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1986 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
1987 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1988 space, and DEL.
1989 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1990 and DEL.
1991 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1992 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1993 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1994 [:alpha:] matches letters.
1995 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1996 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1997 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1998 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1999 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
2000 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
2001 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2002 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
2003 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
2004 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
2005 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
2006
2007 +++
2008 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
2009
2010 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
2011
2012 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
2013
2014 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
2015 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
2016
2017 :test TEST
2018
2019 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
2020 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
2021 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
2022
2023 :size SIZE
2024
2025 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
2026 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
2027
2028 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
2029
2030 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
2031 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
2032 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
2033 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
2034 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
2035
2036 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
2037
2038 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
2039 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
2040 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
2041
2042 :weakness WEAK
2043
2044 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
2045 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
2046 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
2047 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
2048 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
2049
2050 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
2051
2052 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
2053
2054 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
2055
2056 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
2057
2058 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
2059
2060 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
2061 values are shared.
2062
2063 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
2064
2065 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
2066
2067 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2068
2069 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
2070
2071 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
2072
2073 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
2074
2075 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2076
2077 Returns the size of TABLE.
2078
2079 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
2080
2081 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
2082
2083 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
2084
2085 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
2086
2087 - Function: clrhash TABLE
2088
2089 Clear TABLE.
2090
2091 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
2092
2093 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
2094 not found.
2095
2096 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
2097
2098 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
2099 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
2100
2101 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
2102
2103 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
2104
2105 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
2106
2107 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
2108 arguments KEY and VALUE.
2109
2110 - Function: sxhash OBJ
2111
2112 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
2113
2114 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
2115
2116 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
2117 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
2118 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
2119 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
2120 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
2121
2122 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
2123
2124 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
2125 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
2126 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
2127
2128 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
2129 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2130
2131 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2132 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2133
2134 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2135 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2136
2137 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
2138 'case-fold-string-hash))
2139
2140 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2141
2142 +++
2143 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
2144
2145 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
2146 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
2147 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
2148
2149 +++
2150 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
2151
2152 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
2153 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
2154
2155 +++
2156 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
2157 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
2158 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
2159 is too short to reach that column.
2160
2161 +++
2162 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
2163 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
2164 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
2165 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
2166
2167 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
2168 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
2169 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
2170
2171 +++
2172 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
2173 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
2174
2175 +++
2176 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
2177 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
2178
2179 +++
2180 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
2181 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
2182 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
2183 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
2184 temporary-file-directory instead.
2185
2186 +++
2187 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
2188 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
2189 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
2190 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
2191
2192 +++
2193 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
2194 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
2195
2196 +++
2197 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
2198
2199 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
2200 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
2201 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
2202
2203 +++
2204 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
2205
2206 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
2207 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
2208 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
2209 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
2210 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
2211 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
2212
2213 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
2214 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
2215 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
2216 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2217
2218 +++
2219 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2220
2221 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2222 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2223 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2224 result string.
2225
2226 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2227 string where arguments appear in the result string.
2228
2229 Example:
2230
2231 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2232 (s2 "world"))
2233 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2234 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
2235 (format s1 s2))
2236
2237 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2238
2239 +++
2240 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2241
2242 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2243 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2244 argument in it.
2245
2246 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2247 (arg "world"))
2248 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2249 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2250 (message msg arg))
2251
2252 +++
2253 ** Sound support
2254
2255 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2256 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2257
2258 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2259 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2260 to enable sound support.
2261
2262 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2263 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2264 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2265 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2266 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2267
2268 The following sound properties are supported:
2269
2270 - `:file FILE'
2271
2272 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2273 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2274
2275 - `:data DATA'
2276
2277 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2278 may be present, but not both.
2279
2280 - `:volume VOLUME'
2281
2282 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2283 0..1. This property is optional.
2284
2285 Other properties are ignored.
2286
2287 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2288
2289 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2290 a keyword symbol.
2291
2292 ** Changes to garbage collection
2293
2294 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2295 of live and free strings.
2296
2297 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2298 strings that have been consed so far.
2299
2300 \f
2301 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2302 Lisp Manual
2303
2304 +++
2305 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2306
2307 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2308 image.
2309
2310 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2311
2312 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2313
2314 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2315 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2316 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2317 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2318 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2319
2320 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2321 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2322
2323 +++
2324 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2325 optional.
2326
2327 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center'.
2328
2329 When this property is specified, the image is vertically centered
2330 around a centerline which would be the vertical center of text drawn
2331 at the position of the image, in the manner specified by the text
2332 properties and overlays that apply to the image.
2333
2334 \f
2335 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2336
2337 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2338 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2339 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2340 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2341
2342 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2343 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2344
2345 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2346 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2347 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2348 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2349 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2350 just display it black instead.
2351
2352 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2353 a line like
2354
2355 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2356
2357 in your `.emacs'.
2358
2359 ** New face implementation.
2360
2361 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2362 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2363
2364 +++
2365 *** New faces.
2366
2367 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2368
2369 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2370
2371 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2372 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2373
2374 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2375
2376 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2377
2378 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2379
2380 6. Foreground color.
2381
2382 7. Background color.
2383
2384 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2385
2386 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2387
2388 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2389
2390 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2391
2392 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2393 color.
2394
2395 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2396 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2397
2398 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2399 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2400 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2401 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2402 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2403 attributes mentioned above.
2404
2405 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2406 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2407 created frames.
2408
2409 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2410 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2411 `fully-specified'.
2412
2413 +++
2414 *** Face merging.
2415
2416 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2417 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2418 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2419 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2420 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2421 results in a fully-specified face.
2422
2423 +++
2424 *** Face realization.
2425
2426 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2427 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2428 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2429 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2430 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2431 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2432
2433 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2434 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2435 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2436 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2437
2438 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2439 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2440 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2441 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2442 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2443
2444 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2445 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2446 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2447 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2448 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2449 Emacs.
2450
2451 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2452 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2453 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2454 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2455
2456 ++++
2457 **** Clearing face caches.
2458
2459 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2460 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2461 unused fonts.
2462
2463 +++
2464 *** Font selection.
2465
2466 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2467 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2468 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2469
2470 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2471 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2472 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2473 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2474 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2475
2476 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2477 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2478 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2479
2480 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2481
2482 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2483 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2484 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2485 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2486 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2487 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2488 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2489
2490 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2491 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2492 face doesn't exist.
2493
2494 +++
2495 **** Scalable fonts
2496
2497 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2498 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2499 servers.
2500
2501 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2502 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2503 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2504 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2505 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2506 that list. Example:
2507
2508 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2509
2510 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2511
2512 +++
2513 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2514
2515 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2516
2517 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2518 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2519 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2520
2521 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2522 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2523 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2524 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2525 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2526 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2527 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2528 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2529 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2530 of the face font sort order.
2531
2532 - Function: x-font-family-list
2533
2534 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2535 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2536 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2537 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2538
2539 - Variable: font-list-limit
2540
2541 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2542 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2543 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2544
2545 +++
2546 *** Setting face attributes.
2547
2548 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2549 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2550 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2551 `face-attribute'.
2552
2553 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2554 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2555
2556 The following attributes are recognized:
2557
2558 `:family'
2559
2560 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2561 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2562 and `?' are allowed.
2563
2564 `:width'
2565
2566 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2567 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2568 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2569 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2570
2571 `:height'
2572
2573 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
2574 1/10 pt.
2575
2576 `:weight'
2577
2578 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2579 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2580 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2581
2582 `:slant'
2583
2584 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2585 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2586 `reverse-oblique'.
2587
2588 `:foreground', `:background'
2589
2590 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2591
2592 `:underline'
2593
2594 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2595 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2596 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2597 don't underline.
2598
2599 `:overline'
2600
2601 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2602 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2603 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2604 overline.
2605
2606 `:strike-through'
2607
2608 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2609 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2610 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2611 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2612
2613 `:box'
2614
2615 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2616 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2617 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2618 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2619 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2620 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2621 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2622 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2623 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2624 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2625 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2626 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2627 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2628 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2629 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2630 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2631 box.
2632
2633 `:inverse-video'
2634
2635 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2636 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2637
2638 `:stipple'
2639
2640 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2641 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2642 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2643 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2644 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2645 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2646
2647 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2648 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2649
2650 `:font'
2651
2652 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2653 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2654 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2655 versions of Emacs.
2656
2657 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2658 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2659 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2660
2661 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2662 `defface'.
2663
2664 *** Face attributes and X resources
2665
2666 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2667 from X resources:
2668
2669 Face attribute X resource class
2670 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2671 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2672 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2673 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2674 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2675 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2676 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2677 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2678 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2679 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2680 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2681 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2682 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2683 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2684 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2685 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2686 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2687 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2688 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2689 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2690
2691 +++
2692 *** Text property `face'.
2693
2694 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2695 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2696 specification can be
2697
2698 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2699
2700 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2701 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2702 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2703 for face attribute names.
2704
2705 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2706 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2707 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2708
2709 +++
2710 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2711
2712 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2713 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2714 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
2715 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
2716 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
2717 used to clear the mapping table.
2718
2719 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2720
2721 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2722 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2723 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2724 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2725 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2726 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2727 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2728 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2729 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2730 modify their color-related behavior.
2731
2732 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2733 any frame type.
2734
2735 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2736
2737 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2738 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2739 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2740 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2741 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2742 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2743 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2744 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2745 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2746
2747 +++
2748 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
2749
2750 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
2751
2752 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2753 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2754 Otherwise, it returns zero.
2755
2756 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2757
2758 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2759 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2760 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
2761
2762 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
2763 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
2764 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
2765 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
2766 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2767 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2768 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2769 functions.
2770
2771 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
2772 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
2773 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
2774
2775 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2776
2777 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
2778
2779 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2780
2781 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2782 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2783 constrained position if that is is different.
2784
2785 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2786 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2787 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2788 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
2789 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2790 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2791 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
2792 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
2793 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
2794
2795 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2796 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2797 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2798 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2799 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2800
2801 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
2802 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
2803
2804 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
2805
2806 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
2807
2808 Delete the field surrounding POS.
2809 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2810 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2811
2812 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2813
2814 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2815 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2816 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2817 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
2818 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2819
2820 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2821
2822 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2823 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2824 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2825 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
2826 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2827
2828 - Function: field-string &optional POS
2829
2830 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2831 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2832 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2833
2834 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2835
2836 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2837 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2838 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2839
2840 +++
2841 ** Image support.
2842
2843 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2844 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2845 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2846 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2847
2848 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2849 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2850 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2851 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2852 area.
2853
2854 IMAGE is an image specification.
2855
2856 *** Image specifications
2857
2858 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2859 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2860 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
2861 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2862 described below are ignored.
2863
2864 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2865
2866 `:ascent ASCENT'
2867
2868 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2869 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2870 to use for its ascent.
2871
2872 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2873 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2874
2875 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
2876 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
2877 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
2878 overlays that apply to the image.
2879
2880 `:margin MARGIN'
2881
2882 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
2883 margin around the image. Default is 0.
2884
2885 `:relief RELIEF'
2886
2887 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2888 around an image.
2889
2890 `:algorithm ALGO'
2891
2892 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2893 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2894 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2895 which is intended to display images "disabled."
2896
2897 `:heuristic-mask BG'
2898
2899 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2900 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2901 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2902 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2903 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2904 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2905 background of the image.
2906
2907 `:file FILE'
2908
2909 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2910 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2911 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2912 may be present in the image specification.
2913
2914 `:data DATA'
2915
2916 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2917 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2918 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2919 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2920
2921 *** Supported image types
2922
2923 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
2924
2925 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2926 properties supported are
2927
2928 `:foreground FG'
2929
2930 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2931 is the frame's foreground.
2932
2933 `:background FG'
2934
2935 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2936 the frame's background color.
2937
2938 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2939 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2940 instead of a `:file' property.
2941
2942 `:width WIDTH'
2943
2944 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2945
2946 `:height HEIGHT'
2947
2948 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2949
2950 `:data DATA'
2951
2952 DATA must be either
2953
2954 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2955 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2956
2957 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2958
2959 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2960 bitmap.
2961
2962 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2963 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2964 in the file.
2965
2966 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
2967
2968 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2969 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2970 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2971 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2972
2973 Additional image properties supported are:
2974
2975 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2976
2977 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2978 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2979 name.
2980
2981 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2982 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2983
2984 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2985 to display compressed images.
2986
2987 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
2988
2989 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2990 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2991 defined.
2992
2993 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2994
2995 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
2996 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2997 are:
2998
2999 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
3000
3001 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
3002 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3003 properties defined.
3004
3005 **** GIF, image type `gif'
3006
3007 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
3008 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
3009
3010 Additional image properties supported are:
3011
3012 `:index INDEX'
3013
3014 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
3015 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
3016
3017 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
3018 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
3019 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
3020 every 0.1 seconds.
3021
3022 (defun show-anim (file max)
3023 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
3024 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
3025
3026 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
3027 (when (= idx max)
3028 (setq idx 0))
3029 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
3030 (save-excursion
3031 (set-buffer buffer)
3032 (goto-char (point-min))
3033 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
3034 (insert-image img "x"))
3035 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
3036
3037 **** PNG, image type `png'
3038
3039 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
3040 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3041 properties defined.
3042
3043 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
3044
3045 Additional image properties supported are:
3046
3047 `:pt-width WIDTH'
3048
3049 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
3050 integer. This is a required property.
3051
3052 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
3053
3054 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
3055 must be a integer. This is an required property.
3056
3057 `:bounding-box BOX'
3058
3059 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
3060 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
3061 files. This is an required property.
3062
3063 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
3064 lisp/gs.el.
3065
3066 *** Lisp interface.
3067
3068 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
3069 which are supported in the current configuration.
3070
3071 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
3072 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
3073 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
3074 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
3075 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
3076
3077 *** Simplified image API, image.el
3078
3079 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
3080 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
3081 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
3082 define an image based on available image types. The functions
3083 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
3084 buffer.
3085
3086 +++
3087 ** Display margins.
3088
3089 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
3090 and images.
3091
3092 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
3093 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
3094 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
3095 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
3096 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3097 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3098 of the display margins.
3099
3100 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
3101 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
3102 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
3103 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
3104 in this file).
3105
3106 +++
3107 ** Help display
3108
3109 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
3110 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
3111 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
3112 that have a `help-echo' property.
3113
3114 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
3115 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
3116 the window in which the help was found.
3117
3118 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
3119 `help-echo' text property was found.
3120
3121 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
3122 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
3123
3124 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
3125 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
3126 mouse.
3127
3128 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
3129 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
3130
3131 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
3132 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
3133 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
3134 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
3135 used as help string.
3136
3137 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
3138 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
3139 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
3140
3141 +++
3142 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
3143
3144 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
3145 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
3146
3147 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
3148 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
3149 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
3150 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
3151 used.
3152
3153 (global-set-key [A-down]
3154 #'(lambda ()
3155 (interactive)
3156 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3157 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
3158 (global-set-key [A-up]
3159 #'(lambda ()
3160 (interactive)
3161 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3162 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
3163
3164 +++
3165 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
3166
3167 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
3168 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
3169 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
3170 is called with one argument, POS.
3171
3172 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
3173 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
3174 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
3175 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
3176 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
3177
3178 +++
3179 ** Tool bar support.
3180
3181 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
3182 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
3183 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
3184 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
3185 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
3186 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
3187
3188 *** Tool bar item definitions
3189
3190 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3191 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
3192 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
3193
3194 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
3195 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
3196 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
3197 property (see below).
3198
3199 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
3200 binding are currently ignored.
3201
3202 The following properties are recognized:
3203
3204 `:enable FORM'.
3205
3206 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
3207 or disabled.
3208
3209 `:visible FORM'
3210
3211 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
3212
3213 `:filter FUNCTION'
3214
3215 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
3216 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
3217 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
3218
3219 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
3220
3221 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
3222 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
3223
3224 `:image IMAGES'
3225
3226 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3227 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3228 meaning of each of the four elements:
3229
3230 Index Use when item is
3231 ----------------------------------------
3232 0 enabled and selected
3233 1 enabled and deselected
3234 2 disabled and selected
3235 3 disabled and deselected
3236
3237 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3238 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3239
3240 `:help HELP-STRING'.
3241
3242 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3243 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3244
3245 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
3246
3247 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3248 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3249 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3250
3251 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3252 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3253
3254 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3255 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3256 pixels. Default is 1.
3257
3258 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3259 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3260
3261 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3262
3263 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3264 a tool bar item. If
3265
3266 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3267 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3268 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3269
3270 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3271
3272 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3273
3274 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3275 item.
3276
3277 ** Mode line changes.
3278
3279 +++
3280 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3281
3282 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3283 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3284 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3285
3286 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3287 a `local-map' text property.
3288
3289 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3290 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3291
3292 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3293 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3294 `local-map' property.
3295
3296 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3297 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3298 example.
3299
3300 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3301 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3302
3303 +++
3304 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3305 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3306
3307 +++
3308 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3309
3310 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3311 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3312 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3313 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3314 line.
3315
3316 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3317 `header-line'.
3318
3319 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3320 position in the header-line.
3321
3322 +++
3323 ** Text property `display'
3324
3325 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3326 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3327 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3328 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3329
3330 *** Variable width and height spaces
3331
3332 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3333 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3334 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3335 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3336 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3337 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3338 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3339
3340 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3341 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3342 properties described below.
3343
3344 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3345 characters having the `display' property.
3346
3347 - :width WIDTH
3348
3349 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3350 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3351
3352 - :relative-width FACTOR
3353
3354 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3355 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3356 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3357 width of that character by FACTOR.
3358
3359 - :align-to HPOS
3360
3361 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3362 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3363
3364 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3365
3366 - :height HEIGHT
3367
3368 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3369 normal line height.
3370
3371 - :relative-height FACTOR
3372
3373 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3374 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3375
3376 - :ascent ASCENT
3377
3378 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3379 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3380 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3381 equal to 100.
3382
3383 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3384
3385 *** Images
3386
3387 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3388 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3389 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3390 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3391 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3392 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3393 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3394 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3395 as display specification.
3396
3397 *** Other display properties
3398
3399 - :space-width FACTOR
3400
3401 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3402 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3403 integer or float.
3404
3405 - :height HEIGHT
3406
3407 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3408
3409 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3410 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3411 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3412 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3413 a font is available counts as a step.
3414
3415 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3416 as tall as the frame's default font.
3417
3418 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3419 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3420
3421 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3422 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3423
3424 - :raise FACTOR
3425
3426 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3427 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3428 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3429 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3430 `:height' subproperty.
3431
3432 *** Conditional display properties
3433
3434 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3435 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3436 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3437 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3438 the text having the `display' property.
3439
3440 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3441 `(:when t SPEC)'.
3442
3443 +++
3444 ** New menu separator types.
3445
3446 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3447 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3448 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3449 to specify other menu separator types.
3450
3451 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3452
3453 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3454 separator occurs.
3455
3456 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3457
3458 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3459
3460 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3461
3462 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3463
3464 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3465
3466 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3467
3468 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3469
3470 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3471
3472 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3473
3474 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3475 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3476
3477 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3478
3479 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3480
3481 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3482
3483 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3484
3485 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3486
3487 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3488
3489 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3490
3491 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3492
3493 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3494
3495 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3496
3497 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3498
3499 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3500
3501 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3502
3503 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3504
3505 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3506 the corresponding single-line separators.
3507
3508 +++
3509 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3510
3511 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3512 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3513 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3514 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3515 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3516 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3517 default foreground is black.
3518
3519 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3520 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3521 `ScrollBarBackground').
3522
3523 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3524 settings for scroll bar colors.
3525
3526 +++
3527 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3528 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3529
3530 ---
3531 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3532 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3533 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3534 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3535 the original window start.
3536
3537 ---
3538 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3539 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3540 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3541
3542 +++
3543 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3544
3545 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3546 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3547 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3548 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3549
3550 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3551 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3552
3553 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3554
3555 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3556 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3557 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3558 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3559 temporarily to nil, for example
3560
3561 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3562 (enlarge-window 10))
3563
3564 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3565 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3566
3567 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3568 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3569 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3570 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3571 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3572 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3573
3574
3575 ^L
3576 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3577
3578 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3579 input.
3580
3581 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3582
3583 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3584
3585 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3586 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3587 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3588 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3589 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3590
3591 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3592 been added.
3593
3594 ^L
3595 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3596
3597 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3598
3599 ^L
3600 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3601
3602 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3603 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3604 \f
3605 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3606
3607 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3608
3609 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3610 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3611 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3612
3613 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3614 is the one that is used.
3615
3616 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3617 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3618 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3619 separate from the command's regular output.
3620 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3621 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3622 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3623 the buffer name.
3624
3625 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3626 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3627 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3628 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3629
3630 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3631 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3632 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3633 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3634
3635 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3636 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3637 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3638 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3639
3640 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3641 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3642 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3643 they never ignore case.
3644
3645 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3646 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3647 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3648 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3649 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3650 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3651 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3652
3653 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3654 the same format that was used in the file before.
3655
3656 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3657 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3658
3659 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3660 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3661 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3662
3663 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3664 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3665 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3666 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3667 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3668 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3669 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3670
3671 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3672 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3673 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3674 format. You can now customize these variables.
3675
3676 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3677 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3678 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3679 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3680
3681 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3682 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3683 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3684
3685 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3686 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3687 doesn't have any effect.
3688
3689 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3690 not one per buffer.
3691
3692 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3693 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3694 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3695
3696 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3697 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3698 `auto-show-mode' command.
3699
3700 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3701 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3702 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3703 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3704 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3705
3706 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3707 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3708
3709 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3710 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3711 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3712
3713 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3714 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3715 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3716 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3717
3718 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3719
3720 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3721 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3722 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3723 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3724 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3725
3726 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3727 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3728
3729 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3730 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3731 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3732 `?' on other systems.
3733
3734 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3735 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3736 Unix.
3737
3738 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3739 current codepage when it starts.
3740
3741 ** Mail changes
3742
3743 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3744 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3745 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3746 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3747 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3748 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3749 latin-1:
3750
3751 MIME-version: 1.0
3752 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3753 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3754
3755 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3756 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3757 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3758 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3759 buffer-file-coding-system.
3760
3761 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3762 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3763 mail.
3764
3765 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3766 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3767 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3768 list of possible coding systems.
3769
3770 ** CC Mode changes
3771
3772 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3773 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3774 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3775 docstring for details.
3776
3777 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3778 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3779 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3780 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3781 lineup functions use this feature currently.
3782
3783 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3784 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3785
3786 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3787 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3788
3789 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3790 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3791 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3792 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3793 anonymous classes.
3794
3795 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3796 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3797
3798 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3799 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3800 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3801 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3802
3803 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3804 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3805 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3806 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3807 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3808
3809 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3810
3811 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3812
3813 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3814 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3815
3816 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3817
3818 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3819 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3820 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3821 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3822 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3823
3824 ** Gnus changes.
3825
3826 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3827 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3828 Gnus manual for the full story.
3829
3830 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3831 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3832 group, which is created automatically.
3833
3834 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3835 values.
3836
3837 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3838
3839 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3840 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3841
3842 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3843 `C-u C-c C-c'.
3844
3845 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3846
3847 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3848 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3849
3850 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3851
3852 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3853 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3854
3855 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3856 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3857
3858 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3859 control over simplification.
3860
3861 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3862
3863 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3864 limit.
3865
3866 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3867
3868 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3869
3870 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
3871 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3872 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3873
3874 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3875 `a' forces normal posting method.
3876
3877 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3878 -- `W d'.
3879
3880 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3881 to a non-nil value.
3882
3883 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3884 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3885
3886 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3887 has been added.
3888
3889 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3890
3891 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3892
3893 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3894 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3895
3896 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3897 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3898
3899 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3900
3901 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3902 been added.
3903
3904 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3905 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3906
3907 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3908 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3909
3910 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3911
3912 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3913
3914 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3915
3916 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3917
3918 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3919 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3920 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3921
3922 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3923 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3924 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3925 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3926 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3927
3928 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3929 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3930 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3931 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3932
3933 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3934 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3935 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3936 mismatch.
3937
3938 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3939
3940 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3941 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3942
3943 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3944 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3945 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3946 removed from the label.
3947
3948 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3949 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3950
3951 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3952 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3953
3954 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3955 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
3956 expressions.
3957
3958 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3959
3960 ** New/deleted modes and packages
3961
3962 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3963 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3964
3965 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3966 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3967 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3968
3969 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3970 changes with a special face.
3971
3972 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3973 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3974 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3975 \f
3976 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3977
3978 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3979 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3980 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3981 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3982 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3983
3984 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3985 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3986 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3987
3988 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3989 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3990 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3991 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3992 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3993 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3994 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3995 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3996 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3997
3998 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3999 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
4000 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
4001 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
4002 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
4003 program.
4004
4005 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
4006 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
4007 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
4008 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
4009 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
4010 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
4011
4012 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
4013 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
4014 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
4015 was not documented clearly before.
4016
4017 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
4018 This includes Tetris and Snake.
4019 \f
4020 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
4021
4022 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
4023 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
4024 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
4025 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
4026
4027 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
4028 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
4029 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
4030
4031 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
4032
4033 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
4034 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
4035
4036 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
4037 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
4038 integers.
4039
4040 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
4041 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
4042 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
4043 file names and attributes are returned.
4044
4045 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
4046 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
4047 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
4048 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
4049 returns the result.
4050
4051 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
4052 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
4053
4054 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
4055
4056 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
4057 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
4058 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
4059 optionally.
4060
4061 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
4062 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
4063
4064 **
4065 The new function process-running-child-p
4066 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
4067 terminal to its own child process.
4068
4069 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
4070 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
4071 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
4072 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
4073
4074 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
4075 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
4076
4077 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
4078 :included is an alias for :visible.
4079
4080 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
4081 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
4082 to move or copy menu entries.
4083
4084 ** Multibyte editing changes
4085
4086 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
4087 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
4088 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
4089 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
4090 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
4091 (setq char (sref str idx)
4092 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
4093 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
4094
4095 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
4096 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
4097 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
4098
4099 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
4100 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
4101 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
4102
4103 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
4104
4105 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
4106 across the boundary.
4107
4108 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
4109 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
4110 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
4111 contains 8-bit characters.
4112 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
4113 contains invalid characters.
4114
4115 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
4116 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
4117 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
4118 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
4119 way.
4120
4121 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
4122 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
4123 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
4124 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
4125
4126 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
4127 compose Thai characters in a string.
4128
4129 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
4130 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
4131 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
4132 menus should always use the third argument.
4133
4134 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
4135 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
4136 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
4137 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
4138
4139 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
4140 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
4141 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
4142 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
4143
4144 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
4145 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
4146 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
4147 echo area contents.
4148
4149 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
4150
4151 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
4152 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
4153 requested feature cannot be loaded.
4154
4155 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
4156 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
4157 means to clear out that attribute.
4158
4159 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
4160 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
4161
4162 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
4163 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
4164 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
4165 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
4166
4167 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
4168 the gap of the current buffer.
4169
4170 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
4171 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
4172 current buffer.
4173
4174 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
4175 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
4176 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
4177 it back in after any modifications have been made.
4178 \f
4179 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
4180
4181 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
4182 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
4183 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
4184 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
4185 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
4186
4187 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
4188 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
4189 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
4190 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
4191 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
4192
4193 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
4194 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
4195 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
4196
4197 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
4198 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
4199 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
4200 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
4201 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
4202 results.
4203
4204 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
4205 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
4206 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
4207 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
4208 \f
4209 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
4210
4211 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
4212 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
4213 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
4214 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
4215
4216 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
4217 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
4218 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
4219 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
4220 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
4221 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
4222 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
4223 region.
4224
4225 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
4226 selective undo.
4227
4228 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
4229 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
4230 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
4231 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
4232 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
4233
4234 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
4235 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
4236 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
4237 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
4238
4239 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
4240 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
4241 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
4242 something that most users not do.
4243
4244 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
4245 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
4246 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
4247 applications.
4248
4249 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4250 pasting operations.
4251
4252 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4253 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4254 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4255 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4256 `ps-printer-name'.
4257
4258 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4259 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4260 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4261 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4262 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4263 hits a new word.
4264
4265 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4266 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4267 to be confused by TeX commands.
4268
4269 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4270 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4271 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4272 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4273
4274 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4275 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4276 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4277 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4278 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4279
4280 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4281 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4282
4283 ** Changes in input method usage.
4284
4285 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4286 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4287 respectively.
4288
4289 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4290
4291 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4292 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4293
4294 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4295 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4296
4297 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4298
4299 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4300
4301 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4302 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4303
4304 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4305 given in the following case:
4306 o When you are using a complex input method.
4307 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4308
4309 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4310 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4311 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4312 setting it to t is helpful.
4313
4314 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4315
4316 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4317 keys:
4318 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4319 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4320 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4321 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4322 environment.
4323
4324 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4325 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4326 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4327 get
4328
4329 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4330
4331 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4332
4333 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4334 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4335
4336 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4337 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4338 its owner and group.
4339
4340 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4341 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4342
4343 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4344 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4345
4346 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4347 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4348 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4349 by the left edge of the rectangle.
4350
4351 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4352 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4353 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4354 for writing keyboard macros.
4355
4356 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4357 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4358 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4359 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4360 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4361 info.
4362
4363 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4364
4365 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4366 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4367 contents only.
4368
4369 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4370 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4371 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4372 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4373
4374 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4375 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4376 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4377
4378 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4379 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4380 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4381 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4382
4383 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4384 failure if the command produces no output.
4385
4386 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4387 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4388 the mouse.
4389
4390 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4391 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4392 function and variable names.
4393
4394 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4395 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4396 file-coding-system-alist.
4397
4398 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4399 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4400 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4401 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4402 according to the current fontset.
4403
4404 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4405
4406 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4407 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4408 nonascii-insert-offset.
4409
4410 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4411 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4412 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4413 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4414
4415 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4416 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4417
4418 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4419 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4420
4421 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4422 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4423 command keys.
4424
4425 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4426 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4427
4428 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4429 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4430 all variables that have documentation.
4431
4432 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4433 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4434 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4435 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4436 it should show; the default is 20.
4437
4438 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4439 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4440 of your input.
4441
4442 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4443 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4444 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4445 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4446 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4447 Newly added options are included as well.
4448
4449 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4450 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4451 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4452
4453 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4454 Customize menu.
4455
4456 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4457 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4458
4459 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4460 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4461 invoked.
4462
4463 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4464 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4465 The default is 1.
4466
4467 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4468 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4469 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4470 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4471 sensibly.
4472
4473 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4474
4475 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4476 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4477 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4478
4479 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4480 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4481 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4482 every night.
4483
4484 ** Desktop changes
4485
4486 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4487 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4488
4489 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4490 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4491
4492 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4493 read and post multi-lingual articles.
4494
4495 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4496 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4497 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4498 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4499 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4500 made invisible again.
4501
4502 ** Mail reading and sending changes
4503
4504 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4505 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4506 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4507 toggle.
4508
4509 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4510 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4511 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4512 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4513 rmail-default-body-file.
4514
4515 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4516 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4517 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4518
4519 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4520 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4521 is evaluated to insert the signature.
4522
4523 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4524 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4525 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4526 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4527 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4528 especially interested in trying feedmail.
4529
4530 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4531 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4532 provided by feedmail are:
4533
4534 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4535 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4536 there is also a queue for draft messages
4537
4538 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4539 be prompted for confirmation
4540
4541 **** does smart filling of address headers
4542
4543 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4544 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4545 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4546
4547 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4548 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4549 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4550 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4551
4552 ** Dired changes
4553
4554 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4555 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4556
4557 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4558 run Dired on the directory name at point.
4559
4560 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4561 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4562 for a specified regexp.
4563
4564 ** VC Changes
4565
4566 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4567 conveniently.
4568
4569 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4570 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4571 Dired.
4572
4573 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4574 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4575 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4576 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4577
4578 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4579 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4580 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4581 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4582 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4583
4584 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4585 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4586 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4587 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4588 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4589
4590 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4591 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4592 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4593 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4594
4595 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4596 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4597 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4598
4599 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4600 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4601 session to resolve them.
4602
4603 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4604 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4605 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4606 uses as well).
4607
4608 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4609 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4610 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4611 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4612 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4613 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4614 using ediff.
4615
4616 ** Changes in Font Lock
4617
4618 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4619 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4620 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4621 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4622 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4623
4624 ** Frame name display changes
4625
4626 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4627 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4628 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4629 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4630
4631 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4632 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4633 menu.
4634
4635 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4636
4637 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4638 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4639 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4640
4641 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4642
4643 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4644 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4645 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4646
4647 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4648 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4649 the following line.
4650
4651 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4652 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4653 previously sent input.
4654
4655 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4656 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4657 as the search string.
4658
4659 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4660 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4661
4662 ** C mode changes
4663
4664 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4665 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4666 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
4667 definition.
4668
4669 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4670 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4671 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4672 style is still the default however.
4673
4674 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4675
4676 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4677 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4678 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4679
4680 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4681 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4682
4683 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4684 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4685
4686 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4687 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4688
4689 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4690 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4691
4692 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4693 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4694 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4695 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4696
4697 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
4698
4699 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
4700 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4701 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4702
4703 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4704 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4705 expanding dynamically.
4706
4707 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4708 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4709
4710 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4711 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4712 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4713 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4714
4715 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4716
4717 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4718
4719 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4720 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4721 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4722 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4723 against the first word in the title.
4724
4725 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4726 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4727 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
4728 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
4729 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
4730 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
4731
4732 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4733 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4734 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4735 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4736
4737 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
4738
4739 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4740 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4741 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4742 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4743 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4744 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4745
4746 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4747 Editing group once the package is loaded.
4748
4749 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4750 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4751 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4752
4753 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4754 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4755
4756 ** Ispell changes.
4757
4758 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4759 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
4760 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4761
4762 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
4763 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4764 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4765 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
4766 include:
4767
4768 o URLs are automatically skipped
4769 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4770
4771 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4772
4773 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4774
4775 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4776 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4777 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4778 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4779
4780 *** New recursive parser.
4781
4782 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4783 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4784 recursive parser scans the individual files.
4785
4786 *** Parsing only part of a document.
4787
4788 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4789 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4790 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4791
4792 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4793
4794 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
4795
4796 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4797
4798 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4799
4800 *** Using multiple selection buffers
4801
4802 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4803 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4804
4805 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4806
4807 *** References to external documents.
4808
4809 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4810 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4811 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4812 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4813 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4814 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4815 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4816
4817 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4818
4819 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4820 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4821
4822 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4823 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4824
4825 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4826
4827 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4828 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4829
4830 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4831
4832 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4833 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4834 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4835 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4836 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4837 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4838 more.
4839
4840 *** Support for the varioref package
4841
4842 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4843
4844 *** New hooks
4845
4846 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4847 and citations are created. These hooks are
4848 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4849 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
4850
4851 *** Citations outside LaTeX
4852
4853 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4854 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4855
4856 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
4857
4858 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4859 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4860 fontified, use
4861
4862 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4863
4864 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4865 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4866 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4867 directories that contain the same file name.
4868
4869 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4870 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4871 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4872 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4873 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4874 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4875 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4876 directory.
4877
4878 ** New modes and packages
4879
4880 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4881 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4882 it, but some do not.
4883
4884 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4885 code.
4886
4887 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4888 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4889 around in a buffer.
4890
4891 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4892
4893 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4894 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4895 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4896 established system of notation similar to Chess.
4897
4898 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4899 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4900 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4901
4902 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4903 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4904 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4905 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4906 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4907 the like.
4908
4909 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4910 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4911
4912 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4913 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4914 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4915 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4916
4917 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4918
4919 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4920 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4921 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4922 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4923 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4924 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4925 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4926 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4927 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4928 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4929 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4930
4931 Platform-specific modes:
4932
4933 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4934 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4935 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4936 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4937 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4938 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4939 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4940 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4941 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4942 \f
4943 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4944
4945 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4946 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4947 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4948 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4949
4950 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4951 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4952 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4953
4954 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4955 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4956 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4957 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4958
4959 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4960 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4961 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4962 environment.
4963
4964 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4965 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4966 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4967 current input method for reading this one event.
4968
4969 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4970 now control whether to output certain characters as
4971 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4972 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4973 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4974 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4975 \f
4976 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4977
4978 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4979 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4980
4981 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4982 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4983 always increases point by 1.
4984
4985 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4986 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4987
4988 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4989
4990 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4991 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4992 default value changed. For example,
4993
4994 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4995 :type 'integer
4996 :group 'foo
4997 :version "20.3")
4998
4999 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
5000 :version "20.3")
5001
5002 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
5003 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
5004 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
5005 `:version' in the top level group.
5006
5007 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
5008
5009 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
5010 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
5011
5012 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
5013 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
5014 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
5015 to themselves.
5016
5017 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
5018 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
5019 values whatever.
5020
5021 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
5022 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
5023 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
5024
5025 ** Frame-local variables.
5026
5027 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
5028 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
5029 local bindings for that variable.
5030
5031 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
5032 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
5033 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
5034 parameter name.
5035
5036 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
5037 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
5038 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
5039 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
5040
5041 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
5042 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
5043 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
5044 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
5045
5046 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
5047 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
5048 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
5049 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
5050 See the documentation in sregex.el.
5051
5052 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
5053 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
5054 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
5055 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
5056
5057 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
5058 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
5059
5060 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
5061 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
5062 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
5063
5064 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
5065 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
5066 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
5067 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
5068
5069 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
5070 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
5071 empty input.
5072
5073 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
5074 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
5075 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
5076 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
5077 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
5078
5079 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
5080 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
5081 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
5082 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
5083
5084 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
5085 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
5086 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
5087 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
5088 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
5089
5090 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
5091 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
5092 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
5093 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
5094
5095 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
5096 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
5097 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
5098
5099 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
5100 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
5101 was directed to display this buffer.
5102
5103 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
5104 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
5105 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
5106 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
5107 set-window-configuration.
5108
5109 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
5110 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
5111 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
5112 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
5113
5114 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
5115 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
5116 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
5117
5118 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
5119 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
5120 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
5121
5122 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
5123 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
5124
5125 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
5126 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
5127
5128 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
5129 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
5130 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
5131
5132 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
5133 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
5134 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
5135 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
5136
5137 ** Menu changes
5138
5139 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
5140 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
5141 better supported.
5142
5143 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
5144 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
5145 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
5146 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
5147 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
5148
5149 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
5150
5151 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
5152 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
5153 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
5154 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
5155
5156 The format is:
5157 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
5158 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
5159 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
5160 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
5161 The supported properties include
5162
5163 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5164 item is enabled.
5165 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5166 item should appear in the menu.
5167 :filter FILTER-FN
5168 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
5169 which will be REAL-BINDING.
5170 It should return a binding to use instead.
5171 :keys DESCRIPTION
5172 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
5173 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
5174 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
5175 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
5176 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
5177 keyboard binding.
5178 :key-sequence nil
5179 This means that the command normally has no
5180 keyboard equivalent.
5181 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
5182 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
5183 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
5184 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
5185 value says whether this button is currently selected.
5186
5187 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
5188 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
5189
5190 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
5191
5192 ** New event types
5193
5194 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
5195 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
5196 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
5197 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
5198
5199 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
5200
5201 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5202 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
5203 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
5204 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
5205 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
5206 forward, away from the user.
5207
5208 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5209
5210 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
5211 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
5212 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
5213 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
5214 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
5215
5216 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
5217
5218 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5219 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
5220 that were dragged and dropped.
5221
5222 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5223
5224 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
5225
5226 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
5227 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
5228 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
5229
5230 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
5231 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
5232 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
5233
5234 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
5235 in Emacs 19 and before.
5236
5237 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
5238 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
5239
5240 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
5241 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
5242 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
5243 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
5244
5245 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
5246 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
5247 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
5248 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
5249 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
5250
5251 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5252 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5253 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5254 consistent with the new representation.
5255
5256 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5257 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5258 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5259 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5260
5261 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5262 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5263 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5264
5265 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5266 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5267 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5268
5269 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5270 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5271 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5272
5273 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5274 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5275
5276 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5277 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5278
5279 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5280 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5281 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5282 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5283
5284 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5285 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5286
5287 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5288 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5289 buffer or string being searched.
5290
5291 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5292 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5293 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5294 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5295 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5296 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5297 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5298
5299 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5300
5301 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5302 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5303 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5304 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5305 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5306 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5307 define-coding-system-alias.
5308
5309 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5310 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5311 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5312 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5313 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5314 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5315 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5316 `iso-8859-1'.
5317
5318 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5319 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5320 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5321 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5322
5323 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5324 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5325 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5326 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5327
5328 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5329 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5330 This function requires a user interaction.
5331
5332 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5333 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5334 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5335 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5336 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5337 select-safe-coding-system.
5338
5339 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5340 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5341 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5342 was done.
5343
5344 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5345 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5346 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5347
5348 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5349 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5350 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5351 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5352
5353 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5354 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5355 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5356 converted.
5357
5358 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5359 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5360
5361 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5362 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5363 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5364 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5365 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5366 range of characters.
5367
5368 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5369 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5370
5371 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5372 in the current buffer at position POS.
5373
5374 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5375 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5376 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5377 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5378 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5379 binding input-method-function to nil.
5380
5381 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5382 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5383 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5384 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5385 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5386
5387 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5388 subsequent events of a key sequence.
5389
5390 *** You can customize any language environment by using
5391 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5392
5393 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5394 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5395 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5396 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5397 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5398 \f
5399 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
5400
5401 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5402 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5403 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5404 tree structure.
5405
5406 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5407 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5408
5409 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5410 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5411 in your .emacs file.)
5412
5413 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5414 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5415
5416 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5417 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5418
5419 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5420 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5421 kills the region.
5422
5423 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5424 delete the character before point, as usual.
5425
5426 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5427 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5428 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5429
5430 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5431 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5432 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5433 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5434 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5435 past.)
5436
5437 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5438 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5439 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5440 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5441 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5442
5443 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5444 and is an alias for it.
5445
5446 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5447 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5448
5449 ** Scrolling changes
5450
5451 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5452 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5453
5454 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5455 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5456 where it started.
5457
5458 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5459 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5460 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5461 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5462
5463 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5464 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5465 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5466 recenters the window.
5467
5468 ** International character set support (MULE)
5469
5470 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5471 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5472 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5473 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5474 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5475 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5476
5477 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5478 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5479 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5480 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5481 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5482
5483 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5484 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5485 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5486 language, to make it possible to type them.
5487
5488 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5489 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5490
5491 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5492 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5493
5494 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5495
5496 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5497
5498 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5499 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5500 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5501 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5502 characters for their work until they want to change.
5503
5504 *** Input methods
5505
5506 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5507 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5508 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5509 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5510 support several input methods.
5511
5512 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5513 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5514 work.
5515
5516 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5517 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5518 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5519 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5520 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5521 letter.
5522
5523 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5524 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5525 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5526 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5527 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5528
5529 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5530 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5531 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5532 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5533
5534 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5535 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5536 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5537 the first guess is wrong.
5538
5539 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5540 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5541
5542 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5543 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5544 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5545 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5546
5547 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5548 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5549 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5550 translate automatically to and from either one.
5551
5552 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5553
5554 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5555 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5556 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5557 what you want.
5558
5559 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5560 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5561 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5562 multibyte characters in that buffer.
5563
5564 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5565 character conversion as well.
5566
5567 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5568
5569 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5570 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5571 requires using many fonts.
5572
5573 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5574 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5575
5576 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5577 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5578 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5579 you would use a font.
5580
5581 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5582 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5583 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5584
5585 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5586 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5587 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5588 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5589 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5590
5591 *** Defining fontsets.
5592
5593 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5594 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5595 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5596
5597 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5598 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5599 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5600 standard fontset are created automatically.
5601
5602 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5603 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5604 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5605 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5606 name is `fontset-startup'.
5607
5608 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5609 The resource value should have this form:
5610 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5611 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5612 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5613 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5614 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5615 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5616 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5617 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5618 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5619
5620 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5621 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5622 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5623
5624 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5625 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5626 following resource,
5627 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5628 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5629 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5630 Here is the substitution rule:
5631 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5632 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5633 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5634 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5635 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5636
5637 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5638 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5639 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5640
5641 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5642 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5643 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5644 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5645 fontsets.
5646
5647 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5648 defaults for a particular choice of language.
5649
5650 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5651 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5652 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5653 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5654 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5655 system for new files that you create.
5656
5657 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5658 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5659 whole Emacs session.
5660
5661 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5662 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5663 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5664
5665 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5666 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5667 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5668 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5669 coding systems that Emacs supports.
5670
5671 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5672 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5673 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5674 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5675 is used for *the immediately following command*.
5676
5677 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5678 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5679
5680 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5681 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5682
5683 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5684 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5685
5686 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5687 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5688 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5689 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5690 of the file.
5691
5692 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5693 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5694 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5695 translated into that character code.
5696
5697 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5698 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5699
5700 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5701
5702 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5703 the coding system for keyboard input.
5704
5705 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5706 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5707 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5708
5709 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5710
5711 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5712 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5713 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5714 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5715 designed to work with terminals.
5716
5717 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5718 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5719 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5720 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5721 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5722 in the corresponding buffer.
5723
5724 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5725
5726 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5727 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5728 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5729
5730 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5731 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5732 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5733 want to use.
5734
5735 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5736 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5737
5738 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5739 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5740 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5741 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5742
5743 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5744 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5745 related information.
5746
5747 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5748 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5749 scripts.
5750
5751 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5752 information about the support for a particular language.
5753 You specify the language as an argument.
5754
5755 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5756 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5757 first dash.
5758
5759 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5760 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5761 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
5762 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5763
5764 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5765 B big5 (Chinese)
5766 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5767 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5768 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5769 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5770 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5771 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5772 K euc-korea (Korean)
5773 R koi8 (Russian)
5774 Q tibetan
5775 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5776 T lao
5777 T tis620 (Thai)
5778 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5779 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5780 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5781 v viqr (Vietnamese)
5782 z hz (Chinese)
5783
5784 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5785 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5786 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5787 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5788
5789 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5790 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5791
5792 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5793 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5794 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5795 Rmail files themselves.
5796
5797 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5798 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5799
5800 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5801 for sending mail:
5802
5803 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5804 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5805 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5806 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5807 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5808
5809 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5810 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5811 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5812 translations.
5813
5814 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5815 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5816 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5817 without any conversion.
5818
5819 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5820 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5821 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5822 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5823
5824 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5825 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5826
5827 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5828 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5829
5830 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5831 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5832
5833 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5834 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5835 in the buffer before point.
5836
5837 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5838 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5839 you are using.
5840
5841 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5842 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5843
5844 ** File locking works with NFS now.
5845
5846 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5847 in the same directory as FILENAME.
5848
5849 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5850 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5851 can become a bottleneck.
5852
5853 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5854 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5855 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5856 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5857 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5858 so useful that the change is worth while.
5859
5860 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5861 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5862 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5863 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5864
5865 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5866 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5867 show-paren-mode.
5868
5869 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5870 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5871 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5872
5873 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5874 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5875 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5876
5877 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5878 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5879 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5880
5881 ** Changes in View mode.
5882
5883 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5884 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5885
5886 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5887 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5888
5889 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5890 previous state.
5891
5892 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5893 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5894
5895 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5896 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5897 not just the selected window.
5898
5899 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5900 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5901 turns View mode on or off.
5902
5903 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5904 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5905 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5906
5907 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5908 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5909
5910 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5911 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5912 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5913 which version to compare with.
5914
5915 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
5916 blocks if a match is inside the block.
5917
5918 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5919 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5920 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5921 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5922
5923 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5924 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5925 blocks, all of them or none.
5926
5927 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5928 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5929 confirmation first.
5930
5931 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5932 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5933 However, the mode will not be changed if
5934 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5935 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5936 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5937 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5938
5939 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5940
5941 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5942 these commands do not change the major mode.
5943
5944 ** M-x occur changes.
5945
5946 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5947 it performs a case-sensitive search.
5948
5949 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5950 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5951 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5952
5953 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5954 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5955 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5956 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5957 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5958
5959 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5960 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5961 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5962 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5963
5964 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5965 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5966 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5967
5968 ** Outline mode changes.
5969
5970 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5971
5972 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5973
5974 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5975 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5976 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5977 was already active.
5978
5979 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5980 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5981 get confused by it.
5982
5983 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5984 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5985
5986 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5987
5988 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5989 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5990 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5991 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5992
5993 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5994 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5995 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5996
5997 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5998 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5999 values.
6000
6001 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
6002 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
6003 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
6004 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
6005
6006 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
6007 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
6008 can be. The default value is 30.
6009
6010 ** Changes in Mail mode.
6011
6012 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
6013 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
6014 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
6015 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
6016 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
6017 behavior.
6018
6019 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
6020 compose-mail-other-frame.
6021
6022 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
6023 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
6024 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
6025 buffer that shows the original message.
6026
6027 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
6028 with separator lines around the contents.
6029
6030 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
6031 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
6032 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
6033 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
6034
6035 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
6036
6037 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
6038 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
6039 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
6040 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
6041
6042 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
6043 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
6044 /etc/passwd.
6045
6046 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
6047 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
6048 /etc/passwd.
6049
6050 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
6051 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
6052 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
6053 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
6054
6055 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
6056 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
6057 be taken to be magic.
6058
6059 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
6060 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
6061 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
6062
6063 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
6064 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
6065
6066 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
6067 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
6068
6069 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
6070
6071 new key dired.el binding old key
6072 ------- ---------------- -------
6073 * c dired-change-marks c
6074 * m dired-mark m
6075 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
6076 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
6077 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
6078 * u dired-unmark u
6079 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
6080 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
6081 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
6082 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
6083 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
6084 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
6085
6086 ** Rmail changes.
6087
6088 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
6089 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
6090 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
6091 each time you run it.
6092
6093 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
6094 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
6095
6096 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
6097 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
6098 means to move in the opposite direction.
6099
6100 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
6101 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
6102
6103 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
6104 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
6105 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
6106 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
6107 for output.
6108
6109 ** Gnus changes.
6110
6111 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
6112
6113 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
6114 Gnus.
6115
6116 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
6117 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
6118
6119 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
6120 article mode line.
6121
6122 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
6123
6124 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
6125
6126 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
6127
6128 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
6129 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
6130 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
6131
6132 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
6133
6134 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
6135
6136 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
6137 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
6138
6139 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
6140 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
6141 used to pick articles.
6142
6143 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
6144 another have been added.
6145
6146 `M-x gnus-change-server'
6147
6148 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
6149 generating lines in buffers.
6150
6151 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
6152 `M-C-_'.
6153
6154 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
6155
6156 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
6157
6158 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
6159
6160 *** Scores can be decayed.
6161
6162 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
6163
6164 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
6165 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
6166
6167 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
6168 the native server.
6169
6170 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
6171
6172 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
6173 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
6174
6175 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
6176
6177 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
6178 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
6179
6180 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
6181 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
6182
6183 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
6184 a group.
6185
6186 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
6187 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
6188
6189 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
6190
6191 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
6192
6193 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
6194
6195 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
6196
6197 Use the `Y c' command.
6198
6199 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
6200
6201 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
6202
6203 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
6204
6205 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
6206 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
6207
6208 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
6209
6210 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
6211
6212 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
6213 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
6214
6215 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
6216
6217 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
6218 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
6219 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
6220 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
6221 this issue.)
6222
6223 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
6224 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
6225 particular news group. This can be done by:
6226
6227 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
6228
6229 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
6230 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
6231 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
6232 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
6233 for reading and posting).
6234
6235 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
6236 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
6237 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
6238 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
6239 there.
6240
6241 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
6242 default. Here are some of these default settings:
6243
6244 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
6245 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
6246 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
6247 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
6248 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
6249
6250 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
6251 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6252
6253 ** CC mode changes.
6254
6255 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6256 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6257 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6258 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6259 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6260 loaded.
6261
6262 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6263 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6264 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6265 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6266 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6267 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6268
6269 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6270 of the current buffer.
6271
6272 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6273 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6274 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6275
6276 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6277 style that the Python developers like.
6278
6279 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6280 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6281 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6282
6283 ** VC Changes [new]
6284
6285 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6286 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6287 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6288
6289 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6290 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6291 developers.
6292
6293 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6294 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6295
6296 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6297 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6298 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6299 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6300
6301 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6302 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6303
6304 ** Calendar changes.
6305
6306 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6307 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6308 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6309
6310 ** ps-print changes
6311
6312 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6313
6314 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6315
6316 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6317 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6318 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6319 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6320 It defaults to `letter'.
6321 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6322
6323 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6324 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6325 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6326
6327 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6328 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6329 It defaults to 1.
6330
6331 *** Horizontal layout
6332
6333 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6334 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6335 All are measured in points.
6336
6337 *** Vertical layout
6338
6339 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6340 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6341 All are measured in points.
6342
6343 *** Headers
6344
6345 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6346 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6347 margin above the text.
6348
6349 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6350 framing box is printed around the header.
6351
6352 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6353 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6354
6355 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6356 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6357 `ps-header-font-size'.
6358
6359 *** Font managing
6360
6361 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6362 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6363 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6364 elements to this alist.
6365
6366 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6367 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6368
6369 ** hideshow changes.
6370
6371 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6372 C++, ; for lisp).
6373
6374 *** Support for java-mode added.
6375
6376 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6377 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6378
6379 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6380 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6381 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6382
6383 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6384 robust and a lot faster.
6385
6386 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6387
6388 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6389 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6390 documentation for more details.
6391
6392 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
6393
6394 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6395 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6396 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6397 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6398 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6399
6400 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6401 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6402 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6403 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6404
6405 ** Font Lock mode
6406
6407 *** Custom support
6408
6409 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6410 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6411 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6412 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6413 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6414 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6415
6416 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6417
6418 *** Maximum decoration
6419
6420 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6421 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6422 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6423 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6424 to get the old behavior.
6425
6426 *** New support
6427
6428 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6429
6430 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6431 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6432
6433 *** Configurable support
6434
6435 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6436 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6437 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6438 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6439 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6440 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6441 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6442
6443 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6444 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6445 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6446
6447 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6448
6449 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6450 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6451 for any mode.
6452
6453 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6454
6455 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6456
6457 in your ~/.emacs.
6458
6459 *** New faces
6460
6461 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6462 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6463 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6464 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6465
6466 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6467
6468 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6469 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6470 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6471
6472 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6473
6474 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6475 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6476 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6477 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6478 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6479 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6480 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6481
6482 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6483 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6484 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6485 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6486 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6487 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6488
6489 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6490
6491 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6492 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6493 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6494 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6495
6496 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6497 settings.
6498
6499 ** Ada mode changes.
6500
6501 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6502 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6503 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6504 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6505 stubs.
6506
6507 *** There are two new commands:
6508 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6509 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6510
6511 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6512 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6513 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6514
6515 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6516 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6517 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6518
6519 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6520 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6521 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6522 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6523
6524 ** Scheme mode changes.
6525
6526 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6527 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6528 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6529 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6530 have any effect.
6531
6532 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6533 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6534 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6535 variables as buffer-local variables.
6536
6537 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6538 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
6539
6540 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
6541
6542 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6543 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6544 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6545 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6546
6547 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6548 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6549 buffer in Emacs.
6550
6551 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6552 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6553 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6554 option takes precedence.
6555
6556 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6557 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6558 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6559
6560 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6561 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6562 the current defun.
6563
6564 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6565 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6566
6567 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6568 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6569 necessary).
6570
6571 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6572 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6573 these register values no longer become completely useless.
6574 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6575 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6576 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6577
6578 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6579 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6580 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6581 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6582
6583 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6584 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6585 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6586 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6587 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6588
6589 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6590 since it applies only to the current frame.
6591
6592 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6593 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6594 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6595
6596 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6597 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6598 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6599 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6600 instead of just the file you are editing.
6601
6602 ** RefTeX mode
6603
6604 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6605 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6606 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6607 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6608 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6609
6610 C-c ( reftex-label
6611 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6612 knows which kind of label is needed.
6613
6614 C-c ) reftex-reference
6615 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6616 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6617
6618 C-c [ reftex-citation
6619 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6620 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6621
6622 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6623 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6624
6625 C-c = reftex-toc
6626 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6627 can quickly jump to every section.
6628
6629 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6630 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6631 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6632 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6633 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6634
6635 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6636
6637 *** Info documentation is now available.
6638
6639 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6640 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6641
6642 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6643 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6644
6645 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6646 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6647
6648 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6649 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6650 appropriate functions.
6651
6652 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6653 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6654
6655 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6656 been cleaned.
6657
6658 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6659 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6660
6661 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6662 shall be delimited.
6663
6664 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6665 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6666 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6667
6668 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6669 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6670 prefixed with `ALT'.
6671
6672 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6673 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6674 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6675 documentation).
6676
6677 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6678 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6679 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6680
6681 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6682 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6683
6684 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6685 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6686 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6687
6688 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6689
6690 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6691
6692 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6693 from alien sources.
6694
6695 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6696 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6697 crossref entries.
6698
6699 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6700 region.
6701
6702 *** Added support for imenu.
6703
6704 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6705 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6706 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6707 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6708
6709 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6710 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6711
6712 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6713
6714 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
6715
6716 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6717 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6718 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6719 as an argument.
6720
6721 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6722 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6723
6724 ** browse-url changes
6725
6726 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6727 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6728 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6729 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6730 customization variables.
6731
6732 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6733
6734 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6735 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6736 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6737
6738 ** Changes in Ediff
6739
6740 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6741 pops up the Info file for this command.
6742
6743 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6744 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6745 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6746 directories).
6747
6748 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6749 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6750 files in the same directory.
6751
6752 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6753 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6754 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6755
6756 ** Changes in Viper
6757
6758 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
6759 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
6760 instead of vip-.
6761 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
6762 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
6763 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6764 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6765 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6766 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6767 color when Viper is in insert state.
6768 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6769 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6770 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6771
6772 ** Etags changes.
6773
6774 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6775 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6776 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6777 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6778 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6779
6780 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6781
6782 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6783 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6784
6785 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6786 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6787 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6788
6789 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6790 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6791 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6792 methods and protocols.
6793
6794 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6795 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6796 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6797 paragraph name.
6798
6799 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6800 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6801 at least M times and as many as N times.
6802
6803 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6804 in files has changed slightly.
6805
6806 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6807 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6808 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6809 with old time-stamp-format values.
6810
6811 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6812 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6813 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6814 reasons.
6815
6816 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6817 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6818 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6819 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6820 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6821 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6822
6823 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6824 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6825 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6826
6827 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6828 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6829 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6830 recommended now will continue to work then.
6831
6832 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6833 details.
6834
6835 ** There are some additional major modes:
6836
6837 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6838 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6839 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6840
6841 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6842 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6843 into Emacs.
6844
6845 ** New Lisp packages include:
6846
6847 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6848
6849 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6850 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6851
6852 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6853
6854 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6855 in shell buffers.
6856
6857 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6858 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6859 and `elint-defun'.
6860
6861 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6862 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6863 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6864 strings or comments.
6865
6866 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6867 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6868 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6869 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6870 at these points.
6871
6872 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6873 can visit them by short forms of their names.
6874
6875 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6876 Emacs Lisp function at point.
6877
6878 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6879
6880 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6881 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6882
6883 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6884
6885 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6886
6887 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6888
6889 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6890 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6891
6892 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6893 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6894 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6895 original place after inserting the copy.
6896
6897 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6898 on the buffer.
6899
6900 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6901 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6902 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6903
6904 Enable mouse-drag with:
6905 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6906 -or-
6907 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6908
6909 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6910 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6911
6912 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6913 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6914
6915 *** ogonek
6916
6917 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6918 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6919 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6920 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6921 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6922 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6923 instance) and vice versa.
6924
6925 To use this package load it using
6926 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6927 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
6928 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
6929 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6930 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6931 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6932
6933 *** Interface to ph.
6934
6935 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6936
6937 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6938 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6939 these servers.
6940
6941 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6942
6943 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6944 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6945 while the real cursor does not move.
6946
6947 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6948 for visiting your favorite web sites.
6949
6950 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6951 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6952
6953 ** movemail change
6954
6955 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6956 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6957 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6958 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6959
6960 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6961 \f
6962 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6963
6964 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6965
6966 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6967 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6968 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6969 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6970 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6971
6972 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6973 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6974 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6975 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6976 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6977 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6978 \f
6979 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6980
6981 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6982 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6983 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6984 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6985
6986 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6987 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6988
6989 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6990 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6991 "win".
6992
6993 ** Basic Lisp changes
6994
6995 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6996 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6997
6998 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6999 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
7000 or by the user.
7001
7002 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
7003
7004 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
7005
7006 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
7007 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
7008
7009 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
7010 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
7011 its argument.
7012
7013 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
7014
7015 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
7016
7017 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
7018
7019 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
7020 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
7021 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
7022 `format' function.
7023
7024 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
7025 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
7026 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
7027
7028 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
7029 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
7030 adding one of these suffixes.
7031
7032 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
7033 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
7034 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
7035
7036 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
7037 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
7038
7039 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
7040
7041 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
7042 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
7043
7044 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
7045 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
7046
7047 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
7048
7049 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
7050 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
7051
7052 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
7053 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
7054 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
7055 works using `save-current-buffer'.
7056
7057 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
7058 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
7059 of the last form.
7060
7061 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
7062 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
7063 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
7064 as the last form.
7065
7066 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
7067 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
7068 matches.
7069
7070 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
7071
7072 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
7073 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
7074 Then it returns that string.
7075
7076 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
7077
7078 (with-output-to-string
7079 (princ "The buffer is ")
7080 (princ (buffer-name)))
7081
7082 returns "The buffer is foo".
7083
7084 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
7085 is non-nil.
7086
7087 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
7088 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
7089 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
7090
7091 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
7092 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
7093
7094 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
7095 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
7096 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
7097 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
7098 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
7099 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
7100
7101 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
7102 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
7103 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
7104 characters".
7105
7106 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
7107 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
7108 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
7109 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
7110 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
7111
7112 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
7113 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
7114 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
7115 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
7116
7117 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
7118 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
7119
7120 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
7121
7122 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
7123 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
7124 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
7125 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
7126 guaranteed.
7127
7128 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
7129 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
7130 character).
7131
7132 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
7133
7134 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
7135 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
7136 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
7137 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
7138 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
7139
7140 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
7141
7142 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
7143 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
7144 more than the number of characters.
7145
7146 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
7147 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
7148 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
7149 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
7150 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
7151 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
7152
7153 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
7154 and returns a string containing those characters.
7155
7156 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
7157 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
7158 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
7159 character, sref signals an error.
7160
7161 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
7162 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
7163 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7164
7165 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
7166 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
7167 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7168
7169 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
7170 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
7171 to a vector of the characters in it.
7172
7173 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
7174 of a string. You call it as follows:
7175
7176 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
7177
7178 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
7179 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
7180 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
7181 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
7182 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
7183
7184 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
7185 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7186
7187 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
7188 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7189
7190 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
7191 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
7192 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
7193 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
7194
7195 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
7196
7197 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
7198
7199 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
7200 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
7201 are not included in the resulting value.
7202
7203 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
7204 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
7205 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
7206 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
7207
7208 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
7209 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
7210 character extends across that column), then the padding character
7211 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
7212 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
7213 column START-COLUMN.
7214
7215 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
7216 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
7217 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
7218 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
7219 changed text, before the change.
7220
7221 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
7222 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
7223 one character set for each script, not for each language.
7224
7225 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
7226
7227 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
7228
7229 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
7230 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
7231
7232 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
7233 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
7234 which identify the character within that character set.
7235
7236 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
7237 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
7238 opposite of split-char.
7239
7240 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
7241 of all the characters between BEG and END.
7242
7243 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
7244 of all the characters in a string.
7245
7246 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
7247 and specifying coding systems.
7248
7249 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
7250 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
7251 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7252 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7253 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7254 as what to do about code conversion.)
7255
7256 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7257 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7258
7259 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7260 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7261 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7262
7263 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7264 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7265 to match against a file name.
7266
7267 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7268 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7269 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7270 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7271 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7272 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7273
7274 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7275 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7276
7277 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7278 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7279
7280 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7281 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7282 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7283 service names.
7284
7285 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7286 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7287 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7288 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7289 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7290 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7291
7292 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7293 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7294
7295 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7296 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7297 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7298 start the subprocess.
7299
7300 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7301 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7302 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7303 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7304 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7305
7306 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7307 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7308 subprocess.
7309
7310 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7311 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7312 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7313 connection permanently or until overridden.
7314
7315 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7316 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7317 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7318 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7319 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7320 system for one operation at a time.
7321
7322 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7323 files, subprocesses or network connections.
7324
7325 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7326 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7327 The value is a cons cell,
7328 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7329 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7330 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7331 input to the subprocess.
7332
7333 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7334 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7335
7336 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7337 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7338 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7339
7340 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7341 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7342 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7343 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7344 customization.
7345
7346 Thus, instead of writing
7347
7348 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7349 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7350
7351 you would now write this:
7352
7353 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7354 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7355 :type 'boolean
7356 :group foo)
7357
7358 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7359 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7360 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7361 for a description of them.
7362
7363 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7364 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7365
7366 (defgroup ispell nil
7367 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7368 :group 'processes)
7369
7370 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7371 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7372 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7373 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7374 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7375
7376 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7377 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7378 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7379 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7380 first-level subgroups.
7381
7382 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7383
7384 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7385 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7386
7387 ** easy-mmode
7388
7389 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7390 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7391 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7392 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7393 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7394 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7395
7396 ** Text property changes
7397
7398 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7399 text property.
7400
7401 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7402 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7403 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7404 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7405 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7406
7407 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7408 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7409 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7410 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7411
7412 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7413 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7414 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7415
7416 ** Changes in invisibility features
7417
7418 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7419 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7420 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7421 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7422 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7423 make the overlay visible.
7424
7425 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7426 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7427 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7428 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7429 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7430 t when it should hide it.
7431
7432 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7433
7434 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7435 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7436 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7437 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7438 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7439 Here is an example of how to do this:
7440
7441 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7442 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7443 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7444 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7445
7446 ...
7447 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7448
7449 ...
7450 ;; When done with the overlays:
7451 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7452 ;; Or respectively:
7453 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7454
7455 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
7456
7457 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7458 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7459 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7460 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7461
7462 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7463 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7464 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7465
7466 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7467 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7468
7469 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7470 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7471
7472 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7473 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7474 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7475
7476 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7477 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7478 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7479 determine the syntax type of the character.
7480
7481 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7482 of the current buffer.
7483
7484 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7485 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7486 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7487
7488 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7489 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7490 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7491 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7492 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7493
7494 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7495 text property.
7496
7497 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7498 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7499 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7500
7501 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7502 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7503 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7504 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7505 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7506
7507 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7508 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7509 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7510
7511 ** Changes in face features
7512
7513 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7514 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7515
7516 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7517 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7518
7519 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7520 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7521
7522 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7523 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7524
7525 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7526 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7527 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7528 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7529 overlay property).
7530
7531 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7532 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7533
7534 ** Changes in file-handling functions
7535
7536 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7537 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7538 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7539 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7540
7541 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7542 begins with ~.
7543
7544 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7545 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7546
7547 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7548 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7549
7550 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7551 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7552
7553 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7554 character code conversion as well as other things.
7555
7556 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7557 (formerly it did not).
7558
7559 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7560 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7561
7562 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7563 instead of constant strings.
7564
7565 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7566 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7567 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7568
7569 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7570 in the same way as before.
7571
7572 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7573 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7574 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7575
7576 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7577 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7578 else, and returns nil.
7579
7580 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7581 directory cannot be listed.
7582
7583 ** Changes in minibuffer input
7584
7585 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7586 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7587 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7588 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7589 ways:
7590
7591 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7592 It is available through the history command M-n.
7593
7594 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7595 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7596 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7597 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7598 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7599
7600 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7601 argument in this way.
7602
7603 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7604 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7605 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7606
7607 ** Echo area features
7608
7609 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7610 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7611 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7612 after the echo area is cleared.
7613
7614 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7615 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7616
7617 ** Keyboard input features
7618
7619 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7620 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7621
7622 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7623 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7624 by keyboard macros.
7625
7626 ** Frame-related changes
7627
7628 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7629 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7630 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7631
7632 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7633 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7634 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7635
7636 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7637 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7638 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7639 in the selected frame.
7640
7641 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7642 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7643 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7644
7645 ** X Windows features
7646
7647 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7648 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7649 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7650
7651 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7652 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7653
7654 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7655 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7656 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7657
7658 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7659 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7660
7661 ** Subprocess features
7662
7663 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7664 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7665 automatically.
7666
7667 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7668 and returns the output from the command as a string.
7669
7670 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7671 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7672
7673 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7674 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7675
7676 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7677 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7678 goes after the other menu items.
7679
7680 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
7681 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
7682 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7683 are in use.
7684
7685 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7686 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7687
7688 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7689 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7690 form.
7691
7692 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7693 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7694 but its hook is still run.
7695
7696 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7697 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7698
7699 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7700 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7701 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7702
7703 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7704 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7705 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7706 warned.
7707
7708 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7709 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7710
7711 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7712 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7713 functions like display-time.
7714
7715 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7716 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7717
7718 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7719 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7720 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7721
7722 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7723 if there is an error in compilation.
7724
7725 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7726 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7727 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7728 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7729
7730 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7731 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7732 the *scratch* buffer.
7733
7734 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7735 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7736 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7737 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7738
7739 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7740 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7741 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7742
7743 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7744 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7745 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7746 and compose-mail-other-frame.
7747
7748 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7749 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7750 full name of the specified user will be returned.
7751
7752 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7753 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7754 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7755 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7756 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7757 files at all.
7758
7759 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7760 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7761 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7762 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7763
7764 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7765 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7766 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7767 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7768
7769 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7770
7771 ** imenu.el changes.
7772
7773 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
7774 item from menu created by imenu.
7775
7776 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7777 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7778 select one of those items.
7779 \f
7780 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7781 \f
7782 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7783
7784 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7785 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7786
7787 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7788 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7789 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7790 \f
7791 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7792
7793 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7794 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7795
7796 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7797 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7798 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7799 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7800 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7801 all caps.
7802
7803 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7804 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7805
7806 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7807 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7808 as in previous Emacs versions.
7809
7810 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7811 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7812 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7813 frames.
7814
7815 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7816 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7817 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7818 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7819 accident.
7820
7821 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7822 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7823 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7824 line and then executing the macro.
7825
7826 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7827
7828 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7829 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7830 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7831 characters.
7832
7833 ** Font Lock mode
7834
7835 *** Font Lock support modes
7836
7837 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7838 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7839 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7840 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7841 Font Lock mode is enabled.
7842
7843 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7844
7845 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7846
7847 in your ~/.emacs.
7848
7849 *** lazy-lock
7850
7851 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7852 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7853 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7854 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7855 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7856 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7857 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7858
7859 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7860
7861 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7862
7863 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7864
7865 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7866
7867 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7868 paren and key.
7869
7870 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7871 supported.
7872
7873 ** Gnus changes.
7874
7875 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7876 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7877 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7878 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7879
7880 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7881 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7882
7883 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
7884 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7885 obsolete.
7886
7887 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7888 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7889
7890 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7891
7892 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7893
7894 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7895
7896 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
7897 referred.
7898
7899 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7900
7901 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7902
7903 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7904
7905 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7906
7907 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
7908 buffers.
7909
7910 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7911
7912 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7913
7914 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7915
7916 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7917
7918 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7919
7920 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7921
7922 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7923
7924 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7925 is possible.
7926
7927 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7928
7929 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7930 groups of groups.
7931
7932 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7933
7934 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
7935 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
7936
7937 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7938
7939 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7940
7941 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7942
7943 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7944
7945 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7946 expiration times.
7947
7948 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7949
7950 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7951 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7952
7953 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7954 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7955 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7956
7957 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7958 articles with the `*' command.
7959
7960 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7961
7962 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
7963
7964 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7965
7966 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7967
7968 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
7969 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7970
7971 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
7972 buffer.
7973
7974 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7975
7976 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7977
7978 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7979
7980 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7981
7982 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
7983
7984 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7985
7986 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
7987
7988 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7989
7990 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
7991
7992 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7993 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7994
7995 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
7996 refetching.
7997
7998 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7999
8000 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
8001 buffer to allow easier treatment.
8002
8003 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
8004
8005 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
8006
8007 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
8008
8009 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
8010 articles.
8011
8012 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
8013
8014 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
8015
8016 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
8017 cited text to hide is now customizable.
8018
8019 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
8020
8021 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
8022
8023 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
8024
8025 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
8026
8027 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
8028
8029 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
8030 in greater detail.
8031 \f
8032 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
8033
8034 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
8035 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
8036 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
8037 exists.
8038
8039 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
8040 as well as lists.
8041
8042 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
8043 of a given keymap.
8044
8045 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
8046 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
8047 keymap or nil.
8048
8049 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
8050 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
8051 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
8052 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
8053 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
8054 alias.
8055 \f
8056 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
8057
8058 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
8059
8060 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
8061 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
8062 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
8063 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
8064 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
8065
8066 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
8067 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
8068 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
8069
8070 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
8071
8072 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
8073 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
8074 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
8075 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
8076 chapter of the manual for details.
8077
8078 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
8079 customization variables take effect.
8080
8081 ** Marking with the mouse.
8082
8083 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
8084 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
8085 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
8086
8087 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
8088
8089 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
8090
8091 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
8092 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
8093
8094 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
8095 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
8096 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
8097 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
8098 applications, these problems are significant.
8099
8100 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
8101 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
8102 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
8103 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
8104 other DOS application as a subprocess.
8105
8106 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
8107 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
8108
8109 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
8110 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
8111 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
8112 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
8113 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
8114 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
8115
8116 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
8117
8118 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
8119 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
8120 minibuffer contains.
8121
8122 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
8123
8124 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
8125 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
8126 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
8127 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
8128
8129 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
8130 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
8131 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
8132 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
8133
8134 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
8135 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
8136
8137 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
8138 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
8139 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
8140
8141 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
8142 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
8143 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
8144 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
8145
8146 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
8147
8148 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
8149 to replace the characters it "deletes".
8150
8151 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
8152
8153 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
8154 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
8155 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
8156 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
8157 immediately after the selected one.
8158
8159 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
8160 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
8161
8162 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
8163
8164 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
8165 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
8166 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
8167 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
8168 recover-session.
8169
8170 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
8171 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
8172 will not work.
8173
8174 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
8175 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
8176 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
8177 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
8178 now that the bug is fixed.
8179
8180 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
8181
8182 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
8183 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
8184 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
8185 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
8186
8187 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
8188 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
8189 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
8190 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
8191
8192 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
8193 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
8194 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
8195
8196 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
8197 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
8198 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
8199 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
8200 remain normal.
8201
8202 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
8203 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
8204
8205 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
8206 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
8207 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
8208 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
8209
8210 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
8211 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
8212 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
8213 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
8214 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
8215 `mail-directory-stream'.)
8216
8217 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
8218 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
8219 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
8220 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
8221
8222 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
8223 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
8224 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
8225
8226 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
8227 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
8228 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
8229 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
8230 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
8231 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
8232 to a limitation in font-lock).
8233
8234 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
8235
8236 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
8237 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
8238 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
8239 this example:
8240
8241 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
8242 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
8243
8244 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8245
8246 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
8247
8248 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
8249
8250 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8251
8252 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8253 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8254 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8255 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8256 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8257 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8258
8259 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8260 does the same job.
8261
8262 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8263 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8264
8265 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8266 text.
8267
8268 ** Font Lock mode
8269
8270 *** Global Font Lock mode
8271
8272 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8273 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8274 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8275 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8276 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8277
8278 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8279
8280 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8281
8282 in your ~/.emacs.
8283
8284 *** Local Refontification
8285
8286 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8287 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8288 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8289 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8290
8291 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8292 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8293 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8294 above and below point.
8295
8296 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8297
8298 ** Follow mode
8299
8300 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8301 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8302 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8303 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8304 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8305 follow-mode.
8306
8307 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8308
8309 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8310 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8311
8312 ** hide-show changes.
8313
8314 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8315 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8316 normal hooks.
8317
8318 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8319 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8320
8321 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8322 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8323 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8324
8325 ** MSDOS Changes
8326
8327 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8328 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8329
8330 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8331 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8332
8333 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8334
8335 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8336 pressing both mouse buttons.
8337
8338 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8339 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8340 are:
8341
8342 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8343 now works.
8344
8345 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8346
8347 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8348 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8349
8350 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8351
8352 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8353
8354 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
8355
8356 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8357
8358 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8359 \f
8360 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8361
8362 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8363 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8364 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8365 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8366 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8367
8368 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8369
8370 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8371 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8372 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8373 be different.
8374
8375 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8376 than `system-type'.
8377
8378 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8379
8380 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8381 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8382
8383 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8384 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8385
8386 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8387 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8388 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8389
8390 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8391 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8392 like this:
8393
8394 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8395
8396 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8397 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8398 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8399
8400 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8401 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8402 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8403
8404 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8405 up if too much time passes.
8406
8407 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8408
8409 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8410 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8411 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8412 form in BODY.
8413
8414 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8415 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8416 call looks like this:
8417
8418 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8419
8420 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8421 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8422 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8423 ARGS.
8424
8425 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8426 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8427 command.
8428
8429 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8430 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8431 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8432 each time Emacs becomes idle.
8433
8434 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8435 idle for SECS seconds.
8436
8437 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8438 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8439 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8440 instead.
8441
8442 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8443 there is no answer within a certain time.
8444
8445 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8446
8447 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8448 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8449 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8450
8451 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8452 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8453 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8454 arguments in between are ignored.
8455
8456 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8457 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8458
8459 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8460 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8461 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8462 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8463 version.
8464
8465 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8466 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8467 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8468 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8469 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8470 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8471
8472 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8473 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8474 systems with limited file name syntax.
8475
8476 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8477 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8478 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8479 completions.el:
8480
8481 (defvar save-completions-file-name
8482 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8483 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8484
8485 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8486 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8487 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8488 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8489 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8490
8491 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8492 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8493 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8494
8495 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8496 marker from its buffer position.
8497
8498 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8499 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8500 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8501
8502 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8503 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8504 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8505 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8506 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8507 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8508
8509 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8510 errors that happen often during editing.
8511
8512 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8513 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8514 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8515
8516 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8517 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8518
8519 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8520 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8521 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8522 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8523 and not get-buffer-window.
8524
8525 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8526 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8527 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8528
8529 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8530 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8531 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8532 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8533 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8534 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8535 over and over for the same text.
8536
8537 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8538
8539 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8540 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8541
8542 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
8543 ;; $HEADER: text $
8544
8545 in addition to the normal
8546
8547 ;; HEADER: text
8548
8549 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8550 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8551 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8552
8553
8554 \f
8555 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
8556
8557 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8558 Copyright information:
8559
8560 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8561
8562 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8563 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8564 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8565 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8566
8567 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8568 of this document, or of portions of it,
8569 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8570 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8571 \f
8572 Local variables:
8573 mode: outline
8574 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
8575 end: