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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17 Temporary note:
18 +++ indicates that all necessary documentation updates are complete.
19 (This means all relevant manuals in doc/ AND lisp doc-strings.)
20 --- means no change in the manuals is needed.
21 When you add a new item, use the appropriate mark if you are sure it applies,
22 otherwise leave it unmarked.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.5
26
27 +++
28 ** Building Emacs now requires C99 or later.
29
30 ** Building Emacs now requires GNU make, version 3.81 or later.
31
32 ** By default, Emacs no longer works on IRIX. We expect that Emacs
33 users are not affected by this, as SGI stopped supporting IRIX in
34 December 2013. If you are affected, please send a bug report. You
35 should be able to work around the problem either by porting the Emacs
36 undumping code to GCC under IRIX, or by configuring --with-wide-int,
37 or by sticking with Emacs 24.4.
38
39 ---
40 ** The configure option `--with-pkg-config-prog' has been removed.
41 Use './configure PKG_CONFIG=/full/name/of/pkg-config' if you need to.
42
43 \f
44 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.5
45
46 \f
47 * Changes in Emacs 24.5
48
49 ** New var `truncate-string-ellipsis' to choose how to indicate truncation.
50
51 ---
52 ** The default value of `history-length' has increased to 100.
53
54 +++
55 ** The new variable `term-file-aliases' replaces some files from lisp/term.
56 The function `tty-run-terminal-initialization' consults this variable
57 when deciding what terminal-specific initialization code to run.
58
59 ---
60 ** New variable `system-configuration-features', listing some of the
61 main features that Emacs was compiled with. This is mainly intended
62 for use in Emacs bug reports.
63
64 +++
65 ** A password is now hidden also when typed in batch mode. Another
66 hiding character but the default `.' can be used by let-binding the
67 variable `read-hide-char'.
68
69 ** The new functions `string-collate-lessp' and `string-collate-equalp'
70 preserve the collation order as defined by the system's locale(1)
71 environment. For the time being this is implemented for modern POSIX
72 systems and for MS-Windows, for other systems they fall back to their
73 counterparts `string-lessp' and `string-equal'.
74
75 *** The MS-Windows specific variable `w32-collate-ignore-punctuation',
76 if set to a non-nil value, causes the above 2 functions to ignore
77 symbol and punctuation characters when collating strings. This
78 emulates the behavior of modern Posix platforms when the locale's
79 codeset is "UTF-8" (as in "en_US.UTF-8"). This is needed because
80 MS-Windows doesn't support UTF-8 as codeset in its locales.
81
82 \f
83 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.5
84
85 ** Emacs now supports "bracketed paste mode" when running on a terminal
86 that supports it. This facility allows Emacs to understand pasted
87 chunks of text as strings to be inserted, instead of interpreting each
88 character in the pasted text as actual user input. This results in a
89 paste experience similar to that under a window system, and significant
90 performance improvements when pasting large amounts of text.
91
92 \f
93 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.5
94
95 ** Lisp mode
96 *** Strings after `:documentation' are highlighted as docstrings.
97
98 ** Rectangle editing
99 *** Rectangle Mark mode can have corners past EOL or in the middle of a TAB.
100 *** C-x C-x in rectangle-mark-mode now cycles through the four corners.
101 *** `string-rectangle' provides on-the-fly preview of the result.
102
103 ** New font-lock functions font-lock-ensure and font-lock-flush, which
104 should be used instead of font-lock-fontify-buffer when called from Elisp.
105
106 ** Macro `minibuffer-with-setup-hook' takes (:append FUN) to mean
107 appending FUN to `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
108
109 ** Calendar and diary
110
111 +++
112 *** New commands to insert diary entries with Chinese dates:
113 `diary-chinese-insert-anniversary-entry' `diary-chinese-insert-entry'
114 `diary-chinese-insert-monthly-entry', `diary-chinese-insert-yearly-entry'.
115
116 +++
117 *** Calendar can list and mark diary entries with Chinese dates.
118 See `diary-chinese-list-entries' and `diary-chinese-mark-entries'.
119
120 ** New ERT function `ert-summarize-tests-batch-and-exit'.
121
122 ---
123 ** The Rmail commands d, C-d and u now handle repeat counts to delete or
124 undelete multiple messages.
125
126 ** SES now supports local printer functions; see `ses-define-local-printer'.
127
128 ** In sh-mode, you can now use `sh-shell' as a file-local variable to
129 specify the type of shell in use (bash, csh, etc).
130
131 ** The URL package accepts now the protocols "ssh", "scp" and "rsync".
132 When `url-handler-mode' is enabled, file operations for these
133 protocols as well as for "telnet" and "ftp" are passed to Tramp.
134
135 ** Tramp
136
137 *** New connection method "nc", which allows to access dumb busyboxes.
138
139 ** VC and related modes
140
141 *** New option `vc-annotate-background-mode' controls whether
142 the color range from `vc-annotate-color-map' is applied to the
143 background or to the foreground.
144
145 ** Calculator: decimal display mode uses "," groups, so it's more
146 fitting for use in money calculations; factorial works with
147 non-integer inputs.
148
149 ** HideIfDef mode now support full C/C++ expressions, argumented macro expansions
150 , interactive macro evaluation and automatic scanning of #defined symbols.
151
152 *** New custom variable `hide-ifdef-header-regexp' to define C/C++ header file
153 name patterns. Default case-insensitive .h, .hh, .hpp and .hxx.
154 *** New custom variable `hide-ifdef-expand-reinclusion-protection' to prevent
155 reinclusion protected header files from being fully hidden.
156 *** New custom variable `hide-ifdef-exclude-define-regexp' to define symbol
157 name patterns (e.x. all "FOR_DOXYGEN_ONLY_*") to be excluded.
158
159 ** Obsolete packages
160
161 ---
162 *** gulp.el
163
164 ---
165 *** crisp.el, tpu-edt.el, ws-mode.el
166 These emulations of old editors are believed to be no longer relevant
167 - contact emacs-devel@gnu.org if you disagree.
168
169 ---
170 *** vi.el, vip.el (try M-x viper instead)
171
172 \f
173 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.5
174
175 \f
176 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.5
177
178 ** window-configurations no longer record the buffers's marks.
179
180 ** inhibit-modification-hooks now also inhibits lock-file checks, as well as
181 active region handling.
182
183 ** deactivate-mark is now buffer-local.
184
185 ** `cl-the' now asserts that its argument is of the given type.
186
187 +++
188 ** Mouse click events on mode line or header line no longer include
189 any reference to a buffer position. The 6th member of the mouse
190 position list returned for such events is now nil.
191
192
193 \f
194 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.5
195
196 ** New function `funcall-interactively', which works like `funcall'
197 but makes `called-interactively-p' treat the function as (you guessed it)
198 called interactively.
199
200 ** New function `function-put' to use instead of `put' for function properties.
201
202 +++
203 ** New properties that can be specified with `declare':
204 *** (interactive-only INSTEAD), says to use INSTEAD for non-interactive use.
205 *** (pure VAL), if VAL is non-nil, indicates the function is pure.
206 *** (side-effect-free VAL), if VAL is non-nil, indicates the function does not
207 have side effects.
208
209 +++
210 ** New macro `with-file-modes', for evaluating expressions with default file
211 permissions set to temporary values (e.g., for creating private files).
212
213 ** You can access the slots of structures using `cl-struct-slot-value'.
214
215 ** Functions `rmail-delete-forward' and `rmail-delete-backward' take an
216 optional repeat-count argument.
217
218 ** Function `sort' can deal with vectors.
219
220 ---
221 ** New utilities in subr-x.el:
222 *** New macros `if-let' and `when-let' allow defining bindings and to
223 execute code depending whether all values are true.
224 *** New macros `thread-first' and `thread-last' allow threading a form
225 as the first or last argument of subsequent forms.
226
227 \f
228 * Changes in Emacs 24.5 on Non-Free Operating Systems
229
230 ---
231 ** Building Emacs for MS-Windows requires at least Windows XP
232 or Windows Server 2003. The built binaries still run on all versions
233 of Windows starting with Windows 9X.
234
235 \f
236 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
237
238 ** Emacs can now be compiled with ACL (access control list) support.
239 This happens by default if a suitable support library is found at
240 build time, like libacl on GNU/Linux. To prevent this, use the
241 configure option `--disable-acl'. See below for the features this provides.
242
243 ** Emacs can now be compiled with file notification support.
244 This happens by default if a suitable system library is found at
245 build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
246 `--without-file-notification'. See below for file-notify features.
247 This feature is not available for the Nextstep port.
248
249 ** Emacs can now be compiled with zlib support.
250 This happens by default if zlib is present, which it normally is.
251 To prevent this, use the configure option `--without-zlib'.
252 This provides the function `zlib-decompress-region'; see below for details.
253
254 ** The configure option `--without-compress-info' has been generalized,
255 and renamed to `--without-compress-install'. It now prevents compression
256 of _any_ files during installation.
257
258 ** The configure option `--with-crt-dir' has been removed.
259 It is no longer needed, as the crt*.o files are no longer linked specially.
260
261 ** Directories passed to configure option `--enable-locallisppath' are
262 no longer created during installation.
263
264 ** Emacs for Nextstep (Mac OS X, GNUstep) can be built with ImageMagick support.
265 This requires pkg-config to be available at build time.
266
267 \f
268 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
269
270 ** When initializing `load-path', an empty element in the EMACSLOADPATH
271 environment variable (either leading, e.g., ":/foo"; trailing, e.g.,
272 "/foo:"; or embedded, e.g., "/foo::/bar") is replaced with the default
273 load-path (the one that would have been used if EMACSLOADPATH was unset).
274 This makes it easier to _extend_ the load-path via EMACSLOADPATH
275 (previously, EMACSLOADPATH had to specify the complete load-path,
276 including the defaults). (In older versions of Emacs, an empty element
277 was replaced by ".", so use an explicit "." now if that is what you want.)
278
279 ** The -L option, which normally prepends its argument to load-path,
280 will instead append, if the argument begins with `:' (or `;' on MS Windows;
281 i.e., `path-separator').
282
283 ** If you use either site-load.el or site-init.el to customize the dumped
284 Emacs executable, any changes to `load-path' that these files make
285 will no longer be present after dumping. To affect a permanent change
286 to `load-path', use the `--enable-locallisppath' option of `configure'.
287
288 ** The user option `initial-buffer-choice' can now specify a function
289 to set up the initial buffer.
290
291 \f
292 * Changes in Emacs 24.4
293
294 ** Support for ACLs (access control lists).
295 This requires a suitable support library to be found at build time.
296 On GNU/Linux, the POSIX ACL interface is used via libacl.
297 On MS-Windows, the NT Security APIs are used to emulate the POSIX interface.
298 ACLs are extended file attributes, used e.g. for finer-grained permissions.
299
300 *** Emacs preserves the ACL entries of files when backing up.
301
302 *** New functions `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' get and set file ACLs.
303
304 ** Support for menus on text-mode terminals.
305 If the terminal supports a mouse, clicking on the menu bar, or on
306 sensitive portions of the mode line or header line, will drop down the
307 menu defined at that position. Likewise, clicking C-mouse-1, C-mouse-2, or
308 C-mouse-3 on the text area will pop up the menus defined for those locations.
309
310 If the text terminal does not support a mouse, you can activate the
311 first menu-bar menu by typing F10, which invokes `menu-bar-open'.
312
313 If you want the previous behavior, where F10 invoked `tmm-menubar',
314 customize the option `tty-menu-open-use-tmm' to a non-nil value.
315 (Typing M-` always invokes `tmm-menubar', even if `tty-menu-open-use-tmm'
316 is nil.)
317
318 ** New option `load-prefer-newer' affects how the `load' function chooses
319 the file to load. If this is non-nil, then when both .el and .elc
320 versions of a file exist, and the caller did not explicitly specify
321 which one to load, then the newer file is loaded. The default, nil,
322 means to always load the .elc file.
323
324 ** Multi-monitor support
325
326 *** New functions `display-monitor-attributes-list' and
327 `frame-monitor-attributes' can be used to obtain information about
328 each physical monitor on multi-monitor setups.
329
330 *** The functions `display-pixel-width' and `display-pixel-height' now
331 behave consistently among the platforms: they return the pixel width
332 or height for all physical monitors associated with the given display
333 as if they were on X. To get information for each physical
334 monitor, use the new functions above. Similar notes also apply to
335 `x-display-pixel-width', `x-display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
336 `display-mm-height', `x-display-mm-width', and `x-display-mm-height'.
337
338 ** New function `zlib-decompress-region', which decompresses gzip- and
339 zlib-format compressed data using built-in zlib support (if available).
340
341 ** The *Messages* buffer is created in `messages-buffer-mode',
342 a new major mode, with read-only status. Any code that might create
343 the *Messages* buffer should call the function `messages-buffer' to do
344 so and set up the mode.
345
346 ** The cursor stops blinking after 10 blinks (by default) on X and Nextstep.
347 You can change the default by customizing `blink-cursor-blinks'.
348
349 ** In keymaps where SPC scrolls forward, S-SPC now scrolls backward.
350 This affects View mode, etc.
351
352 ** The default value of `make-backup-file-name-function' is no longer nil.
353 Instead it defaults to a function that does what the nil value used to.
354
355 ** Help
356
357 *** The command `apropos-variable' is renamed to `apropos-user-option'.
358 `apropos-user-option' shows all user options, while `apropos-variable'
359 shows all variables. When called with a universal prefix argument,
360 the two commands swap their behaviors. When `apropos-do-all' is
361 non-nil, they output the same results.
362
363 *** The key `?' now describes prefix bindings, like `C-h'.
364
365 *** The command `describe-function' has been extended for EIEIO.
366 Running it on constructors will show a full description of the
367 generated class. For generic functions, it will show all
368 implementations together with links to the source. The old commands
369 `describe-class', `describe-constructor' and `describe-generic' were
370 removed.
371
372 *** The function `quail-help' is no longer an interactive command.
373 Use `C-h C-\' (`describe-input-method') instead.
374
375 ** Frame and window handling
376
377 *** New commands `toggle-frame-fullscreen' and `toggle-frame-maximized',
378 bound to <f11> and M-<f10>, respectively.
379
380 *** New hooks `focus-in-hook', `focus-out-hook'.
381 These are normal hooks run when an Emacs frame gains or loses input focus.
382
383 *** The function `window-in-direction' now takes additional arguments
384 for specifying a reference point, wrapping the selection around frame
385 borders, and specifying ways to select the minibuffer window.
386
387 *** Emacs can now change frame sizes in units of pixels, rather than
388 text rows or columns. When maximizing a frame or making it fullscreen,
389 remaining extra pixels are no longer given to the minibuffer, the rightmost
390 fringe, or other unusable space, but are distributed among the text
391 areas of the frame's windows. If the new option `frame-resize-pixelwise'
392 is non-nil, all frame size changes happen pixelwise and set the
393 corresponding size hints for the window manager.
394
395 *** Emacs can now change window sizes in units of pixels.
396 Mouse-dragging a mode line or window divider now changes the size of
397 adjacent windows pixelwise. If the new option `window-resize-pixelwise'
398 is non-nil, functions like `balance-windows-area' and `fit-window-to-buffer'
399 resize windows pixelwise. Most functions for changing or accessing
400 window sizes now have an additional argument that allows changes to apply,
401 or values to be returned, in pixels instead of lines/columns.
402
403 *** The functions `window-body-height' and `window-body-width' now never
404 count partially visible lines or columns if called with a nil PIXELWISE
405 argument.
406
407 *** Emacs can now draw dividers between adjacent windows. To put
408 dividers between side-by-side/vertically stacked windows customize the
409 frame parameters `right-divider-width' and `bottom-divider-width' to
410 some positive integer. You can drag dividers with the mouse (they show
411 a corresponding cursor when the mouse hovers over them). You can change
412 the appearance of dividers by customizing the faces `window-divider',
413 `window-divider-first-pixel', and `window-divider-last-pixel'. The last
414 two are useful to provide a 3D effect, or to better distinguish dividers
415 from surrounding display objects.
416
417 *** New functions to return the pixel sizes of window components, namely
418 `window-scroll-bar-width', `window-mode-line-height',
419 `window-header-line-height', `window-right-divider-width', and
420 `window-bottom-divider-width'.
421
422 *** The new function `window-text-pixel-size' returns the size of the
423 text of a window's buffer in pixels. This allows functions like
424 `fit-frame-to-buffer' and `fit-window-to-buffer' to accurately fit a
425 window to its buffer as it will be displayed.
426
427 *** `fit-window-to-buffer' can now resize windows in both dimensions.
428 This behavior is controlled by the new option
429 `fit-window-to-buffer-horizontally'. The new option
430 `fit-frame-to-buffer' allows you to fit the window's frame to its buffer.
431
432 *** `fit-frame-to-buffer' now fits frames in both dimensions. The new
433 options `fit-frame-to-buffer-margins' and `fit-frame-to-buffer-sizes'
434 control the size of the frame and its position on screen.
435
436 *** Temp Buffer Resize Mode can now adjust the height and width of
437 windows and frames. The new option `temp-buffer-max-width' allows you to
438 control the width of temporary buffer windows. Moreover, if the new
439 option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil and the buffer appears in the
440 root window of a frame, Temp Buffer Resize Mode will try to adjust the
441 width and/or height of the frame.
442
443 *** `split-window' is now a non-interactive function, not a command.
444 As a command, it was a special case of `C-x 2' (`split-window-below'),
445 and as such superfluous. After being reimplemented in Lisp, its
446 interactive form was mistakenly retained.
447
448 *** The functions `window-size' and `window-total-size' now have an
449 optional argument to return a rounded size value.
450
451 *** `window-state-put' now allows you to put a window state into internal
452 windows too.
453
454 *** New option `scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion'.
455 Available only on X, this option allows you to control over-scrolling
456 using the scroll bar (i.e., dragging the thumb down even when the end
457 of the buffer is visible).
458
459 *** New display actions functions for `display-buffer':
460
461 **** `display-buffer-in-previous-window' displays a buffer in a window
462 previously showing that buffer.
463
464 **** `display-buffer-at-bottom' chooses or creates a window at the
465 bottom of the selected frame.
466
467 **** `display-buffer-no-window' to not display the buffer in a window.
468
469 *** New display action alist entry `allow-no-window' to indicate the
470 caller of `display-buffer' is ready to handle the case of not displaying
471 the buffer in a window.
472
473 ** Lisp evaluation
474
475 *** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
476 if there is one.
477
478 *** The commands `eval-expression' (`M-:'), `eval-last-sexp' (`C-x C-e'),
479 and `eval-print-last-sexp' (`C-j' in Lisp Interaction mode) can take a
480 zero prefix argument. This disables truncation of lists in the output,
481 equivalent to setting `(eval-expression-)print-length' and
482 `(eval-expression-)print-level' to nil. Additionally, it causes integers
483 to be printed in other formats (octal, hexadecimal, and character).
484
485 *** New hook `eval-expression-minibuffer-setup-hook' run by
486 `eval-expression' on entering the minibuffer.
487
488 ** `cache-long-line-scans' is now non-nil, and renamed to `cache-long-scans',
489 because it affects caching of paragraph scanning results as well.
490 There is no reason to set this to nil except for debugging purposes.
491
492 ** `emacs-bzr-version' has been renamed to `emacs-repository-version',
493 and works for git too, if you fetch the repository notes.
494
495 ** The default value of `comment-use-global-state' is now t,
496 and this variable has been marked obsolete.
497
498 ** `write-region-inhibit-fsync' now defaults to t in batch mode.
499
500 ** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
501 This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
502 simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
503
504 \f
505 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
506
507 ** Indentation
508
509 *** `electric-indent-mode' is now enabled by default.
510 Typing RET reindents the current line and indents the new line.
511 `C-j' inserts a newline but does not indent. In some programming modes,
512 additional characters are electric (eg `{').
513
514 *** New buffer-local `electric-indent-local-mode'.
515
516 *** The behavior of `C-x TAB' (`indent-rigidly') has changed.
517 When invoked without a prefix argument, it now activates a transient
518 mode in which typing <left>, <right>, <S-left>, and <S-right> adjusts
519 the text indentation in the region. Typing any other key resumes
520 normal editing behavior.
521
522 *** `tab-stop-list' is now implicitly extended to infinity by repeating
523 the last step. Its default value is changed to nil, which means a tab
524 stop every `tab-width' columns.
525
526 ** Uniquify is enabled by default, with `post-forward-angle-brackets' style.
527 In other words, if you visit two files that have the same base name,
528 then rather than creating buffers basename and basename<2>,
529 Emacs uses basename<dirA> and basename<dirB>. To change this,
530 customize `uniquify-buffer-name-style'. Set it to nil for the old behavior.
531
532 ** New command `C-x SPC' (`rectangle-mark-mode') makes a rectangular region.
533 Most commands are still unaware of it, but kill/yank do work on the rectangle.
534
535 ** New option `visual-order-cursor-movement'.
536 If this is non-nil, cursor motion with arrow keys will follow the
537 visual order of characters on the screen: <left> always moves to the
538 left, <right> always moves to the right, disregarding the surrounding
539 bidirectional context.
540
541 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines'.
542 This searches the region for identical lines, and removes all but one
543 copy of each repeated line. The lines need not be sorted.
544
545 ** New command `cycle-spacing' acts like a smarter `just-one-space'.
546 When called in succession, it cycles between spacing conventions:
547 one space, no spaces, original spacing.
548
549 ** `blink-matching-paren' now only highlights the matching open-paren
550 by default, instead of moving the cursor. Set this variable to `jump' to
551 restore the old behavior.
552
553 ** The new function `fill-single-char-nobreak-p' can stop fill from breaking
554 a line after a one-letter word, which is an error in some typographical
555 conventions. To use it, add it to the `fill-nobreak-predicate' hook.
556
557 ** Registers
558
559 *** All interactive commands that read a register (`copy-to-register', etc.)
560 now display a temporary window after `register-preview-delay' seconds
561 that summarizes existing registers. To disable this, set that option to nil.
562 Interactive commands that read registers and want to make use of this
563 should use `register-read-with-preview' to read register names.
564
565 *** New command `frameset-to-register' bound to `C-x r f', replacing
566 `frame-configuration-to-register'. It offers similar functionality,
567 plus enhancements like the ability to restore deleted frames.
568 (`frame-configuration-to-register' still exists, but no longer has a
569 key binding.)
570
571 *** New command `C-x C-k x' (`kmacro-to-register') stores keyboard
572 macros in registers.
573
574 \f
575 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
576
577 ** Backtrace and debugger
578
579 *** New Lisp debugger command `v' (`debugger-toggle-locals') toggles the
580 display of local variables of the current stack frame.
581
582 *** The Lisp debugger's `e' command (`debugger-eval-expression') now includes
583 the lexical environment when evaluating the code in the context at point
584 (and so allows you to access lexical variables).
585
586 *** New minor mode `jit-lock-debug-mode' helps you debug code run via JIT Lock.
587
588 ** Battery information can now be retrieved from BSD's `apm' utility.
589
590 ** In the Buffer Menu, `M-s a C-o' shows matches for a regexp in marked buffers.
591
592 ** Calc
593
594 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
595 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
596 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
597 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
598 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
599
600 *** The new option `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure if
601 (and when) Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
602
603 *** Support for ISO 8601 dates.
604
605 ** Calendar and Diary
606
607 *** New faces `calendar-weekday-header', `calendar-weekend-header',
608 and `calendar-month-header'.
609
610 *** New option `calendar-day-header-array'.
611
612 *** New variable `diary-from-outlook-function', used by the command
613 `diary-from-outlook'.
614
615 *** The variable `calendar-font-lock-keywords' is obsolete.
616
617 ** CEDET
618
619 *** EDE
620
621 **** The cpp-root project now supports executing a compile command.
622 It can be set through the new :compile-command slot or the
623 buffer-local variable `compile-command'.
624
625 **** Better selection of include directories for the 'linux' project.
626 Include directories now support out-of-tree build directories and
627 target architecture auto-detection.
628
629 *** Semantic
630
631 **** Improved detection of used namespaces in current scope in C++.
632
633 **** Parsing of default values for variables and function arguments in C/C++.
634 They are also displayed by the summarize feature in the mode line.
635
636 **** Improved parsing of function pointers in C/C++.
637 This also includes parsing of function pointers as function arguments.
638
639 **** Parsing of C/C++ preprocessor macros that open new scope.
640 For example, this enables parsing of macros that open new namespaces.
641
642 **** Support for 'this' pointer in inline member functions in C++.
643
644 ** CFEngine mode
645
646 *** Support for completion, ElDoc, and Flycheck has been added.
647
648 *** The current CFEngine syntax is parsed from "cf-promises -s json".
649 There is a fallback syntax available if you don't have cf-promises or
650 if your version doesn't support that option. See option `cfengine-cf-promises'.
651
652 ** cl-lib
653
654 *** New macro `cl-tagbody'.
655 This executes statements while allowing for control transfer to labels.
656
657 *** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
658
659 ** CUA mode
660
661 *** CUA mode now uses `delete-selection-mode' and `shift-select-mode'.
662 Hence, you can now enable it independently from those modes, and from
663 `transient-mark-mode'.
664
665 *** `cua-highlight-region-shift-only' is now obsolete.
666 You can disable `transient-mark-mode' to get the same result.
667
668 *** CUA's rectangles can now be used without CUA by calling the command
669 `cua-rectangle-mark-mode'.
670
671 ** Delete Selection mode can now be used without Transient Mark mode.
672
673 ** Desktop
674
675 *** `desktop-save-mode' by default now auto-saves an existing desktop file
676 after `desktop-auto-save-timeout'. To disable this, customize that option
677 to nil (or zero).
678
679 *** Desktop now saves and restores the frame/window configuration.
680 To disable this, set `desktop-restore-frames' to nil.
681 See also related options `desktop-restore-reuses-frames',
682 `desktop-restore-in-current-display', and `desktop-restore-forces-onscreen'.
683
684 ** New Dired minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' toggles whether details,
685 such as file ownership or permissions, are visible in Dired buffers.
686 See the new options `dired-hide-details-hide-symlink-targets' and
687 `dired-hide-details-hide-information-lines' for customizing what to hide.
688
689 ** You can enable ElDoc inside the `eval-expression' minibuffer with:
690 (add-hook 'eval-expression-minibuffer-setup-hook 'eldoc-mode)
691 The results display in the mode line.
692
693 ** Electric Pair mode
694
695 *** New option `electric-pair-preserve-balance', enabled by default.
696 If non-nil, pairing/skipping only kicks in when that help the balance
697 of parentheses and quotes; i.e., the buffer should end up at least as
698 balanced as before.
699
700 You can further control this behavior by adjusting the predicates
701 stored in `electric-pair-inhibit-predicate' and `electric-pair-skip-self'.
702
703 *** New option `electric-pair-delete-adjacent-pairs', enabled by default.
704 In `electric-pair-mode', the commands `backward-delete-char' and
705 `backward-delete-char-untabify' are now bound to electric variants
706 that delete the closer when invoked between adjacent pairs.
707
708 *** New option `electric-pair-open-newline-between-pairs', enabled by default.
709 In `electric-pair-mode', inserting a newline between adjacent pairs
710 opens an extra newline after point, which is indented if
711 `electric-indent-mode' is also set.
712
713 *** New option `electric-pair-skip-whitespace', enabled by default.
714 This controls if skipping over closing delimiters should jump over any
715 whitespace slack. Setting it to `chomp' makes it delete this
716 whitespace. See also the variable `electric-pair-skip-whitespace-chars'.
717
718 *** New variables control the pairing in strings and comments.
719 You can customize `electric-pair-text-pairs' and
720 `electric-pair-text-syntax-table' to tweak pairing behavior inside
721 strings and comments.
722
723 ** New EPA option `epa-mail-aliases'.
724 You can set this to a list of email address aliases that `epa-mail-encrypt'
725 should use to find keys.
726
727 ** New ERC option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
728 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally pasting large
729 amounts of data into the ERC input.
730
731 ** New ERT macro `skip-unless' allows skipping ERT tests.
732
733 ** Eshell
734
735 *** `eshell' now supports visual subcommands and options.
736 Eshell has been able to handle "visual" commands (interactive,
737 non-line oriented commands such as top that require display
738 capabilities not provided by eshell) by running them in an Emacs
739 terminal emulator. See `eshell-visual-commands'.
740
741 This feature has been extended to subcommands and options that make a
742 usually line-oriented command a visual command. Typical examples are
743 "git log" and "git <command> --help", which display their output in a
744 pager by default. See `eshell-visual-subcommands' and `eshell-visual-options'.
745
746 *** New Eshell-Tramp module.
747 External su and sudo commands are now the default; the internal,
748 Tramp-using variants can still be used by enabling the eshell-tramp module.
749
750 ** New F90 mode option `f90-smart-end-names'.
751
752 ** New option `gnutls-verify-error', if non-nil, means that Emacs
753 should reject SSL/TLS certificates that GnuTLS determines as invalid.
754 (This option defaults to nil at present, but this is expected to change
755 in a future release.)
756
757 ** Hi-Lock
758
759 *** New global command `M-s h .' (`highlight-symbol-at-point') highlights
760 the symbol near point.
761
762 *** New option `hi-lock-auto-select-face'. When non-nil, hi-lock commands
763 will cycle through faces in `hi-lock-face-defaults' without prompting.
764
765 ** Icomplete is now more similar to Ido.
766
767 *** Icomplete by default now applies to all forms of minibuffer completion.
768 The variable `icomplete-with-completion-tables' (now a user option)
769 controls this. To restore the old behavior, set it back to
770 '(internal-complete-buffer).
771
772 *** You can navigate through and select completions using the keys
773 from `icomplete-minibuffer-map'.
774
775 *** The string that separates potential completions is now a customizable
776 option (`icomplete-separator'). The default is " | " rather than ",".
777
778 *** New face `icomplete-first-match'; and new options
779 `icomplete-hide-common-prefix' and `icomplete-show-matches-on-no-input'.
780
781 *** The option `icomplete-show-key-bindings' has been removed.
782
783 ** Ido
784
785 *** An Ido user manual is now included.
786
787 *** The option `ido-use-virtual-buffers' can now take the value `auto'.
788 This means to use virtual buffers if the current ido input does not match
789 an existing buffer.
790
791 *** The variable `ido-decorations' can optionally have two new elements,
792 which are the brackets to use around the sole remaining completion.
793
794 ** Image mode
795
796 *** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
797 visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
798 directory, respectively.
799
800 *** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
801 `f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
802 next or previous frame. `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.
803
804 *** New commands to speed up, slow down, or reverse animation.
805 `a +' (`image-increase-speed') and `a -' (`image-decrease-speed') to
806 speed up and slow down the animation. `a r' (`image-reverse-speed')
807 to reverse it and `a 0' (`image-reset-speed') to reset it.
808
809 *** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
810 When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
811 It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
812 callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.
813
814 ** New Imenu option `imenu-generic-skip-comments-and-strings'.
815
816 ** Info
817
818 *** New Info face `info-index-match', used to highlight matches in index
819 entries displayed by `Info-index-next', `Info-virtual-index' and
820 `info-apropos'.
821
822 *** The Info-edit command is obsolete. Editing Info nodes by hand
823 has not been relevant for some time.
824
825 ** JS Mode
826
827 *** New option `js-switch-indent-offset'.
828
829 *** Better indentation of multiple-variable declarations.
830 If a declaration spans several lines, variables on the following lines
831 are lined up to the first one.
832
833 *** Recognition and better indentation of continuations in array comprehensions.
834
835 ** MH-E has been updated to version 8.5 - see separate MH-E-NEWS file.
836
837 ** Octave mode
838
839 *** Font locking for Texinfo comments and new keywords.
840
841 *** Completion in Octave file buffers.
842
843 *** ElDoc support.
844
845 *** Jump to definition.
846
847 *** Documentation lookup/search.
848
849 ** OPascal mode is the new name for Delphi mode
850
851 *** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.
852 Obsolete aliases exist for those likely to have been used externally.
853
854 *** The option `delphi-newline-always-indents' has been removed.
855 Use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
856
857 *** The TAB key runs the standard `indent-for-tab-command', not `delphi-tab'.
858
859 ** Package
860
861 *** The package library now supports digital signing of packages.
862 Maintainers of package archives should consider signing their packages
863 to enhance security.
864
865 **** If the user option `package-check-signature' is non-nil,
866 Emacs tries to check package signatures at install time.
867 The value `allow-unsigned' allows installation of unsigned packages.
868
869 **** The user option `package-unsigned-archives' lists archives where
870 Emacs will not try to check signatures.
871
872 *** New option `package-pinned-packages'. This is useful if you have multiple
873 archives enabled, with more than one offering a given package that you want.
874
875 *** In the `list-packages' buffer, you can use `f' (`package-menu-filter')
876 to filter the list of packages by a keyword.
877
878 *** In the `describe-package' buffer, there are now buttons listing the
879 keywords related to the package. Click on a button to see other packages
880 related to that keyword.
881
882 *** The format of `archive-contents' files, generated by package
883 repositories, has changed to allow a new (fifth) element in the data
884 vectors, containing an associative list with extra properties.
885 (For example, `describe-package' uses the `:url' extra property to
886 display a "Homepage" header.)
887
888 ** In Prolog mode, `prolog-use-smie' has been removed,
889 along with the non-SMIE indentation code.
890
891 ** Python mode
892
893 *** Out of the box support for CPython, iPython and readline based shells.
894 **** `python-shell-completion-module-string-code' is no longer used.
895
896 *** Automatic shell prompt detection. New user options:
897 **** `python-shell-interpreter-interactive-arg'.
898 **** `python-shell-prompt-detect-enabled'.
899 **** `python-shell-prompt-detect-failure-warning'.
900 **** `python-shell-prompt-input-regexps'.
901 **** `python-shell-prompt-output-regexps'.
902
903 *** Python shell support for remote hosts via tramp.
904
905 *** Correct display of line numbers for code sent to the Python shell.
906
907 ** Remember
908
909 *** The new command `remember-notes' creates a buffer that is saved on exit.
910 You can use it as a more permanent *scratch* buffer.
911
912 *** Remember can now store notes in separate files.
913 To use this, add `remember-store-in-files' to the `remember-handler-functions'
914 option. The files are saved in `remember-data-directory' using
915 names specified by `remember-directory-file-name-format'.
916
917 ** Rmail
918
919 *** Customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects of
920 how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
921
922 *** The `unrmail' command now converts from BABYL to mboxrd format,
923 rather than mboxo. Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
924
925 ** Ruby mode
926
927 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
928
929 *** New `electric-indent-mode' integration.
930
931 *** New option `ruby-encoding-magic-comment-style'.
932
933 *** New option `ruby-custom-encoding-magic-comment-template'.
934
935 *** New option `ruby-align-to-stmt-keywords'.
936
937 *** New option `ruby-align-chained-calls'.
938
939 *** More Ruby file types have been added to `auto-mode-alist'.
940
941 ** Search and Replace
942
943 *** New global command `M-s .' (`isearch-forward-symbol-at-point')
944 starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search forward with the
945 symbol found near point added to the search string initially.
946
947 *** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
948 and adds it to the search string.
949
950 *** `M-s i' in Isearch mode toggles whether search matches invisible text.
951
952 *** `query-replace' skips invisible text when `search-invisible' is nil,
953 and opens overlays with hidden text when `search-invisible' is `open'.
954
955 *** A negative prefix argument of replacement commands replaces backward.
956 `M-- M-%' replaces a string backward, `M-- C-M-%' replaces a regexp
957 backward, `M-s w words M-- M-%' replaces a sequence of words backward.
958
959 *** By default, prefix arguments do not now terminate Isearch mode.
960 Set `isearch-allow-prefix' to nil to restore the old behavior.
961
962 *** More Isearch commands accept prefix arguments, namely
963 `isearch-printing-char', `isearch-quote-char', `isearch-yank-word',
964 `isearch-yank-line'.
965
966 *** Word search now matches whitespace at the beginning/end
967 of the search string if it contains leading/trailing whitespace.
968 In an incremental word search or when using a non-nil LAX argument
969 of `word-search-regexp', the lax matching can also match part of
970 the first word (in addition to the lax matching of the last word).
971 The same rules are now applied to the symbol search, with the difference
972 that it matches symbols, and non-symbol characters between symbols.
973
974 ** New SES command `ses-rename-cell' allows assignment of names to SES cells.
975
976 ** The shell.el option `explicit-bash-args' includes --noediting by default.
977 All non-ancient Bash versions support this option.
978
979 ** Shell Script mode
980
981 *** The SMIE indentation engine is now used by default - see `sh-use-smie'.
982
983 *** `sh-mode' now has its own setting for `add-log-current-defun-function'.
984
985 ** SMIE
986
987 *** You can customize the SMIE indentation of a mode via `smie-config'.
988 The command `smie-config-guess' can help you derive the appropriate
989 indentation settings, if you provide it with an indented sample file.
990 Use `smie-config-save' to save the result.
991
992 *** You can customize the SMIE indentation of a file by adding an entry to
993 the file's local variables of the form: `eval: (smie-config-local '(RULES))'.
994
995 *** New commands `smie-config-show-indent' and `smie-config-set-indent'.
996
997 ** SQL mode
998
999 *** Improved login monitoring and appropriate response to login failures.
1000 New variable `sql-login-delay' defines maximum wait time for a connection.
1001
1002 *** Oracle support.
1003 SQL*Plus script placeholders are properly highlighted and identified
1004 in `sql-placeholders-filter'. When starting SQL*Plus, `sql-oracle-options'
1005 are passed before the logon parameter, as required. The default now
1006 includes `-L', to limit the number of logon attempts per invocation.
1007
1008 ** New Term mode option `term-suppress-hard-newline'.
1009
1010 ** Todo mode has been rewritten and enhanced.
1011 The Todo mode user manual describes all commands and most user
1012 options. To support some of these features, a new file format is
1013 used, which is incompatible with the old format; however, you can
1014 convert old todo and done item files to the new format on initializing
1015 the first new todo file, or at any later time with the provided
1016 conversion command. The previous version of todo-mode.el has been
1017 renamed to otodo-mode.el and is now obsolete. New features include:
1018
1019 *** Support for multiple todo files and archive files of done items.
1020
1021 *** Renaming, reordering, moving, merging, and deleting categories.
1022
1023 *** Sortable tabular summaries of categories and the item types they contain.
1024
1025 *** Cross-category lists of items filtered by specific criteria.
1026
1027 *** More fine-grained interaction with the Emacs diary, by being able to
1028 decide for each todo item whether it appears in the Fancy Diary display.
1029
1030 *** Highly flexible new item insertion and item editing.
1031
1032 *** Moving items between categories, storing done items in their category
1033 or in archive files, undoing or unarchiving done items.
1034
1035 *** Reprioritizing items by inputting a numerical priority.
1036
1037 *** Extensive customizability of operation and display, including many faces.
1038
1039 ** Trace
1040
1041 *** `trace-function' and `trace-function-background' no longer prompt for
1042 the output buffer. Unless you use a prefix argument, they output to
1043 `trace-buffer'.
1044
1045 *** With a prefix argument, `trace-function' and `trace-function-background'
1046 will prompt for a "context". This is a Lisp expression, whose value at the
1047 time the function is entered/exited is printed along with the function's
1048 name and arguments.
1049
1050 ** Tramp
1051
1052 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
1053 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-program'
1054 can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.
1055
1056 *** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
1057 that support POSIX ACLs.
1058
1059 *** Handlers for `file-notify-add-watch' and `file-notify-rm-watch'
1060 for remote machines that support filesystem notifications.
1061
1062 *** The experimental url syntax for remote file names has been removed.
1063
1064 *** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
1065 "scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued. The ssh option
1066 "ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
1067 when possible. See `tramp-use-ssh-controlmaster-options'.
1068
1069 ** New URL command `url-cookie-list' displays the current cookies,
1070 and allows you to interactively remove cookies.
1071
1072 ** VC and related modes
1073
1074 *** In VC directory mode, `D' displays diffs between VC-controlled
1075 whole tree revisions.
1076
1077 *** In VC directory mode, `L' lists the change log for the current VC
1078 controlled tree in a window.
1079
1080 *** In VC directory mode, `I' shows a log of changes that will be
1081 received with a pull operation.
1082
1083 *** `C-x v G' (globally) and `G' (in VC directory mode) ignores a file
1084 under current version control system. When called with a prefix
1085 argument, you can remove a file from the ignored file list.
1086
1087 ** VHDL mode
1088
1089 *** New options: `vhdl-actual-generic-name', `vhdl-beautify-options'.
1090
1091 *** New commands: `vhdl-fix-statement-region', `vhdl-fix-statement-buffer'.
1092
1093 ** The Woman commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
1094 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-*' faces instead.
1095
1096 ** More packages look for ~/.emacs.d/<foo> additionally to ~/.<foo>.
1097 Affected files:
1098 ~/.emacs.d/timelog replaces ~/.timelog
1099 ~/.emacs.d/vip replaces ~/.vip
1100 ~/.emacs.d/viper replaces ~/.viper
1101 ~/.emacs.d/ido.last replaces ~/.ido.last
1102 ~/.emacs.d/kkcrc replaces ~/.kkcrc
1103 ~/.emacs.d/quickurls replaces ~/.quickurls
1104 ~/.emacs.d/idlwave/ replaces ~/.idlwave/
1105 ~/.emacs.d/bdfcache.el replaces ~/.bdfcache.el
1106 ~/.emacs.d/places replaces ~/.emacs-places
1107 ~/.emacs.d/shadows replaces ~/.shadows
1108 ~/.emacs.d/shadow_todo replaces ~/.shadow_todo
1109 ~/.emacs.d/strokes replaces ~/.strokes
1110 ~/.emacs.d/notes replaces ~/.notes
1111 ~/.emacs.d/type-break replaces ~/.type-break
1112 Also the following files used by the now obsolete otodo-mode.el:
1113 ~/.emacs.d/todo-do replaces ~/.todo-do
1114 ~/.emacs.d/todo-done replaces ~/.todo-done
1115 ~/.emacs.d/todo-top replaces ~/.todo-top
1116
1117 ** Obsolete packages
1118
1119 *** iswitchb.el; use icomplete-mode.
1120
1121 *** longlines.el; use visual-line-mode.
1122
1123 *** meese.el.
1124
1125 *** sup-mouse.el.
1126
1127 *** terminal.el; use term.el instead.
1128
1129 *** the old version of todo-mode.el (renamed to otodo-mode.el).
1130
1131 *** xesam.el (owing to the cancellation of the XESAM project).
1132
1133 *** yow.el; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.
1134
1135 \f
1136 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
1137
1138 ** New package eww.el provides a built-in web browser.
1139 This requires Emacs to have been compiled with libxml2 support.
1140
1141 ** New package nadvice.el offers lighter-weight advice facilities.
1142 It is layered as:
1143
1144 *** `add-function'/`remove-function', which can be used to add/remove code on
1145 any function-carrying place, such as process filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
1146
1147 *** `advice-add'/`advice-remove' to add/remove a piece of advice on a named
1148 function, much like `defadvice' does.
1149
1150 ** New package frameset.el provides a set of operations to save a frameset
1151 (the state of all or a subset of the existing frames and windows, somewhat
1152 similar to a frame configuration), both in-session and persistently, and
1153 restore it at some point in the future.
1154
1155 ** New package filenotify.el provides an interface for file system
1156 notifications. It requires that Emacs be compiled with one of the
1157 low-level libraries gfilenotify.c, inotify.c or w32notify.c.
1158
1159 ** New minor modes `prettify-symbols-mode' and `global-prettify-symbols-mode'
1160 display specified symbols as composed characters. E.g., in Emacs Lisp mode,
1161 this replaces the string "lambda" with the Greek lambda character.
1162
1163 ** New minor mode `superword-mode', which overrides the default word motion
1164 commands to treat "symbol_words" as a single word, similar to what
1165 `subword-mode' does.
1166
1167 \f
1168 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
1169
1170 ** The default file coding for Emacs Lisp files is now utf-8.
1171 (See `file-coding-system-alist'.) In most cases, this change is
1172 transparent, but files that contain unusual characters without
1173 specifying an explicit coding system may fail to load with obscure
1174 errors. You should either convert them to utf-8 or add an explicit
1175 `coding:' cookie.
1176
1177 ** Default process filters and sentinels are not nil any more.
1178 Instead they default to a function that does what the nil value used to do.
1179
1180 ** Overlay priority does not have to be nil or a non-negative integer.
1181 Overlay priority can be other kinds of Lisp objects. We didn't yet
1182 decide whether other types of values are stable enough, and therefore
1183 don't feel it's right to document them. For now, don't assume in your
1184 code that the values of overlay priority can only be either nil or an
1185 integer, always test them with an appropriate predicate to be one or
1186 the other. If you need to sort arbitrary overlays into priority
1187 order, `overlays-at' can now optionally do this.
1188 You should still only specify integer priorities on overlays you create.
1189
1190 ** The cars of the elements in `interpreter-mode-alist' are now
1191 treated as regexps rather than literal strings.
1192
1193 ** `overriding-terminal-local-map' no longer replaces the local keymaps.
1194 It used to disable the minor mode, major mode, and text-property keymaps,
1195 whereas now it simply has higher precedence.
1196
1197 ** `kill-region' has lost its `yank-handler' optional argument.
1198
1199 ** `(input-pending-p)' no longer runs other timers that are ready to run.
1200 The new optional CHECK-TIMERS parameter allows for the prior behavior.
1201
1202 ** `defvar' and `defcustom' in a let-binding affect the "external" default.
1203
1204 ** The syntax of ?» and ?« is now punctuation instead of matched parens.
1205 Some languages match those as »...«, and others as «...», so it is
1206 better for Emacs to stay neutral by default.
1207
1208 ** `read-event' does not always decode chars in ttys any more. As was the case
1209 in Emacs 22 and before, `read-event' (and `read-char') by default read raw
1210 bytes from the terminal. If you want to read decoded chars instead (as was
1211 always the case in Emacs-23, for example), pass a non-nil
1212 `inherit-input-method' argument.
1213
1214 ** In `symbol-function', nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable.
1215 `symbol-function' does not signal a `void-function' error any more.
1216 To determine if a symbol's function definition is void, use `fboundp'.
1217
1218 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
1219 special-forms any more.
1220
1221 ** `dolist' no longer binds VAR while evaluating the RESULT form,
1222 when lexical binding is enabled. Previously, VAR was bound to nil,
1223 which often led to spurious unused-variable warnings.
1224
1225 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1226 The second argument is no longer an SELinux context, instead it is an
1227 alist of extended attributes as returned by the new function
1228 `file-extended-attributes'. The attributes can be applied to another
1229 file using `set-file-extended-attributes'.
1230
1231 ** By default `copy-file' no longer copies file permission bits to an
1232 existing destination; and it sets the file permission bits of a newly
1233 created destination to those of the source, masked by the default file
1234 permissions. To copy the file permission bits, pass t as the
1235 PRESERVE-PERMISSIONS argument of `copy-file'.
1236
1237 ** `visited-file-modtime' now returns -1 for nonexistent files.
1238 Formerly it returned a list (-1 LOW USEC PSEC), but this was ambiguous
1239 in the presence of files with negative time stamps.
1240
1241 ** Frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
1242 More specifically, redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
1243 value when looking up variables.
1244
1245 ** In compiled Lisp files, the header no longer includes a timestamp.
1246
1247 ** The option `inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus' has been removed.
1248
1249 \f
1250 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
1251
1252 ** Change to the Emacs Lisp coding conventions: the package descriptor
1253 and name of global variables, constants, and functions should be separated
1254 by two hyphens if the symbol is not meant to be used by other packages.
1255
1256 ** The second argument of `eval' can now specify a lexical environment.
1257
1258 ** New macro `define-alternatives' can be used to define generic commands.
1259 Generic commands are interactive functions whose implementation can be
1260 selected among several alternatives, as a matter of user preference.
1261
1262 ** Numeric comparison functions =, <, >, <=, >= can now take many arguments.
1263
1264 ** New functions `special-form-p' and `macrop'.
1265
1266 ** New macro `with-eval-after-load'.
1267 This is like the old `eval-after-load', but better behaved.
1268
1269 ** If you give a symbol a `defalias-fset-function' property, `defalias'
1270 on that symbol will use the associated value as a function to call
1271 in place of `fset'.
1272
1273 ** New variable `enable-dir-local-variables'.
1274 Directory-local variables are ignored if this is nil. This may be
1275 useful for modes that want to ignore directory-locals while still
1276 respecting file-local variables.
1277
1278 ** `read-regexp' now uses the new variable `read-regexp-defaults-function'
1279 as a function to call to provide default values.
1280
1281 ** New functions `group-gid' and `group-real-gid'.
1282
1283 ** New function `get-pos-property'.
1284
1285 ** New hook `pre-redisplay-function'.
1286
1287 ** `byte-compile-interactive-only-functions' is now obsolete.
1288 To specify that a command should only be called interactively, give it
1289 a non-nil `interactive-only' property.
1290
1291 ** New function `string-suffix-p'.
1292
1293 ** `split-string' now takes an optional argument TRIM.
1294 The value, if non-nil, is a regexp that specifies what to trim from
1295 the start and end of each substring.
1296
1297 ** Completion
1298
1299 *** The separator used by `completing-read-multiple' is now a regexp.
1300 The default `crm-separator' has been changed to allow surrounding spaces
1301 around the comma.
1302
1303 *** New function `completion-table-with-cache' is a wrapper for
1304 `completion-table-dynamic' that caches the result of the last lookup.
1305
1306 *** New function `completion-table-merge' to combine several
1307 completion tables by merging their completions.
1308
1309 *** The `common-substring' argument of `display-completion-list',
1310 which has been documented as obsolete since Emacs 23.1, is now _really_
1311 obsolete, and no longer advertised. Instead either call
1312 `completion-hilit-commonality' to add the highlighting; or use
1313 `completion-all-completions', which returns highlighted strings.
1314
1315 ** Encoding and decoding of text
1316
1317 *** New coding-system `prefer-utf-8'.
1318 This is like `undecided' but prefers UTF-8 on decoding if the text to
1319 be decoded does not contain any invalid UTF-8 sequences. On encoding,
1320 any non-ASCII characters are automatically encoded as UTF-8.
1321
1322 *** New attributes of coding-systems whose type is `undecided'.
1323 Two new attributes, `:inhibit-null-byte-detection' and
1324 `:inhibit-iso-escape-detection', determine how to detect encoding of
1325 text that includes null bytes and ISO-2022 escape sequences, respectively.
1326 Each of these attributes can be either nil, zero, or t. If t, decoding
1327 text ignores null bytes and ISO-2022 sequences, respectively. If nil,
1328 null bytes cause text to be decoded with no-conversion, and ISO-2022
1329 sequences cause Emacs to assume the text is encoded in one of the ISO-2022
1330 encodings, such as iso-2022-7bit. If zero, Emacs consults the variables
1331 `inhibit-null-byte-detection' and `inhibit-iso-escape-detection'.
1332 The new attribute `:prefer-utf-8', if non-nil, causes Emacs to prefer
1333 UTF-8 encoding and decoding, whenever possible.
1334
1335 These attributes are only meaningful for coding-systems of type `undecided'.
1336 (The type of a coding-system is determined by its `:coding-type' attribute
1337 and can be accessed by calling the `coding-system-type' function.)
1338
1339 ** Error-handling
1340
1341 *** New function `define-error'.
1342
1343 *** `with-demoted-errors' takes an additional argument `format'.
1344
1345 ** Faces
1346
1347 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
1348 rather than inheriting from it. In other words, setting a face via a
1349 theme now behaves like setting it via Customize: you only need to
1350 specify the attributes that you want, you don't need to unset those
1351 that you don't want.
1352
1353 *** The function `face-spec-set' is now like `setq' for face specs.
1354 Its third arg now accepts values specifying a face spec type (defface,
1355 custom, or override spec), and the relevant spec is set accordingly.
1356
1357 *** New face spec attribute :distant-foreground
1358 specifies foreground to use if background color is near the foreground
1359 color that would otherwise have been used.
1360
1361 *** New function `add-face-text-property', which can be used to
1362 conveniently prepend/append new face properties.
1363
1364 *** New face characteristic (supports :underline (:style wave))
1365 specifies whether or not the terminal can display a wavy line.
1366
1367 ** File-handling
1368
1369 *** Support for filesystem notifications.
1370 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
1371 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
1372 `glib' API, or the 'inotify' API (on GNU/Linux systems only). On
1373 MS-Windows systems, this is supported for Windows XP and newer.
1374
1375 *** The 9th element returned by `file-attributes' is now unspecified.
1376 Formerly, it was t if the file's gid would change if file were deleted
1377 and recreated. This value has been inaccurate for years on many
1378 platforms, and nobody seems to have noticed or cared.
1379
1380 *** The 6th argument to `copy-file' has been renamed to
1381 PRESERVE-PERMISSIONS as it now handles ACL entries and the traditional
1382 Unix file permission bits as well as SELinux context.
1383
1384 *** The function `file-ownership-preserved-p' now has an optional
1385 argument GROUP which causes it check for file group too. This can be
1386 used in place of the 9th element of `file-attributes'.
1387
1388 *** The function `set-visited-file-modtime' now accepts a 0 or -1 argument,
1389 with the same interpretation as the returned value of `visited-file-modtime'.
1390
1391 ** Image API
1392
1393 *** `image-animated-p' is now `image-multi-frame-p'.
1394 It returns non-nil for any image that contains multiple frames,
1395 whether or not it specifies a frame delay.
1396
1397 *** New variable `image-default-frame-delay' gives the frame delay for
1398 animated images which do not specify a frame delay.
1399
1400 *** New functions `image-current-frame' and `image-show-frame' for getting
1401 and setting the current frame of a multi-frame image.
1402
1403 ** ImageMagick
1404
1405 *** ImageMagick images now support the :max-width and :max-height keywords.
1406
1407 *** When using `create-image' with image data, you can pass a :format
1408 attribute (via the property-list argument) in order to help
1409 ImageMagick detect the image type. The value should be a MIME
1410 content-type that is found in the new variable `image-format-suffixes'.
1411
1412 ** Revert and Autorevert
1413
1414 *** If Emacs is compiled with file notification support, it uses notifications
1415 instead of checking file time stamps. To disable this, set the user option
1416 `auto-revert-use-notify' to nil. Alternatively, you can specify a regular
1417 expression matching directories to be excluded from file notifications via
1418 `auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp'.
1419
1420 *** The default values of `buffer-stale-function', `revert-buffer-function',
1421 and `revert-buffer-insert-file-contents-function' are no longer nil.
1422 Instead they default to functions that do what the nil value used to.
1423
1424 *** `buffer-stale-function' is now used for buffers visiting files too.
1425
1426 *** The new user option `auto-revert-remote-files' enables reversion
1427 of remote files, if non-nil.
1428
1429 ** Terminal
1430
1431 *** Functions to pop up menus and dialogs now work on all terminals,
1432 including TTYs. This includes `x-popup-menu', `x-popup-dialog',
1433 `message-box', `yes-or-no-p', etc.
1434
1435 The function `display-popup-menus-p' will now return non-nil for a
1436 display or frame whenever a mouse is supported on that display or frame.
1437
1438 *** New hook `tty-setup-hook', run at the end of initializing a text terminal.
1439
1440 *** The hook `term-setup-hook' is obsolete. It is entirely equivalent
1441 to `emacs-startup-hook'. See also the new `tty-setup-hook'.
1442
1443 ** Minor internal changes to the details of lock files.
1444 The lock for DIR/FILE is now _always_ DIR/.#FILE.
1445 If DIR/.#FILE already exists and is not an Emacs lock file,
1446 Emacs makes no attempt to lock DIR/FILE. (Previously, it fell back to
1447 numbered lock files DIR/.#FILE.0...).
1448 On file systems that do not support symbolic links, the lock is now a
1449 regular file with contents being what would have been in the symlink.
1450
1451 ** New bool-vector set operation functions:
1452 *** `bool-vector-exclusive-or'
1453 *** `bool-vector-union'
1454 *** `bool-vector-intersection'
1455 *** `bool-vector-set-difference'
1456 *** `bool-vector-not'
1457 *** `bool-vector-subsetp'
1458 *** `bool-vector-count-consecutive'
1459 *** `bool-vector-count-population'
1460
1461 ** New library subr-x.el with miscellaneous small utility functions:
1462 *** `hash-table-keys'
1463 *** `hash-table-values'
1464 *** `string-blank-p'
1465 *** `string-empty-p'
1466 *** `string-join'
1467 *** `string-reverse'
1468 *** `string-trim-left'
1469 *** `string-trim-right'
1470 *** `string-trim'
1471 *** `string-remove-prefix'
1472 *** `string-remove-suffix'
1473
1474 ** The `time-to-seconds' alias to `float-time' is no longer marked obsolete.
1475
1476 ** The spelling of the rx.el category `chinese-two-byte' has been
1477 corrected (the first 'e' was missing).
1478
1479 ** EIEIO namespace cleanup, obsolete-aliasing functions to use `eieio-' prefix:
1480 *** object-name -> eieio-object-name
1481 *** object-class -> eieio-object-class
1482 *** object-class-fast -> eieio--object-class
1483 *** object-class-name -> eieio-object-class-name
1484 *** object-name-string -> eieio-object-name-string
1485 *** object-num-slots -> eieio--object-num-slots
1486 *** object-set-name-string -> eieio-object-set-name-string
1487 *** class-of -> eieio-object-class
1488 *** class-name -> eieio-class-name
1489 *** class-parent -> eieio-class-parent
1490 *** class-parents -> eieio-class-parents
1491 *** class-parents-fast -> eieio-class-parents-fast
1492 *** class-children -> eieio-class-children
1493 *** class-num-slots -> eieio--class-num-slots
1494 *** class-precedence-list -> eieio-class-precedence-list
1495 *** class-direct-subclasses -> eieio-class-children
1496 *** class-direct-superclasses -> eieio-class-parents
1497
1498 ** Obsoleted functions
1499 *** `log10'
1500 *** `dont-compile'
1501 *** `lisp-complete-symbol'
1502 *** `field-complete'
1503 *** `minibuffer-completion-contents'
1504 *** `isearch-nonincremental-exit-minibuffer'
1505 *** `isearch-filter-visible'
1506 *** `generic-make-keywords-list'
1507 *** `get-upcase-table' (use `case-table-get-table' instead).
1508
1509 ** `with-wrapper-hook' is obsoleted by `add-function'.
1510 The few hooks that used with-wrapper-hook are replaced as follows:
1511 *** `abbrev-expand-function' obsoletes `abbrev-expand-functions'.
1512 *** `completion-in-region-function' obsoletes `completion-in-region-functions'.
1513 *** `filter-buffer-substring-function' obsoletes `filter-buffer-substring-functions'.
1514
1515 \f
1516 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on Non-Free Operating Systems
1517
1518 ** New Core Text based font backend for Mac OS X 10.5 and newer.
1519 To use the old font backend, use the following on the command line:
1520 % defaults write org.gnu.Emacs FontBackend ns
1521 GNUstep and Mac OS X 10.4 use the old font backend.
1522
1523 ** Improved fullscreen support on Mac OS X 10.7 and newer, where the
1524 default fullscreen method is now "native" fullscreen. To use the
1525 old style fullscreen, customize `ns-use-native-fullscreen' to nil.
1526
1527 ** On Mac OS X 10.7 and newer, Emacs can use sRGB colorspace, and does so
1528 by default. Customize `ns-use-srgb-colorspace' to go back to the old method.
1529 Note that this does not apply to images.
1530
1531 ** The procedure for building Emacs on MS-Windows has changed.
1532 It is now built by running the same configure script as on all other
1533 platforms. This requires the MSYS environment and MinGW development
1534 tools. See the updated instructions in nt/INSTALL for details.
1535
1536 Using the Posix configure script and Makefiles also means a change in
1537 the directory structure of the Emacs installation on Windows. It is
1538 now the same as on GNU and Unix systems. In particular, the auxiliary
1539 programs, such as cmdproxy.exe and hexl.exe, are in
1540 libexec/emacs/VERSION/i686-pc-mingw32 (where VERSION is the Emacs
1541 version), version-independent site-lisp is in share/emacs/site-lisp,
1542 version-specific Lisp files are in share/emacs/VERSION/lisp and in
1543 share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, Info docs are in share/info, and data
1544 files are in share/emacs/VERSION/etc. (Emacs knows about all these
1545 directories and will find the files in there automatically; there's no
1546 need to set any variables due to this change.)
1547
1548 ** Emacs on Windows 2000 and later can now access files and directories
1549 whose names cannot be encoded in the current system codepage.
1550
1551 The new variable `w32-unicode-filenames' controls this feature: if it
1552 is t, Emacs uses Unicode APIs to pass file names to system calls,
1553 which lifts the limitation of file names to the current locale.
1554
1555 ** Lock files now work on MS-Windows.
1556 This helps to prevent losing your edits if the same file is being
1557 edited in another Emacs session or by another user. See the node
1558 "Interlocking" in the Emacs User Manual for the details. To disable
1559 file locking, customize `create-lockfiles' to nil.
1560
1561 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS-Windows.
1562 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
1563 directory where Emacs was running.
1564
1565 ** The `network-interface-list' and `network-interface-info' functions
1566 are now available on MS-Windows.
1567
1568 ** The variable `buffer-file-type' is no longer supported.
1569 Setting it has no effect, and %t in the mode-line format is ignored.
1570 Likewise, `file-name-buffer-file-type-alist' is now obsolete, and
1571 modifying it has no effect.
1572
1573 \f
1574 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
1575
1576 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+ version 3.
1577 If you don't pass `--with-x-toolkit' to configure, or if you use
1578 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' or `--with-x-toolkit=yes', configure will try
1579 to build with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
1580 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
1581 `--with-x-toolkit=gtk2' or `--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' to configure.
1582
1583 ** New configure option `--enable-link-time-optimization', to utilize
1584 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
1585
1586 ** New configure option `--without-all' to disable most of the optional
1587 features (image support, etc.) that are normally enabled by default.
1588
1589 ** New configure option `--enable-gcc-warnings' (for developing/debugging
1590 Emacs). If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that
1591 warn/give errors about possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU
1592 system there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems
1593 the results may be useful to developers.
1594
1595 ** The configure option `--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
1596 renamed to `--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
1597 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
1598 check that this option enables.
1599
1600 ** The configure option `--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
1601 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
1602
1603 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
1604 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
1605 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
1606 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
1607 links between the various manuals.
1608
1609 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
1610 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
1611 to "emacs-VERSION".
1612
1613 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
1614
1615 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
1616 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
1617 you want them.
1618
1619 ** The standalone scripts `rcs-checkin' and `vcdiff' have been removed
1620 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
1621 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
1622
1623 \f
1624 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
1625
1626 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
1627 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
1628 been adding them there, put them somewhere else; e.g., site-lisp.
1629
1630 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
1631
1632 \f
1633 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
1634
1635 ** Help
1636
1637 *** `C-h f' (`describe-function') can now perform autoloading.
1638 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
1639 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
1640 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
1641 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
1642
1643 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
1644 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
1645 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
1646
1647 ** ImageMagick
1648
1649 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
1650 :background image specification property.
1651
1652 *** When available, ImageMagick support is automatically enabled.
1653 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
1654 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
1655 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
1656
1657 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
1658 ImageMagick to view images. (You must call `imagemagick-register-types'
1659 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.)
1660
1661 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
1662 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
1663 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
1664 treated as images.
1665
1666 ** Minibuffer
1667
1668 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
1669 next and previous path separator, respectively.
1670
1671 *** `minibuffer-electric-default-mode' can shorten "(default ...)" to "[...]"
1672 in minibuffer prompts. Just set `minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default'
1673 non-nil before enabling the mode.
1674
1675 ** Mode line
1676
1677 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
1678 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
1679 that does not have its own specialized help text.
1680
1681 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
1682 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
1683
1684 ** Server and client
1685
1686 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
1687 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
1688 or expression to evaluate.
1689
1690 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
1691
1692 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
1693 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
1694 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
1695 that support backtraces.
1696
1697 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
1698 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
1699
1700 ** Most `y-or-n' prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
1701 Typing `C-v' or `M-v' at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
1702 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
1703
1704 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
1705 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
1706
1707 ** If your Emacs was built from a repository checkout, the new variable
1708 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
1709
1710 ** New option `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
1711 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
1712 files (use this with caution).
1713
1714 ** New option `enable-remote-dir-locals', if non-nil, allows directory-local
1715 variables on remote hosts.
1716
1717 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
1718 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
1719
1720 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
1721 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
1722
1723 ** In the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug', the `C-c m' binding
1724 has been changed to `C-c M-i' (`report-emacs-bug-insert-to-mailer').
1725 The previous binding, introduced in Emacs 24.1, was a mistake, because
1726 `C-c LETTER' bindings are reserved for user customizations.
1727
1728 ** Internationalization
1729
1730 *** New language environment: Persian.
1731
1732 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
1733
1734 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port
1735
1736 *** Support for fullscreen and the frame parameter fullscreen.
1737
1738 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
1739 menu/toolbar.
1740
1741 \f
1742 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
1743
1744 ** Search and Replace
1745
1746 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
1747 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
1748 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
1749 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
1750 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch.)
1751
1752 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
1753 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
1754
1755 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
1756 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
1757 The default is nil.
1758
1759 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
1760 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
1761 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
1762
1763 ** Navigation commands
1764
1765 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
1766
1767 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
1768
1769 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
1770 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
1771
1772 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
1773 properties on yanked text, in ways that are more general than just
1774 removing them (as is done by `yank-excluded-properties').
1775
1776 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
1777 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
1778 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
1779
1780 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
1781
1782 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
1783 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
1784
1785 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
1786 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
1787 accidentally type.
1788
1789 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (`copy-rectangle-as-kill').
1790 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
1791
1792 ** Registers
1793
1794 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register'.
1795
1796 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
1797 the text to put between collected texts for use with
1798 M-x append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
1799
1800 \f
1801 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
1802
1803 ** Common Lisp emulation (CL)
1804
1805 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
1806 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly;
1807 i.e., all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions
1808 use the "cl--" prefix).
1809
1810 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib'
1811 provides it under the name `cl-foo' instead; with the exceptions of the
1812 few `cl' definitions that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with
1813 pre-existing Elisp entities. These have been renamed to `cl-foo'
1814 rather than `cl-foo*'.
1815
1816 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
1817 provide the old, non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below:
1818
1819 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
1820 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
1821 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
1822 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
1823
1824 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
1825 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery
1826 (as opposed to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture
1827 definitions in closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding'
1828 is in use.
1829
1830 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
1831 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
1832 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
1833
1834 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
1835 A side effect is that variables without corresponding values are bound
1836 to nil rather than being made unbound.
1837
1838 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
1839 (use features from gv.el instead):
1840 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
1841 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
1842 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
1843 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
1844
1845 ** Diff mode
1846
1847 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
1848 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
1849 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
1850 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
1851 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
1852
1853 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
1854 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
1855 changes in context diffs.
1856
1857 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
1858 whitespace introduced by a diff.
1859
1860 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
1861
1862 ** Python mode
1863
1864 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
1865 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
1866 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
1867 text based shell).
1868
1869 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed, including (old -> new):
1870 **** python-indent -> python-indent-offset
1871 **** python-guess-indent -> python-indent-guess-indent-offset
1872 **** python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p -> python-pdbtrack-activate
1873 **** python-use-skeletons -> python-skeleton-autoinsert
1874
1875 *** Some user options have been removed, including:
1876
1877 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
1878
1879 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
1880 Comments are always considered as indentation markers.
1881
1882 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
1883 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
1884
1885 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
1886 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
1887
1888 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
1889 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
1890
1891 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
1892 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
1893 No longer relevant.
1894
1895 *** Some commands have been replaced (old -> new):
1896 **** python-insert-class -> python-skeleton-class
1897 **** python-insert-def -> python-skeleton-def
1898 **** python-insert-for -> python-skeleton-for
1899 **** python-insert-if -> python-skeleton-if
1900 **** python-insert-try/except -> python-skeleton-try
1901 **** python-insert-try/finally -> python-skeleton-try
1902 **** python-insert-while -> python-skeleton-while
1903 **** python-find-function -> python-nav-jump-to-defun
1904 **** python-next-statement -> python-nav-forward-sentence
1905 **** python-previous-statement -> python-nav-backward-sentence
1906 **** python-beginning-of-defun-function -> python-nav-beginning-of-defun
1907 **** python-end-of-defun-function -> python-nav-end-of-defun
1908 **** python-send-buffer -> python-shell-send-buffer
1909 **** python-send-defun -> python-shell-send-defun
1910 **** python-send-region -> python-shell-send-region
1911 **** python-send-region-and-go -> emulate with python-shell-send-region
1912 and python-shell-switch-to-shell
1913 **** python-send-string -> python-shell-send-string
1914 **** python-switch-to-python -> python-shell-switch-to-shell
1915 **** python-describe-symbol -> python-eldoc-at-point
1916
1917 ** D-Bus
1918
1919 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
1920
1921 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
1922
1923 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
1924 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
1925
1926 *** The function `dbus-call-method' is now non-blocking.
1927 It can be interrupted by `C-g'. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
1928
1929 *** Signals can also be sent as unicast messages.
1930
1931 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
1932 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus.
1933
1934 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
1935
1936 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
1937
1938 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
1939 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
1940
1941 ** Dired
1942
1943 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
1944 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
1945 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
1946
1947 *** Typing `M-n' in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
1948 `dired-do-chown', and `dired-do-touch' yanks the attributes of the
1949 file at point.
1950
1951 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
1952 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), and `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
1953 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
1954
1955 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff') has changed.
1956 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
1957 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
1958
1959 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
1960 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
1961
1962 ** ERC
1963
1964 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
1965 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
1966
1967 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
1968 channel keys found.
1969
1970 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
1971 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
1972
1973 ** reStructuredText mode
1974
1975 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
1976 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
1977 and improved.
1978
1979 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
1980
1981 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
1982 Sphinx support has been improved.
1983
1984 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
1985
1986 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
1987
1988 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
1989
1990 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
1991
1992 ** Ruby mode
1993
1994 *** Support for percent literals and recognition of regular expressions
1995 in method calls without parentheses with more methods, including Cucumber
1996 steps definitions.
1997
1998 *** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.
1999
2000 *** New command `ruby-toggle-block', bound to `C-c {'.
2001
2002 *** Some non-standard keybindings/commands have been removed:
2003
2004 **** `ruby-electric-brace'; use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
2005
2006 **** `ruby-mark-defun'; use `mark-defun'.
2007
2008 **** `ruby-beginning-of-defun' and `ruby-end-of-defun' are replaced by
2009 appropriate settings for the variables `beginning-of-defun-function'
2010 and `end-of-defun-function'.
2011
2012 **** Non-standard keybindings for `backward-kill-word', `comment-region',
2013 `reindent-then-newline-and-indent' and `newline' have been removed.
2014
2015 ** Shell Script mode
2016
2017 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses `electric-pair-mode' instead of skeleton-pair.
2018
2019 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
2020
2021 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
2022
2023 ** VHDL mode
2024
2025 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
2026
2027 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
2028
2029 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
2030
2031 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
2032
2033 ** Apropos
2034
2035 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
2036 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
2037 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
2038
2039 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use have been removed
2040 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', `apropos-label-face',
2041 `apropos-match-face' and `apropos-property-face'.).
2042
2043 ** Buffer Menu
2044
2045 *** This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
2046
2047 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
2048 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
2049
2050 ** Calc
2051
2052 *** Algebraic simplification mode is now the default.
2053 To restrict to the limited simplifications given by the former
2054 default simplification mode, use `m I'.
2055
2056 ** Calendar
2057
2058 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
2059 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
2060
2061 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
2062
2063 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
2064 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
2065
2066 ** CEDET
2067
2068 *** The major modes from the parser generators "Bovine" and "Wisent"
2069 are now properly integrated in Emacs. The file suffixes ".by" and ".wy"
2070 are in `auto-mode-alist', and the corresponding manuals are included.
2071
2072 *** EDE
2073
2074 **** Menu support for the "Configuration" feature. This allows users to
2075 choose the active configuration (such as debug or install) from the menu.
2076
2077 **** New command `ede-set' to interactively set project-local variables.
2078
2079 **** Support for compiling, debugging, and running in "generic" projects.
2080
2081 **** Autoconf editing support for M4 macros with complex arguments.
2082
2083 **** Compilation support for the "linux" project type.
2084
2085 **** "simple" projects have been removed; use "generic" projects instead.
2086
2087 *** Semantic
2088
2089 **** Support for parsing #include statements inside a namespace in C/C++.
2090
2091 **** Improved support for 'extern "C"' declarations in C/C++.
2092
2093 **** The ability to ignore more common special C/C++ preprocessor symbols,
2094 such as '__nonnull' and '__asm'. Add '__cplusplus' macro when parsing C++.
2095 If available, include cdefs.h as an additional source of preprocessor symbols.
2096
2097 **** Improved C/C++ function pointer parsing.
2098
2099 **** In Python, support for converting imports to include file names.
2100
2101 **** Ability to dynamically determine the Python load path.
2102
2103 **** Support for the Python 'WITH' and 'AT' keywords.
2104
2105 **** Improved tooltip completion.
2106
2107 *** SRecode
2108
2109 **** The SRecode manual is now included.
2110
2111 **** Tag generation supports constructor/destructor settings and system
2112 include differentiation.
2113
2114 **** Addition of 'Framework' support: Frameworks are specified when a
2115 particular kind of library (such as Android) is needed in a common language
2116 mode (like Java).
2117
2118 **** Support for nested templates and let variables override based on priority.
2119
2120 **** Support for merging tables from multiple related modes, such as
2121 default -> c++ -> arduino.
2122
2123 ** Compile has a new option `compilation-always-kill'.
2124
2125 ** Customize
2126
2127 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
2128
2129 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
2130 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e., the prefix argument does nothing for
2131 these commands now).
2132
2133 ** Term
2134
2135 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color'
2136 are now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
2137
2138 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
2139 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
2140 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
2141
2142 ** Tramp
2143
2144 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
2145
2146 *** Remote processes are now also supported on remote MS-Windows hosts.
2147
2148 ** URL
2149
2150 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
2151 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
2152 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
2153 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components,
2154 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
2155
2156 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
2157 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
2158 in case that is not properly encoded.
2159
2160 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
2161 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
2162 server properties.
2163
2164 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
2165 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
2166 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
2167
2168 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
2169 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
2170 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
2171
2172 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
2173 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
2174
2175 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
2176 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
2177
2178 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
2179 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
2180
2181 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
2182
2183 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
2184 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
2185 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
2186
2187 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
2188 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
2189 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
2190 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
2191
2192 ** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S' in Tabulated List mode
2193 (and modes that derive from it), sorts the column at point, or the Nth
2194 column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
2195
2196 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
2197 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
2198
2199 ** `winner-mode-hook' now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when
2200 it is enabled.
2201
2202 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
2203 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
2204
2205 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
2206
2207 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
2208 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
2209 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
2210 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
2211 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
2212 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
2213 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
2214 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
2215 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
2216 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
2217 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
2218 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
2219 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
2220 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
2221 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
2222 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
2223 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
2224 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
2225 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
2226 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
2227 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
2228 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
2229 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
2230
2231 ** Obsolete packages
2232
2233 *** assoc.el
2234 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
2235 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
2236 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
2237 *** bruce.el
2238 *** cust-print.el
2239 *** ledit.el
2240 *** mailpost.el
2241 *** mouse-sel.el
2242 *** patcomp.el
2243
2244 \f
2245 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2246
2247 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
2248 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
2249 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
2250 `custom-variable-p'.
2251
2252 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
2253 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
2254 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
2255 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
2256
2257 ** `random' by default now returns a different random sequence in
2258 every Emacs run. Use `(random S)', where S is a string, to set the
2259 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
2260 sequence in later calls.
2261
2262 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
2263 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
2264 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
2265
2266 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
2267 It does so even if the window was selected before.
2268
2269 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
2270 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
2271 depends on the graphical library.
2272
2273 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
2274 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
2275
2276 ** `set-buffer-multibyte' now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
2277
2278 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
2279 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
2280 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
2281 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
2282 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
2283
2284 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
2285 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
2286 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
2287
2288 ** Miscellaneous name changes
2289 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to correct their spelling,
2290 or to be more consistent with standard Emacs terminology.
2291
2292 *** Renamed functions
2293 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
2294 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
2295 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
2296 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
2297 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
2298 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
2299 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
2300 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
2301
2302 *** Renamed hooks
2303 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
2304 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
2305 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
2306 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
2307 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
2308
2309 *** Renamed variables
2310 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
2311 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
2312 deactivate-current-input-method-function
2313
2314 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
2315 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
2316 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
2317 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
2318 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
2319 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
2320 *** `set-char-table-default'
2321 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
2322 *** `compile-internal'
2323 *** `modeline'
2324 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
2325 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
2326 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
2327 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
2328 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
2329 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
2330 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
2331 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2332 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
2333 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
2334
2335 \f
2336 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
2337
2338 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
2339 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
2340 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
2341 `gv-define-setter', etc.
2342
2343 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
2344 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
2345 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
2346 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
2347 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
2348 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
2349 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
2350
2351 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
2352 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
2353 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
2354 CPU time or memory allocations.
2355
2356 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
2357 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
2358
2359 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
2360
2361 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
2362
2363 ** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
2364 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
2365 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via `M-n'
2366 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
2367 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
2368
2369 ** Completion
2370
2371 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
2372 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
2373
2374 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
2375 table, but with a different prefix.
2376
2377 ** Debugger
2378
2379 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
2380 These do not trigger the debugger.
2381
2382 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
2383 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
2384
2385 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
2386 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
2387 to work out which code is doing something.
2388
2389 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
2390 recursive invocations.
2391
2392 ** Window handling
2393
2394 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
2395 fit the contents.
2396
2397 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
2398 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
2399
2400 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
2401 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
2402
2403 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
2404 reused.
2405
2406 *** New option `switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point' to restore a
2407 window's point when switching buffers.
2408
2409 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
2410 specify the size of new windows created by `display-buffer'.
2411
2412 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
2413 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
2414
2415 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
2416 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
2417 selected.
2418
2419 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
2420 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2421
2422 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
2423 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
2424
2425 *** The functions `get-lru-window', `get-mru-window' and `get-largest-window'
2426 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
2427
2428 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
2429
2430 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
2431 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
2432 in Emacs 24.1:
2433 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
2434 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
2435 **** `display-buffer-function'
2436 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
2437 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
2438 **** `special-display-function'
2439 **** `special-display-regexps'
2440
2441 ** Time
2442
2443 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
2444 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
2445 by the underlying C implementation.
2446
2447 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
2448 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
2449 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
2450 functions that use this format, such as `file-attributes' and
2451 `format-time-string', have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
2452 stamps are still accepted.
2453
2454 *** The format of timers in `timer-list' and `timer-idle-list' is now
2455 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
2456 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
2457 accessed via the new `timer--psecs' accessor.
2458
2459 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
2460 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
2461
2462 ** EIEIO
2463
2464 *** Improved security when handling persistent objects:
2465
2466 **** `eieio-persistent-read' now features optional arguments for specifying
2467 the class to load, as well as a flag stating whether subclasses are allowed;
2468 if provided, other classes will be rejected by the reader. For
2469 compatibility with existing code, if the class is omitted only a
2470 warning is issued.
2471
2472 **** New specialized reader for pulling in classes and signaling errors
2473 without evaluation of suspicious code.
2474
2475 **** All slots that contain objects must have a :type. Slots with lists
2476 of objects must use a new type predicate for a list of an object type.
2477
2478 *** Support for `find-function' and similar utilities, through the addition
2479 of filename support to generated symbols.
2480
2481 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
2482 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args; e.g., (log -1.0).
2483 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
2484 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
2485 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
2486
2487 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
2488
2489 ** Miscellaneous changes to special forms and macros
2490
2491 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms.
2492
2493 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
2494
2495 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2496
2497 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary keymap that
2498 takes precedence over most other maps for a short while (normally one key).
2499
2500 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
2501
2502 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
2503
2504 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
2505
2506 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
2507
2508 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
2509
2510 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
2511
2512 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
2513
2514 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
2515
2516 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
2517
2518 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2519 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
2520 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
2521 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
2522 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
2523 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
2524 *** `query-replace-interactive'
2525 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
2526
2527 \f
2528 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on Non-Free Operating Systems
2529
2530 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
2531 Pass `--with-w32' to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
2532
2533 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
2534 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
2535 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
2536 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
2537 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
2538
2539 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
2540 Emacs now supports `mouse-highlight', help-echo (in the echo area), and
2541 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
2542
2543 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
2544
2545 ** On MS Windows, you can pass `--without-libxml2' to configure.bat to omit
2546 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
2547
2548 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
2549
2550 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink "/sw"
2551 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
2552
2553 \f
2554 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
2555
2556 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
2557
2558 \f
2559 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
2560
2561 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
2562 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
2563 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
2564 --without-gconf.
2565
2566 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
2567 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2568 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2569 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
2570
2571 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
2572 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2573 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2574 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
2575
2576 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
2577 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2578 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2579 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
2580 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
2581
2582 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
2583 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
2584 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
2585 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
2586
2587 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
2588 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
2589
2590 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
2591 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
2592 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
2593 to about 2 GiB.
2594
2595 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
2596 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
2597 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
2598
2599 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
2600 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
2601 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
2602
2603 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
2604 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
2605
2606 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
2607 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
2608
2609 \f
2610 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
2611
2612 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
2613 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
2614 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
2615
2616 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
2617 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
2618 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
2619 Nextstep builds).
2620
2621 \f
2622 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
2623
2624 ** Completion
2625
2626 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
2627 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
2628
2629 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
2630
2631 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
2632 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
2633
2634 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
2635
2636 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
2637 default completion style in certain circumstances.
2638
2639 *** New completion style `substring'.
2640
2641 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
2642
2643 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
2644
2645 ** Mail changes
2646
2647 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
2648 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
2649 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
2650 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
2651 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
2652 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
2653
2654 *** Typing `C-c m' in the buffer made by `M-x report-emacs-bug'
2655 transfers the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there
2656 is one. This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open"
2657 command.
2658
2659 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
2660 and Mail mode changes
2661
2662 ** Emacs server and client changes
2663
2664 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
2665
2666 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
2667
2668 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
2669 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
2670
2671 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
2672 its exit status is 1.
2673
2674 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
2675 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
2676 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
2677
2678 ** Internationalization changes
2679
2680 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
2681 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
2682 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
2683 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
2684 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
2685 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
2686
2687 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
2688 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
2689
2690 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2691 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
2692 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
2693 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
2694 paragraph.
2695
2696 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
2697 the right window edge.
2698
2699 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
2700 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
2701 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
2702 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
2703 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
2704
2705 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
2706 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
2707
2708 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
2709 (U+2010 and U+2011).
2710
2711 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
2712 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
2713 automatically select it.
2714
2715 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
2716 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
2717 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
2718
2719 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
2720 selected for installation.
2721
2722 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
2723
2724 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
2725 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
2726 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
2727
2728 ** Custom theme changes
2729
2730 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
2731 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
2732
2733 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
2734 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
2735 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
2736 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
2737 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
2738 built-in Custom themes.
2739
2740 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
2741 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
2742 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
2743 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
2744
2745 ** Improved GTK integration
2746
2747 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
2748 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
2749
2750 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
2751 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
2752 the default is taken from desktop settings.
2753
2754 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
2755 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
2756 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
2757 entries for this.
2758
2759 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
2760 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
2761
2762 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
2763 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
2764
2765 ** Graphical interface changes
2766
2767 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
2768 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
2769 displayed as a space.
2770
2771 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
2772 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
2773
2774 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
2775 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
2776 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
2777
2778 ** Exiting changes
2779
2780 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
2781 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
2782
2783 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
2784 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
2785 do the right thing in batch mode.
2786
2787 ** Scrolling changes
2788
2789 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
2790 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
2791 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
2792 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
2793
2794 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
2795
2796 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
2797 scroll a line instead of full screen.
2798
2799 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
2800 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
2801
2802 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
2803 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
2804 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
2805 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
2806 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
2807
2808 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
2809 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
2810 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
2811 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
2812 margin.
2813
2814 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
2815 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
2816
2817 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
2818 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
2819 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
2820 now includes the SELinux context.
2821
2822 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
2823 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
2824
2825 ** Trash changes
2826
2827 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
2828 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
2829
2830 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
2831 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
2832
2833 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
2834
2835 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
2836 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
2837 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
2838 subdirectories.
2839
2840 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
2841 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
2842 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
2843 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
2844 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
2845
2846 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
2847 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
2848
2849 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
2850 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
2851 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
2852 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
2853 corresponding way.
2854
2855 ** Window changes
2856
2857 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
2858 in the quitted window.
2859
2860 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
2861 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
2862
2863 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
2864
2865 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
2866 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
2867 for choosing the displaying window).
2868
2869 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
2870 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
2871
2872 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
2873 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
2874
2875 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
2876 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
2877 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
2878 from which such space was obtained.
2879
2880 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
2881 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
2882 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
2883 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
2884 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
2885
2886 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
2887 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
2888 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
2889
2890 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
2891 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
2892
2893 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
2894 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
2895 been shown in a specific window.
2896
2897 ** Minibuffer changes
2898
2899 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
2900 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
2901 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
2902
2903 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
2904 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
2905 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
2906
2907 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
2908
2909 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
2910
2911 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
2912 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
2913 successful operation.
2914
2915 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
2916 for `list-colors-display'.
2917
2918 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
2919
2920 \f
2921 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
2922
2923 ** Search changes
2924
2925 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
2926 `isearch-yank-line'.
2927
2928 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
2929 `isearch-yank-kill'.
2930
2931 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
2932
2933 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
2934
2935 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
2936 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
2937 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
2938 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
2939 alias for it.
2940
2941 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
2942 also deletes newlines around point.
2943
2944 ** Deletion changes
2945
2946 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
2947 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
2948 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
2949 instead.
2950
2951 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
2952 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
2953 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
2954
2955 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
2956 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
2957 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
2958 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
2959
2960 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
2961
2962 ** Selection changes.
2963
2964 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
2965 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
2966 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
2967 mouse commands use the primary selection.
2968
2969 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
2970 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
2971
2972 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
2973 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
2974 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
2975 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
2976
2977 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
2978 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
2979 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
2980 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
2981 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
2982
2983 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
2984
2985 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
2986 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
2987 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
2988
2989 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
2990
2991 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
2992 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
2993 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
2994
2995 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
2996 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
2997
2998 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
2999 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
3000 between applications.
3001
3002 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
3003
3004 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
3005 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
3006 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
3007 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
3008 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
3009
3010 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
3011
3012 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
3013 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
3014
3015 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
3016 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
3017 number to count from and for a format string.
3018
3019 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
3020 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
3021 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
3022 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
3023 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
3024
3025 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
3026 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
3027 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
3028 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
3029 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
3030
3031 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
3032 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
3033 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
3034 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
3035 follows `replace-match'.
3036
3037 \f
3038 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
3039
3040 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
3041
3042 ** BibTeX mode
3043
3044 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
3045 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
3046 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
3047 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
3048
3049 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
3050
3051 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
3052
3053 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
3054
3055 ** Browse-url
3056
3057 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
3058
3059 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
3060 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
3061
3062 ** Calc
3063
3064 *** Support for musical notes.
3065
3066 *** Support for logarithmic units.
3067
3068 *** No longer uses the tex prefix for TeX specific unit names when
3069 using TeX or LaTeX mode.
3070
3071 *** New option to highlight selections using faces.
3072
3073 *** `calc-histogram' has the option of using a vector to determine the bins.
3074
3075 *** New "O" option prefix.
3076
3077 *** Use the "O" prefix to "d r" (`calc-radix') to turn on twos-complement mode.
3078
3079 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
3080
3081 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
3082 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
3083
3084 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
3085 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
3086
3087 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
3088 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
3089 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
3090
3091 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
3092
3093 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
3094 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
3095
3096 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
3097 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
3098 Use `appt-activate' instead.
3099
3100 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
3101 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
3102 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
3103
3104 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
3105 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
3106
3107 ** CC Mode
3108
3109 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
3110 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
3111
3112 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
3113
3114 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
3115 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
3116 not the top level.
3117
3118 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
3119 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
3120 parsed as a statement continuation.
3121
3122 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
3123
3124 ** Compilation mode
3125
3126 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
3127 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
3128
3129 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
3130 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
3131 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
3132
3133 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
3134 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
3135 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
3136 buffer was used.
3137
3138 ** Customize
3139
3140 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
3141 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
3142 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
3143
3144 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
3145 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
3146
3147 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
3148
3149 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
3150 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
3151
3152 ** D-Bus
3153
3154 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
3155 or session bus.
3156
3157 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
3158 optionally do not register names.
3159
3160 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
3161 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
3162
3163 ** Dired-x
3164
3165 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
3166 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
3167 instead of using the current buffer.
3168
3169 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
3170 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
3171
3172 ** ERC changes
3173
3174 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
3175 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
3176
3177 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
3178 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
3179 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
3180 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
3181
3182 ** Eshell changes
3183
3184 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
3185 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
3186 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
3187
3188 ** gdb-mi
3189
3190 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
3191 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
3192 debugging of several threads.
3193
3194 ** Image mode
3195
3196 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
3197 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
3198
3199 ** Info
3200
3201 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
3202 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
3203 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
3204 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
3205 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
3206
3207 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
3208 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
3209 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
3210 by default.
3211
3212 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
3213
3214 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
3215
3216 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
3217 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
3218 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
3219
3220 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
3221 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
3222
3223 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
3224
3225 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
3226
3227 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
3228 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
3229 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
3230 default), this performs tag completion.
3231
3232 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
3233 See ORG-NEWS for details.
3234
3235 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
3236 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
3237 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
3238
3239 ** Rmail
3240
3241 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
3242 in the Rmail incoming message.
3243
3244 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
3245 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
3246 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
3247
3248 ** Shell mode
3249
3250 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
3251 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
3252 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
3253
3254 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
3255 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
3256
3257 ** SMTPmail
3258
3259 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
3260 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
3261 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
3262 to change this.
3263
3264 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
3265 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
3266 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
3267 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
3268 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
3269 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
3270 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
3271 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
3272
3273 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
3274 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
3275
3276 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
3277
3278 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
3279
3280 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
3281 the credentials file.
3282
3283 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
3284 If you had that set, you need to put
3285
3286 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
3287
3288 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
3289
3290 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
3291 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
3292 to the address you wish to use instead.
3293
3294 ** SQL mode
3295
3296 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
3297 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
3298
3299 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
3300 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
3301 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
3302 connection is established.
3303
3304 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
3305 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
3306
3307 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
3308 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
3309 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
3310 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
3311
3312 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
3313 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
3314 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
3315 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
3316 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
3317 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
3318
3319 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
3320 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
3321
3322 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
3323 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
3324 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
3325
3326 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
3327 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
3328
3329 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
3330
3331 ** TeX modes
3332
3333 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
3334
3335 ** Tramp
3336
3337 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
3338
3339 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
3340 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
3341
3342 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
3343 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
3344
3345 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
3346 default value to "".
3347
3348 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
3349 for remote machines which support SELinux.
3350
3351 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
3352 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
3353 the degree of parallelism.
3354
3355 ** VC and related modes
3356
3357 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
3358 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
3359 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
3360 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
3361 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
3362
3363 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
3364
3365 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
3366 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
3367 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
3368 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
3369 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
3370
3371 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
3372 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
3373
3374 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
3375 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
3376 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
3377 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
3378 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
3379 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
3380
3381 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
3382 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
3383
3384 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
3385 this was not advertised at the time.
3386
3387 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
3388 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
3389 this was not advertised at the time.
3390
3391 ** Obsolete modes
3392
3393 *** abbrevlist.el
3394
3395 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
3396
3397 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
3398 You can get a comparable behavior with:
3399 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
3400 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
3401
3402 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
3403
3404 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
3405
3406 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
3407
3408 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
3409 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
3410
3411 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
3412
3413 ** Miscellaneous
3414
3415 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
3416 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
3417
3418 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
3419 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
3420
3421 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
3422
3423 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
3424
3425 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
3426
3427 \f
3428 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
3429
3430 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
3431 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
3432
3433 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
3434 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
3435 matching closing one.
3436
3437 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
3438 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
3439 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
3440 electric-indent-functions.
3441
3442 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
3443 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
3444 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
3445
3446 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
3447 from which other modes can be derived.
3448
3449 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
3450
3451 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
3452 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
3453 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
3454 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
3455 secrets.
3456
3457 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
3458 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
3459
3460 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
3461 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
3462
3463 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
3464
3465 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
3466 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
3467 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
3468 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
3469 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
3470 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
3471
3472 \f
3473 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3474
3475 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
3476 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
3477
3478 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
3479
3480 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
3481 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
3482 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
3483 command still toggles the minor mode.
3484
3485 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
3486 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
3487 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
3488 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
3489 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
3490
3491 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
3492 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
3493 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
3494 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
3495 argument `bidi-class'.
3496
3497 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
3498 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
3499 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
3500 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
3501
3502 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
3503 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
3504 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
3505 of the header line.
3506
3507 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
3508 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
3509 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
3510 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
3511 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
3512 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
3513 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
3514
3515 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
3516 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
3517 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
3518 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
3519 older Emacsen too.
3520
3521 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
3522 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
3523 replaced all known uses.
3524
3525 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
3526 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
3527 major mode is special).
3528
3529 ** Menu and tool bar changes
3530
3531 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
3532 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
3533 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
3534 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
3535 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
3536 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
3537
3538 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
3539 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
3540
3541 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
3542 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
3543 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
3544 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
3545
3546 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
3547 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
3548 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
3549
3550 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
3551
3552 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
3553 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
3554 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
3555
3556 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
3557 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
3558 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
3559 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
3560 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
3561 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
3562 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
3563 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
3564 *** `x-make-font-bold' and `x-make-font-demibold' (`make-face-bold')
3565 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
3566 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
3567 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
3568 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
3569 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
3570 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
3571 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
3572 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
3573 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
3574 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
3575 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
3576 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
3577
3578 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
3579 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
3580
3581 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
3582 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
3583 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
3584 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
3585 *** `e' (`float-e').
3586
3587 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
3588 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
3589
3590 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
3591 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
3592 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
3593 `finder-keywords-hash'.
3594
3595 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
3596 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
3597 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
3598
3599 \f
3600 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
3601
3602 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
3603 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
3604 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
3605 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
3606 file.
3607
3608 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
3609 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
3610
3611 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
3612 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
3613
3614 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
3615
3616 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
3617 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
3618
3619 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
3620 declared as dynamically bound.
3621
3622 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
3623
3624 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
3625 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
3626 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
3627
3628 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
3629
3630 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
3631 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
3632
3633 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
3634 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
3635 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
3636 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
3637 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
3638 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
3639
3640 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
3641 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
3642 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
3643
3644 ** Window changes
3645
3646 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
3647 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
3648 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
3649 buffer) in the window tree.
3650
3651 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
3652 windows.
3653
3654 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
3655 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
3656 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
3657 act on any window including internal ones.
3658
3659 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
3660 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
3661 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
3662 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
3663 and `window-body-height' are provided.
3664
3665 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
3666 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
3667 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
3668 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
3669 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
3670
3671 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
3672 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
3673 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
3674 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
3675 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
3676 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
3677
3678 *** Window resizing functions.
3679 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
3680 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
3681 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
3682
3683 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
3684 live window on that frame instead.
3685
3686 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
3687 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
3688 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
3689 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
3690 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
3691 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
3692
3693 *** Window-local buffer lists.
3694 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
3695 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
3696 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
3697 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
3698 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
3699
3700 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
3701 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
3702 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
3703 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
3704
3705 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
3706 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
3707 The old names are kept as aliases.
3708
3709 *** Display actions
3710
3711 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
3712 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
3713 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
3714 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
3715
3716 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
3717
3718 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
3719 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
3720 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
3721 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
3722 are user-customizable variables.
3723
3724 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
3725
3726 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
3727 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
3728 frame or window as an Elisp object.
3729
3730 ** Completion
3731
3732 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
3733 properties of the current completion:
3734 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
3735 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
3736
3737 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
3738 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
3739
3740 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
3741
3742 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
3743 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
3744 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
3745 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
3746 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
3747 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
3748 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
3749
3750 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
3751 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
3752 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
3753
3754 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
3755 behavior of `completing-read'.
3756
3757 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
3758 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
3759
3760 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
3761 Instead, the offending function is removed.
3762
3763 ** New hook types
3764
3765 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
3766 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
3767 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
3768 non-nil return value.
3769
3770 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
3771 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
3772 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
3773 advertised at the time.)
3774
3775 ** Debugger changes
3776
3777 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
3778 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
3779
3780 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
3781
3782 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
3783
3784 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
3785 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
3786 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
3787
3788 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
3789 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
3790
3791 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
3792 named Emacs server instances.
3793
3794 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
3795 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
3796
3797 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
3798 for higher-resolution time stamps.
3799
3800 ** New input reading functions
3801
3802 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
3803 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
3804
3805 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
3806 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
3807 invalid input.
3808
3809 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
3810
3811 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
3812 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
3813 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
3814 obsolete alias.
3815
3816 ** Syntax parsing changes
3817
3818 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
3819 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
3820 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
3821 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
3822 Together with this new variable come a new hook
3823 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
3824 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
3825 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
3826 syntactic rules.
3827
3828 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
3829
3830 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
3831
3832 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
3833
3834 ** Major and minor mode changes
3835
3836 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
3837 as well as those in the -*- line.
3838
3839 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
3840 should be derived.
3841
3842 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
3843 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
3844 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
3845
3846 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
3847 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
3848
3849 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
3850 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
3851 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
3852
3853 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
3854
3855 ** File-handling changes
3856
3857 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
3858 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
3859 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
3860 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
3861
3862 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
3863
3864 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
3865 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
3866 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
3867
3868 ** Image API
3869
3870 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
3871
3872 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
3873
3874 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
3875
3876 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
3877 is being animated.
3878
3879 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
3880 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
3881
3882 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
3883 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
3884
3885 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
3886 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
3887 ImageMagick installation supports.
3888
3889 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
3890 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
3891 functions.
3892
3893 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
3894 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
3895
3896 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
3897 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
3898 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
3899 `image-transform-set-scale'.
3900
3901 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
3902 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
3903 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
3904 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
3905
3906 ** XML and HTML parsing
3907 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
3908 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
3909 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
3910 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
3911
3912 ** Networking and encryption changes
3913
3914 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
3915 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
3916 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
3917 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
3918 must also be supplied.
3919
3920 *** New library gnutls.el.
3921 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
3922 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
3923 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
3924 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
3925 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
3926 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
3927 greater than 0.
3928
3929 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
3930 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
3931 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
3932
3933 ** Isearch
3934
3935 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
3936
3937 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
3938 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
3939 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
3940 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
3941 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
3942 displayed with a "spinning bar".
3943
3944 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
3945 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
3946
3947 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
3948 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
3949 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
3950 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
3951 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
3952 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
3953
3954 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
3955
3956 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
3957 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
3958 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
3959 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
3960
3961 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
3962 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
3963
3964 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
3965 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
3966 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
3967 an empty uninterned symbol.
3968
3969 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
3970
3971 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
3972
3973 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
3974 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
3975
3976 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
3977 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
3978
3979 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
3980
3981 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
3982 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
3983
3984 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
3985
3986 \f
3987 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems
3988
3989 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
3990 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
3991
3992 ** New configure.bat options
3993
3994 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
3995
3996 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
3997
3998 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
3999
4000 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
4001
4002 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
4003
4004 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
4005 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
4006
4007 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
4008 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
4009
4010 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
4011 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
4012
4013 \f
4014 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
4015 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
4016
4017 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
4018 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
4019 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
4020 (at your option) any later version.
4021
4022 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
4023 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
4024 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
4025 GNU General Public License for more details.
4026
4027 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
4028 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
4029
4030 \f
4031 Local variables:
4032 coding: utf-8
4033 mode: outline
4034 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
4035 end: